She nodded stupidly as if her cousin could see. “I’m fine.”Everything was fine,she silently reassured herself, working on getting her pulse down to somewhere in the atmosphere. “It was just a jerk who doesn’t know how to drive. Didn’t hit anything, though.”
Not one scratch on Dale’s truck. That would’ve sucked.
“I hate drivers like that,” her cousin muttered. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied, her voice firmer now. “I’m good. Tell me about that antique piece you were working on last week. Is it almost ready?”
Harper sweetly complied, and they continued their conversation, the close call already beginning to fade from Sadie’s mind. Within minutes, she pulled into her driveway because the ESI guys were still working at Sam’s, and she didn’t want to block in their vehicles.
After parking behind her car, she slung her purse over her shoulder, then grabbed her phone as she got out of the truck. “Hey, Harp, you wanna meet some of Dale’s friends?” she asked,walking across her property to the fence separating her yard with Sam’s.
“Uh…no, not if you’re trying to set me up,” her cousin replied in a serious voice.
Not something she would ever do. Harper needed to take that step on her own.
“Think you know me better than that,” she said. “So relax. And besides, all these guys are married, and some even have children.”
Smiling, she waved to the gorgeous men in her neighbor’s yard, and while they waved back, she hit the speaker button. “Hey, everyone. Say ‘hi’ to my cousin, Harper.”
The men readily complied.
“That’s RJ, Cooper, Dean, and Mac,” she informed. “Part of the best security team in Harland County.”
“Nice to meet you, gentlemen,” Harper said. “I hope Sadie isn’t getting into any trouble.”
She immediately shook her head and gave the guys the universal “silence” sign by drawing her pointer finger across her throat in a slicing motion. The last thing she wanted was to spook her cousin by having to explain the strange events at the ranch.
“Trouble? Me? Never.” She snickered.
The guys, catching on quickly, played along.
Cooper winked. “We’ll keep her in line, don’t you worry.”
“Good to know.” Harper chuckled. “Anyway, Sadie, I better let you get back to it. I’ve got a client call coming in soon. But before I go, I want to hear more about Dale.”
As Sadie’s face heated, she willed her body to teleport into her house.
It didn’t, of course. She had a great view of all four men now grinning from ear to ear.
Cooper stepped closer. “We want to hear about Dale too, Sadie.”
“Yeah.” RJ set a hand on his chest. “He’s just so dreamy.”
Snickering, she pointed a finger at them. “Don’t you have work to do?”
RJ shook his head. “Nah. We’re at the clean-up stage. Besides, this is more interesting.”
“You’re right.” She grinned. “It is.”
With that, she turned around and walked across her yard to her garage while hitting the button to take her cousin off speaker.
“Good going,” Harper said. “And I’m so sorry. I forgot you said they were Dale’s friends”
Still grinning, she shrugged. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. We joke around like that all the time.”
“Dale served with them, didn’t he?” her cousin asked.
“Yeah, but like I said, it’s okay.” If they teased her some more, she’d deal with it the same way she always did…by teasing them back. “Listen, I wanted to show you something before you go. Can we FaceTime for a minute?”
