Page 32 of Gunner

Chapter 15

Lacey appliedthe last swipe of mascara to her eyelashes and sat back from the mirror at her vanity to check the overall appearance. Clever make-up tricks she’d learned from the experts now hid the smudges under her eyes, the evidence of her heartbreak. She’d spent the first day after her break up with Gunner in bed crying and then she’d dragged her ass out of bed. Wallowing in self-pity would get her nowhere.

Now a week later, she was feeling a little more human at least. Her grief at his loss turning to mild depression. Her heart still ached when she thought about Gunner, which was why she’d tried to stay busy working and had even travelled to London to oversee the photo shoot for next spring’s children’s range. Waggs had been a good sport about it, and she found him good company, but his mannerisms so like the man she’d fallen for it made her miss Gunner more.

Her plan for today was to work from home, but she’d always taken care of herself and saw no reason to stop now just because she worked from home and was nursing a broken heart, so she’d made an effort to put on her face and dress in something fun. A yellow-spotted tie sleeve dress with a vee neck and buttons down the front that fell to her knees made her feel happier. Clothes had always been her way of making herself feel better. Certainly when she was with Carmine it had been the only thing she could control and, in the end, he’d taken that too.

Not like Gunner, he’d looked at her with desire and more no matter what she wore or didn’t wear. He’d never put a single second of pressure on her or told her she was lacking. All he’d done was make her feel like she was the most beautiful woman in the world. That in itself didn’t mean a lot to her, beauty was a perceived subject in her book. It was the way he made her feel strong, like they were partners, that had made her fall for him. Even in moments when she was weak, he never made her feel that way.

Lacey jumped when her phone that was sitting by the bed rang, and she moved to answer it, quickly, smiling when she saw Skye’s name. Her friend had shown up the second night after the-break-up-that-wasn’t-really-a-break-up because they hadn’t actually been together. A tub of ice-cream later the entire sorry story lay bare between them and a carton of chocolate chunk had been decimated.

“Hey, hun.”

“Hi. Guess who gave birth to a bouncing baby boy this morning?” Lacey could hear the excitement in her friend’s voice, and it was infectious as she felt the grin pull at her cheeks in happiness.

“Oh my God, did Roz have her baby?”

“Yep, early hours of this morning, two weeks late and he’s a bruiser, nine pounds three ounces.”

“Ouch, that makes me want to cross my legs. What did they call him?” Lacey relaxed back against the headboard and crossed her ankles.

“I know. I thought Noah was bad at seven-pound five. They decided on Deacon for a name.”

“Awe that’s so sweet, and they’re both okay?”

“Yeah, mum and baby are doing fine. Not sure about Kanan though. He turned up here afterwards and had that traumatised look on his face like he’d come from a war zone.”

“Yeah, it must be hard for the men too, seeing the women they love in pain.”

“I know Nate struggled with it. Anyway, I wondered if you wanted to go see them later? Apparently Roz needed a few stitches and had some bleeding, so they’re keeping her in a for a few days until her iron levels are up nearer normal.”

“Yes, I’d love that. I need to pick up a gift for her and the baby though. What time is visiting?”

“Two until four. I can pick you up around one-thirty?”

“Sounds good, see you then.”

Lacey hung up with a smile on her face. Roz had turned out to be an unsuspected friend, and despite her fearsome reputation as an assassin, Lacey saw through that to the woman who loved her family. She was so happy she now had that family, complete with the son she’d admitted she wanted.

Lacey walked to the back door and looked out to see if she could find out who was on duty today. Personally, she thought it was overkill having such highly trained men watching over her when she was sure they had better things to do.

She was surprised to see Jack walking toward her with a grin on his face. He was disgustingly handsome, and what made it worse was he had no idea and probably didn’t care. That was like catnip to most women except her, her heart and attraction was firmly in camp Viking.

“Morning, Lacey.”

Lacey crossed her arms as she stepped back from the door to let him inside.

“Morning, Jack. I see I warranted the big guns today.”

Jack chuckled. “No, I just had something else I needed Waggs to do, and the others are busy.”

“I’m sorry if I’m causing problems. I can hire private security if you think I still need it.”

They were standing by the back door, and she saw Jack clench his jaw, but when he looked up at her any sign of anxiety or stress was gone.

“No need and you’re not causing any problems at all.”

Lacey felt sure he was lying, after all Eidolon weren’t a security company like most were, but she let it go. Jack didn’t seem like the sharing type, and honestly, she had enough on her plate without looking for trouble.