“Hey,” Eagle complained.
Everyone else laughed loud and long.
“She’s got you there,” Robert said.
“Yeah, well, you should’ve seen the evil little smirk on her face when she beat me for the first time,” Eagle countered. “I swear she looked just like Wednesday from The Addams Family. It creeped me out and threw me off my game.”
Taylor laughed. She knew he was teasing.
Breakfast was delicious. She didn’t know if it was the subtle spices the amazing Archer had put into the eggs or if it was the company. All Taylor knew was that she’d never felt so comfortable around people she’d just met in all her life.
When they were finishing up, a man stuck his head out from the hallway and yelled, “Robert and Shane . . . got jobs for you. Smoke, Gramps, Eagle . . . are you guys working today?”
“You need us to?” Smoke asked.
The other man shrugged. “Wouldn’t hurt. After Robert and Shane go out, we’ve got two more jobs stacked and waiting. They aren’t urgent, but . . .”
“We can move our meeting to this afternoon,” Gramps said. “I’m in.”
“Me too,” Smoke said.
“I need to take Taylor home, but I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Eagle chimed in.
“Thanks, guys,” the other man said, then disappeared back down the hall, obviously to go back to the dispatch room.
“It was very nice meeting you,” Robert told Taylor as he put his plate into the dishwasher.
“Same,” Shane agreed, and he followed Robert across the room, heading for the door.
Taylor turned to Eagle. “I can call a cab if you need to stay.”
“Nope,” he told her, without seeming to be in a rush as he finished loading the dishwasher.
“But if you need to get to work—”
“Taylor,” Smoke said, “we’re good. It won’t hurt anyone to have to wait an extra twenty minutes or so for a tow. Our dispatchers are very good at knowing what constitutes an emergency and what can wait. We don’t need to work, but by doing so, it gives our employees a break. They can stop and get something to eat or just chill for a few minutes. We don’t mind pitching in. Hell, when we started Silverstone Towing, we were doing all the driving. It’s fine.”
Taylor felt her respect for the men rise. She already liked them, and now she could see that they took their responsibilities very seriously. She liked that even more.
“All the same,” she said, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep here. I need a shower, and I’ve got a textbook that won’t proofread itself.”
Gramps walked over to her. “In case Eagle hasn’t already said it, you’re welcome here anytime. Doesn’t matter if he’s here or not. You need a change of scenery or want to play pinball, come on over.”
“Thanks,” Taylor said, feeling overwhelmed.
“What he said,” Smoke quipped, coming over and pulling her into a hug.
Taylor felt dwarfed by the two men, but she wasn’t scared of them or their size.
“All right, that’s enough,” Eagle bitched.
Both Smoke and Gramps smirked but backed away from her.
Eagle stomped over and took her hand and pulled her away from his friends.
Taylor laughed and turned to wave. “It was great meeting you!”
“Same!” both men called out.
Eagle stopped at the back door and took off his name tag, then placed it on the metal doorframe. Taylor had forgotten she was still wearing hers too. Feeling reluctant to take it off, she mentally shrugged and added hers to the doorframe. “Life would be much easier if everyone had to wear a name tag all the time,” she said wistfully.
Eagle turned her to face him, and he waited until she looked up before he spoke.
“You’re amazing,” he said softly. “Don’t let anyone else make you feel any different. The people who’ve shunned you because you can’t recognize them at first glance . . . that says more about them than you. It has everything to do with other people’s egos. Just because you can’t pick me out of a group of men doesn’t make me think you don’t like me. A true friend doesn’t care about shit like that. They care about having fun when you’re around. About how you make them forget their troubles when you’re around. They care if you’ve had a good day, and that you’re home safe and sound.”
Taylor wanted to cry. His words meant the world. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“You don’t have to thank me for being your friend,” he told her. “I should be thanking you. Last night could’ve gone very differently. There was a sixty-forty chance that you would’ve been appalled at what I told you and demanded I take you home and never call you again. I wouldn’t have blamed you either.”
Taylor frowned up at him. “Why did you tell me, then, if you thought I might not be able to handle it?”
“Because I knew if you could handle it, our friendship would only get stronger.”
She thought about something then. “Is your meeting this afternoon about going on a mission?”
Eagle shrugged. “We have meetings all the time—we try to stay on top of what’s going on in the country and the world. We get updated info from our contact in the FBI, and we discuss where we think we should go next.”
Taylor swallowed hard. She’d accepted what he and his friends did, but it was hitting home exactly how dangerous it was. “Are you going somewhere soon?”
Eagle leaned down until his forehead rested against hers. “I don’t know. And I’m not just saying that. But I won’t disappear without letting you know. I won’t be able to tell you where I’m going or who our target is, but I won’t just up and leave.”
“Okay,” Taylor said.
She liked being close to him like this. He always smelled good. Clean. And that got her thinking about how she probably didn’t smell all that fresh. She pulled back. “I should probably get home and shower.”
Eagle didn’t let her go far. He leaned down and buried his nose in her hair.
She stiffened. “Eagle?”
“Don’t mind me,” he muttered into her curls. “I’ll just be over here inhaling your vanilla shampoo.”
She grinned. “That’s the stuff I use to try to control my curls,” she told him. “Not my shampoo.”
“I love your hair,” he told her, standing up and bringing a hand to her head. He pulled on one of her curls and watched it bounce back up. “I know this doesn’t mean anything to you, and honestly, I love that about you even more . . . but you’re beautiful.”
People had told her she was pretty before. That her hair was amazing, that she had beautiful bone structure. She hadn’t thought much about it. But Eagle telling her the same thing made goose bumps break out on her arms. “Thanks,” she told him somewhat shyly. “You always smell really good.” She winced. The words sounded okay when she’d thought them to herself, but when she actually said them, they were kind of lame.
He smiled. “Best compliment I’ve ever gotten,” he told her.
Taylor rolled her eyes. “Right.”
“Seriously. If you’d have said I was handsome in return, I would’ve known you were blowing smoke up my ass, because I don’t think you have any clue what handsome really is. I mean, I could have a troll’s face, and you wouldn’t really notice. But using your other senses to tell me you like something about me? I know you’re being sincere, and that means the world to me.”