“No, you don’t, but never mind,” I mutter.
“She gave me the cash for Jake’s beads too,” he informs me. “Just to warn you, so you don’t go off on him too.”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” I reply before I turn around and walk over to see what Madison, Roman and Charlotte are talking about.
The first thing I hear is Madison saying, “You don’t have to invite me too. Cannon and I, we aren’t a couple or anything like that. He’s just been nice enough to let me stay with him…”
“I heard my name. What did I miss?” I ask when I step up beside Charlotte so that I’m directly across from Madison.
“Oh, there you are!” Charlotte says. She starts to place her hand on my arm before she realizes I’m not wearing a shirt and lets it fall. More than likely because she knew Roman wouldn’t approve of even that innocent contact. “I was just telling Madison that we would love to have you both over to dinner with Hannah and Conrad one night.”
“Sounds great,” I say, just because Madison sounded uncomfortable about it. It would be with two other couples and we are clearly not together that way, nor will we ever be since she thinks she’s too good for me. Hell, maybe she is. And also, because I don’t do relationships.
Madison’s jaw clenches, angry at me, but she doesn’t even glare at me before she says, “Just let us know when and what we should bring. We’re having dinner with Cannon and Conrad’s parents tomorrow night, so any other night is fine.”
“We are?” I blurt out in surprise.
“Yes, we are,” Madison responds before she takes a sip of her drink and then frowns like she would prefer coffee.
“There’s coffee in the employee lounge if you want a cup,” I tell her, and she freezes with her lips parted.
“What?” Roman asks. “Did we miss something?”
“Nothing. Coffee is just Madison’s drink of choice,” I explain.
“I’ll make do for tonight, but thanks, Cannon,” she tells me without the least bit of gratitude. Yep, she’s still pissed.
“I’m gonna have a beer,” Roman says. “Want one?” he turns to ask me.
“Sure.”
“Just one,” Charlotte reminds him, holding up her finger.
“I know, I know,” he says with a grin before we leave the women to go to the bar.
“Whop-eesh,” I make the sound effect from the corner of my lips.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m whipped. Whatever. We’re trying to get pregnant, and that means laying off the alcohol for a while. It’s no big deal,” he says.
“You two have been trying for a while, haven’t you?” I ask, and Roman sighs.
“I’m going to knock her up,” he declares angrily.
“I didn’t say you wouldn’t,” I assure him with my palms up in surrender. He asks the bartender for two beers, pays him for his own beer, and then hands me one of the bottles.
“We’ve been to the doctor, and there’s no medical reason why we haven’t gotten pregnant already,” Roman admits. “So why haven’t we?”
“Don’t ask me. I’m all about trying to avoid kids,” I reply. “You could ask Conrad. Apparently, it was one and done for him and Hannah.”
“You younger guys just have all the fucking luck,” Roman mutters.
“Maybe you’re trying too hard,” I tell him. “All the accidental pregnancies happen for a reason – people are too turned on to be thinking straight. You could be overthinking it.”
“That’s what Charlotte does. She’s got the ovulation tests, the certain days we can’t fuck, when we can, how we fuck. It’s all planned out every month.”
“Then try and unplan it,” I suggest. After taking a sip of my beer, I tell him, “The bathroom in the lounge is very private.”
Roman’s eyes stare at me from his mask. “You seriously fuck your employees in the bathroom here?”
“No. We have all male employees at the moment, so that’s a big hell no,” I tell him with a chuckle. “But, ah, the counter is the perfect height with the mirror in front.”
“Huh,” Roman says as he looks over at his wife. “Hold my beer,” he says, handing it to me before he marches up to Charlotte, grabs her hand and drags her away from Madison.
“Roman!” I hear her exclaim. “Where are we going?”
Madison turns to me in question, but I just shrug and look away, downing my beer and then Roman’s, wishing I could forget our time in that damn bathroom.
Chapter Twenty-One
Madison
It’s way past midnight when I finally get to leave the dealership with Cannon in the passenger seat. He said he had several beers and probably shouldn’t drive. I realized he wasn’t joking when he tried to walk outside in the cold wearing nothing but his pants and shoes. Then, I had to help him get his hoodie and cut on before we left.
In the parking lot, when I not so gently suggested that Cannon should ride home with the prospects, he ignored me, climbed into the open driver seat of my car and crawled over the console to get in the passenger seat.
Neither of us said a word on the short drive back to his place; but by the time Cannon unlocked the door to let us inside, with Jake on sofa duty tonight, it’s like a switch flipped, the light came on in his living room and then he was letting it all out.
“You don’t get to be pissed at me!” he starts, leaning his back against the door after he shut and locked it.
“Who? Me?” Jake asks, spinning around to look between us with a line underneath his eyes from his mask. For all I know, my face probably looks the same, but I’ve been avoiding mirrors. I shake my head to tell him I’m the bad guy here.
“I can be pissed at you if I want,” I respond when I stroll into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.
“No! I did you a favor!” Cannon says as he follows
