He always did that. He always managed to know when I was uncomfortable and swooped in to make everything better. He’d done it the first time we met, and he was doing it again now.
When Dan made the decision to become a doctor instead of a police officer with me, he joked about being the hero to the hero, but to me, that had always been the truth.
Without even trying, he’d always been my hero.
“You okay?” Ryker asked.
It was only then that I noticed all our friends were there, too.
I nodded in reply, not sure if my voice was steady enough to speak yet.
Karla ran from Ryan’s side to stand in front of me with her arms spread out.
“Hug?” she asked, head tilting to the side.
“Baby, I don’t think now’s a good time…”
I appreciated Ryan’s concern, but Karla’s pure eyes and innocent intentions didn’t make terror memories resurface. I scooped her up into a giant teddy-bear hug, and her bubbly laughter soothed the frayed edges of my nerves.
I was feeling a lot better when the hug ended, and Karla wiggled out of my arms to run back to her dad.She laughed the entire way. The infectious sound had me smiling along with her.
“Whew, that’s a lot of people,” Dan commented. He joined us after the line of people waiting for hugs had disappeared.
He tugged his shirt up to wipe the bead of sweat forming on his forehead. My eyes immediately locked on to the perfect V-cut of his abdominals. The brutal summer heat had to be the reason I was suddenly burning up.
Dan’s shirt dropped flat again, and he came to my side. “You okay?” he asked in a hushed whisper. Not that it mattered. Our friends were all focused on us anyway.
I nodded, but that didn’t seem to appease him.
“How about you take a break and grab us some cold lemonades to cool off from the heat?” he said. He placed a hot hand at the base where my neck and shoulders connected and squeezed.
My body instantly relaxed. If he kept his hands on me like that, I’d do whatever the hell he wanted.
“Now hold on there. We haven’t ordered our hugs yet,” Jones spoke with a smirk.
“Aw, you want some more sugar? Pay up and I’m all yours,” Dan replied, arms out toward him.
Jones held up a hand to stop him from getting closer. “Hold it! I didn’t pay for this!”
“This one’s on the house. Just for you, baby,” Dansaid with a wink. Our friends laughed as Jones tried to get out of Dan’s clutches.
“Enough! I have a donation to make, and I need both of you for it,” Jones growled as he pulled out his wallet and slapped a fifty on the donation table. He looked smug as he glanced between Dan and me, clearly plotting something.
“You said to order your most expensive hug, which is twenty-five dollars for five minutes. Fifty dollars means I get two five-minute hugs, right? Forget about hugging me. I want you two to hug each other for five minutes instead,” he said with a smirk.
On the surface, it sounded like he was trying to help me. He probably also noticed I was struggling earlier and wanted to find a way for me to get some rest while still helping the cause.
However, the evil gleam in his eyes told me he was definitely plotting something, though I had no clue what it was.
“Is that even allowed?” I asked with a frown.
“Sure, why not!” Carol said from her seat behind the table. She quickly accepted the fifty-dollar bill with a beaming smile. “The customer is king.”
“If that’s the case, add five more minutes to that counter,” Ryker said, pulling out his own wallet.
“What are you guys scheming?” Dan asked when Ryan and Sam started pulling out their wallets, too.
“Us, scheming? Nah, we’re just contributing to the playground, isn’t that right, boys?” Jones looked at theothers, who all nodded. He turned back to us. “Now get to it, and I’ll start the clock. I better not see an inch of space between you two until your twenty minutes are up!”
