They looked at each other. “Were you going out on a date with him?”

I shook my head. “No, I wasn’t. She threw a French fry covered in ketchup over to the booth I was sitting at. It landed right in my lap. Which was pretty good aim since I was wearing white pants. I’m sure you can guess what it looked like once my best friend, Melissa, tried to clean it off.”

They were all giggling.

Everyone, or at least every girl I knew, had a similar phobia of wearing white pants and her period coming.

I had to admit it was fairly embarrassing to walk out with that on my crotch, even if I did have a large jacket covering the stain. The entire restaurant had seen me with it, so I knew they were staring as I left.

I saw the waitresses giggling about it, too.

I might have been twenty six years old, but I wasn’t immune to gossip. I still got embarrassed.

“What do you do, Lennox?” Georgia asked.

I turned my eyes to the brown haired woman with the hot pink undertones in her hair, and smiled. “I’m a PA.”

“Like a publicist, or a physician’s assistant?” Reese asked, taking a drink of her coke.

“Physician’s assistant,” I answered, reaching into the middle of the table for some peanuts.

The women looked at me in surprise.

“What?” I asked, cracking open a peanut.

“How old are you?” Blake asked in disbelief.

“Twenty six,” I answered honestly. “And yes, it is young. I graduated college really early. I practically had all of my credits to graduate with my associates in biology before I got out of high school at seventeen.”

“Ahhh,” Reese said. “That makes sense now. How’d you meet Bennett?”

I would’ve answered, but a particularly upbeat song came on the radio, and my eyes widened in disgust. “Do y’all know what this song means?”

They blinked. “No. What?”

“Google ‘Truffle Butter’ on urban dictionary,” I said.

I’d thought the song was pretty awesome myself until I looked up the meaning one day after Melissa did much the same as I’d just done to the ladies in front of me.

“Oh, my God! That’s disgusting!” Mercy groaned.

“That’s just unsanitary. Everybody knows that if you go from the ass to the vagina during intercourse that it’ll cause an infection. Why would you write a song about something so yucky like that?” Memphis asked in horror.

I’d been, and still was, of much the same opinion.

According to the urban dictionary, truffle butter was the substance that built up when a man stopped using the asshole and went directly to the vagina without cleaning anything in between holes.

Personally, I felt that it was a UTI and a yeast infection waiting to happen, so I couldn’t even find the song remotely entertaining anymore. Not with all my medical background, anyway.

The music suddenly cut off, and I was thankful. I changed the station every time I heard it, too.

“Well, that just ruined this station for me. I’ll have to wait until it’s not popular anymore,” Reese said, making a gagging gesture with her hand.

“What’s wrong with the station you were listening to, baby?” A blonde man wearing a skin tight black t-shirt and dark washed jeans, asked.

He was tall. And big. Really big.

He had a beard, much the same as all the men I’d realized.

Was that a requirement to be on the SWAT team?

“Nothing,” Reese said. “I’ll tell you later. Luke, I’d like you to meet Bennett’s guest, Lennox.”

His hard eyes turned to me, studying me with the eyes of a seasoned cop.

Finally, though, he smiled and offered me his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” he said cordially.

I offered my own, and we shook.

His hand practically engulfed my own.

“You too,” I said, nodding my head at him.

“Dinner’s here if y’all want to come to the back and eat,” Luke said, turning his gaze back to his wife.

She smiled and stood. “About time.”

He threw up his hands. “I said I was sorry! How many times do you need me to say it, woman?”

I blinked at the sudden outburst, but Reese didn’t seem to be affected in the least.

“That was only your first time apologizing, you big shit. I told you not to leave that bag of food out! Now I’ll probably get home to massive piles of vomit and dog shit throughout the house. Not to mention there was chocolate in there! If my dogs are dead, you’re totally going to see the edge of my tongue,” Reese spat.

I raised my brows, but was surprised when Luke had a comeback almost immediately.

“I’ll have the edge of your tongue later regardless. I’ll just be putting it to better use than you’re willing to do at this moment in time,” he growled, looping his arm around her hips and pulling her roughly to him.

I chose that moment to silently slide off my stool and disappear out the side door from where I’d entered.

I was surprised when I ran into the chest of Bennett, who’d been coming in the moment I was trying to leave.

“Hey,” he said, looping his arm around me much the same as Luke had just done to his wife. “What’s the rush?”

I pointed to the couple that still had their tongues buried down each other’s throats, and said, “The air was getting a little too clogged with hormones in there. I had to leave before it got contagious.”

He laughed and twirled me around until I was facing the opposite direction,

“You want some pizza?” He asked.

I nodded. “Is there any with anchovies?” I asked in hope.

He curled his nose up at me in disgust. “There most certainly is not.”

I pouted.

“Anchovies are my favorite,” I admitted.

He made a gagging gesture with his pointer finger, and led me into a room beyond the large warehouse where four long tables had been set up.

One of them held the pizza and drinks, while the other three held rolls of paper towels, and unopened cans of coke.

“Where do you want me to sit?” I asked.

He gestured to the end.

“The end. That way I’m not cornered on both sides by people wanting to be my best friend in order to get to know you better,” he answered honestly.

I nodded, thankful he’d come to the same conclusion as me.

Although I liked the women, it was a little overwhelming to have that many people interested about your every move.

I was still a very introverted person, and it’d take some getting used to when it came to all of his friends and their well-meaning wives.

“Sounds freakin’ perfect to me,” I admitted. “Let’s eat!”

Although I’d be paying for the Pizza later.

Chapter 6

Bearded for her pleasure.

-T-shirt

Bennett

“I honestly cannot believe they’re still going at it!” I said in awe. “How does one have that much stamina?”

“Don’t even get me started,” she shook her head before walking up her front walk. “It’s like he doesn’t know how to control himself.”

I blinked.

I wasn’t a slacker when it came to the bedroom, but I literally couldn’t go for six hours.

I might be able to do three or four, but six was just ungodly.

Didn’t one need a water break…or something?

That question was answered minutes later when the same man I’d seen at the restaurant, when Lennox had stolen my jacket, came out Lennox’s front door with a Gatorade in his hand.

“Paxton!” Lennox gasped. “What are you doing in my house?”

The man, Paxton, grinned. “I was all out of Gatorade.”

I blinked.

That was a good reason, I suppose.

“Then why are you in the front yard when you should be cutting through the back? This is a family neighborhood,” she admonished, looking pointedly at the boxers Paxton was wearing and nothing else.

Paxton grinned. “Am I corrupting your prudish sensibilities, Lennie-Lou?”

I snorted. “Lennie Lou?”

Lennox turned her glare on me. “Don’t start. I hate that name.”