Latched (Coronado Series Book 1) (14 page)

 
She looked around her room, “I’ll just have to trust you on this. Is there anything you can’t do?”
 

He thought about it, “I can’t cook.” She grabbed her coffee cup and the dirty sheets and headed down stairs.
Thank god there is one thing
.

********

Birdie stood at the counter with a frown on her face, he walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. “What’s up babe, what’s wrong?”
 

She kept frowning at her phone and finally looked up. “I’m not sure. My best friend Rory said she was going to come on Monday and was a no show. I didn’t hear from her until Tuesday afternoon and she gave me a weak excuse. She finally sent me an email and explained a little of what has been going on with her and I’m worried. Rory’s mom remarried when we were in college, her new husband owns probably a dozen hotels around the world and is quite wealthy. After we graduated, Rory went to work for his corporation as an operations person. She’s done an amazing job and has no financial interest other than her salary. She was at some benefit a couple of months ago and there was a photograph of her with her Mom and husband and his son. Unfortunately, she was falsely listed as one of his children. The next week she started receiving notes from someone and the tone has escalated. The police say there’s nothing they can do about it. I feel like she’s out there by herself and no one is taking it seriously.”
 

“Where does Rory live? We could introduce her to my friend Max who has a security firm here in San Diego as well as about five other locations. He could easily provide her with protection and put a stop to the letters.”

 
Birdie looked at her phone again, “She lives in La Jolla, but travels all the time. I’ll text her and see when she’s going to be back and then I could take her to Max’s office.” Mark went to get his phone and texted Max to give him a heads up. “I’m not sure that it’s about someone thinking she is rich. It could just be because she’s beautiful. She is built like Sophia Loren, and is drop dead gorgeous. She has dark red hair and big green eyes, it could just be that someone has become obsessed.”
 

Mark checked his phone and got a text back from Max, “He said to just tell him where and when and he will take care of it.”
 

Birdie reached up and kissed him, “Thank you.” She texted Rory and hoped she would hear from her soon.

“Let’s go eat, I’m starved.” They headed out to his truck and Birdie was about to get in.

She grabbed his hand, “I can drive, my car is in the garage.”

 
“Baby, let me drive, it’s a guy thing.” She was thinking about putting her foot down and making a point, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. All she wanted was waffles.
 

“This time you can drive, but I want the chance sometime.” He helped her up, buckled her in and kissed her.
 

He drove them to a small restaurant on the other side of the island near the base. They walked in and were seated towards the back. The waitress came up and was ready to take their order. She looked at Birdie and then looked at Mark with raised eyebrows. Mark smiled, “Betty, I would like to introduce you to my girlfriend, Birdie. She has the flower shop a couple of blocks from the Hotel Del, so if you ever need flowers, go see her.”
 

Betty studied Birdie and finally nodded and smiled, “What can I get you darling?”
 

Birdie was so confused by the whole thing that she faltered, “Nice to meet you Betty. I would like the waffles with bananas, a side of sausage and one egg over easy and coffee please.” She put her menu down and both Mark and Betty were staring at her. She started to feel self-conscious and then they both smiled at her. Mark ordered his usual and Betty walked away. “When were you going to ask me to be your girlfriend?”
 

Mark had the intelligence to look a little embarrassed, “Well, I thought that was implied. We are only sleeping with each other and I will kill any guy who gets near you. I thought that made us boyfriend and girlfriend. Do I give you my class ring to make it official?” She stared at him and raised her eyebrows …. where does one start with this? There are so many places, so she decided to start at the beginning.

“Have you lost your ever loving mind? Do you think I would become someone’s girlfriend without consultation? Do you think I’m that easy? We were just going to sleep together and that was going to be it. But no…..you have your toothbrush and your plans. I knew you were bossy and a little overbearing and I let it slide. I was clearly mistaken. You have taken my easy going nature and run over it with a bulldozer. I do not appreciate you announcing to someone that I’m your girlfriend without asking me. I’m so upset that I am not going to be able to finish my waffles.”

Mark knew he screwed up; messing with Birdies appetite was a big deal. He tried to grab her hands and she slid them away and put them in her lap. She was staring at him hard. He got up and slid into the seat next to her and put his arm around her, “I am sorry, Birdie. I have been coming here for 11 years and Betty has never seen me with a woman. I guess I got excited to be able to introduce her to you. I thought once we agreed to sleep with only each other that we were committed on some level. I understand it meant something different to me than you. I would like you to be my girlfriend if you would consider it.”

She looked up at him and he looked sincere, “I will think about it and let you know. Right now my blood sugar is very low and I can’t make a reasonable decision. Go back to your side of the table and let me eat, because I’m very hungry.” He slid out of the booth and went back to his side of the table.
 

Betty took this all in as she was bringing their food. She started setting down the plates and shook her head at Mark. “You didn’t ask her, did you? You just assumed.” She looked at Birdie, “He’s a good man…. he is just lousy at this. Give him a break and let’s see what he is capable of.”

She looked at Betty and gave her one of her dazzling smiles, “He is lucky to have you, I will think about it.” Betty nodded and walked away.

Mark looked at them both and decided to eat and keep his mouth shut because he was not doing himself any favors by talking. Birdie tucked into her food and looked happy once she was eating her waffles. She cleaned all of her plates and sat back and sighed. “I think I feel better now that I’ve eaten.” She sipped her coffee and appeared to be relaxed.
 

Mark looked at her and decided to keep his mouth shut for a while longer. He paid the check and waited while Birdie and Betty had a conversation. When Birdie started walking towards him, she seemed a little happier.
 

********

“Would you like to see my condo, it’s not far from here.”
 

“Sure, sounds good to me.”
 

He started the truck and smiled as he drove her to his house. He had a condo about two blocks from the beach and very close to the base. He helped her out and they walked up to his front door. Birdie looked around, “This is really nice. How long have you had it?” He unlocked the door and she followed him in - it was bright and airy and decorated like Soviet Russia.
 

“I’ve been here for about five years, I bought it when real estate crashed.” It was very clean and very plain. He dropped his keys on the counter and showed her around. “I have two bedrooms and they each have their own bath.” He took her back to his room. It had a king size bed with a blue comforter and a big chest of drawers and that was it. The other bedroom had a desk, a bunch of boxes of books and a laptop.
 

Birdie put a big smile on her face, “It is really nice and very clean.”
 

He looked at her and could tell by her overly bright smile that she was faking it. “You hate it, don’t you? You would never spend the night here.”
 

She looked up at him and was surprised - he looked like he cared if she liked it. “I don’t hate it, your home is very nice and clean.”

 
Mark shook his head, “You’re not telling me the truth.” I dare you to spend the night, tonight!”

“I can’t tonight because I don’t have my stuff, but you pick another night and I will be here.” Mark bent down and kissed her. He was glad she wasn’t going to dump him after his girlfriend comment. He didn’t care where they slept as long as it was together.

“OK, how about on Wednesday night? I will make you dinner and then you can spend the night.”

 
She put out her hand and shook his hand, “Deal!” He was overbearing but had good intentions and was amazing in bed. She watched him go into his office and start putting paperwork together. She wandered in, “What are you doing?” She sat down on the floor and watched him as he pulled files out of the drawers.

He was concentrating and finally looked up, “I’m getting my stuff together for you. I want to hire you to be my accountant.”
 

“Mark, I can’t be your accountant. I’m sleeping with you.”
 

He continued to go through files and ignored her,” I don’t understand the conflict. Why can’t you be my accountant?”

She stood up and tried to be patient, “I can’t be your accountant because we are involved but not married. If I have control over your finances, that is not considered good business practices.”
 

He just waved his hand in dismissal, “I trust you with my health. What do I care what you do with my money.”

She looked at him like he was an alien and started shaking her head, “No, no, no, I will not be your accountant.”
 

He handed her a bunch of files and kissed her, “Yes, yes, yes, you will be my accountant.” He walked out of the room to look for a bag to put everything in.
Well it’s a good thing he listens and hears what I’m saying,
she followed him out. He rummaged in the kitchen and found what he was looking for, “Got it, I hope everything fits in here.” She sat on the couch and waited for him to finish what he was doing. He brought over the bag and tried to hand it to her, but she didn’t take it. He finally got the message and sat down beside her, “Please take a look and tell me what you think. If you decide you can’t do it, just give it back to me. I just want your professional opinion.”

She looked in the bag and then she looked at him, “I will take a look and that’s all I’m going to do. I can recommend someone to you who can take good care of you.” He grabbed her and rolled her over on the couch and started kissing her really loudly all over her face. She was trying to push him away, but with no success. He started kissing her more gently and whispered in her ear over and over again, “be my girlfriend… be my girlfriend.”
 

She pulled him down and whispered in his ear, “Maybe, I will think about it.”
 

He laid on his couch with Birdie wrapped up in his arms and felt good. But why wouldn’t she just agree to be his girlfriend? He could learn to be a good boyfriend. He clearly had his work cut out for him, this wasn’t going to be easy. She sat up, “Can you take me home? I should get started on my chores because I have to go downtown tomorrow.”
 

“You don’t want to spend the rest of the day together?”
 

She noticed he looked like a little kid who was told to give back his favorite toy, “Don’t you have stuff to do? This has been the longest date on record - we have been together since Friday night.”
 

He took her hand, “I’m not done yet - I want the date to continue. What if I do my run and swim and then take you out to dinner? That way you have time to get stuff done and then we can have the evening together. If you still have stuff to do tonight, I can sit on the couch and watch football.”
 

She kissed him hard, “You are a hard man to resist, get your stuff and let’s go.”

He went back to his room and got his clothes together,
Why is she always trying to get rid of me? I have to come up with a better plan.
She laid on the couch and looked at one of the folders he put in the bag. “Why don’t you have a mortgage on your condo - why did you pay cash?”
 

He knew she couldn’t resist. She was going to be his accountant and then his girlfriend. He put his bag by the door and came and sat down next to her. “My Dad was an engineer as well as a professor at Cal Poly. When the whole computer thing was taking off he invented a widget. It’s still used today in those monster processors that banks and the government have. My mother and my two sisters and I receive a quarterly check from all of the companies that use this widget. I had enough cash to buy this condo and I didn’t want to worry about a mortgage.”
 

“I thought you were just good looking and sexy. Then I find out you’re amazing in bed and smart and funny. You have the whole hero thing going and now I find out you are a mini mogul. I think I’m swimming in the deep end of the pool and I should be in the kiddie pool.”

He wasn’t sure if what she said was a good thing or a bad thing. She didn’t look too happy about it. “Baby, you’re all of those things and more. You’re beautiful, kind, caring, smart and successful and so sexy that I can’t control myself. You probably have a lot more money than I do, maybe it’s me who is the wrong pool. Why are you always trying to get rid of me?”