His dismissive and, quite frankly, sexist demeanor was getting to me. I’d broken my arm playing softball in high school, yet he hadn’t shown up to chew out my coach. No, he hadn’t even known. It was a bit late for him to play the outraged-yet-concerned parent.
Mac took another glance at my cheek and then looked away. “Report tomorrow morning to the props department. My buddy Jared has some work for you.”
Oh shit.
Alarmed, I turned to Tina with pleading eyes. She got my unspoken message right away. “Actually, Ronnie’s going to be doing data entry all day tomorrow.”
“I already promised her I’d help with that,” I said when Mac turned back to me.
“Fine, but no training.”
“I understand.” Understanding wasn’t the same thing as agreeing, however.
The moment Mac left, the office felt bigger. His bulk and his temper had taken up half the room. “Thank you,” I said to Tina. Her support meant a lot, especially since she had a little thing for Mac. Yet she’d helped me out.
“So, not a big fan of Jared?”
I shook my head. “He was a bit too big a fan of my ass during the first bonfire.”
Tina’s face was sympathetic. “Yeah, the guys can be jerks sometimes, especially during shoots like this where there are few young women around. Not that that excuses them. Did you tell Mac?”
“No.”
“He’d probably go all ballistic and paternal. Not sure in which order.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but since I didn’t plan to tell him, it was moot.
“Don’t worry,” Tina continued. “You won’t have to go over to props. I’ll keep you busy here.” She winked. “Or pretend to keep you busy. Got any literary aspirations? You could sit at a computer and write a screenplay.”
I laughed. “Thanks, but not really my style.” I actually had written two short eBooks on fitness. I’d taken them down when I canceled all my other online accounts.
Tina gave me some easy tasks to do on the computer, which was nice of her, but it gave me too much time to think. I was pissed at Mac. He had no right to go into overprotective mode now, when I was a fully independent adult. But he had gotten me hired, so he did have a right to dictate how I spent my days.
Unfortunately.
Half an hour later, I found out I wasn’t the only one Mac had spoken to.
“Ford and I just got chewed out,” Tanner texted to a group that included the three of us.
“About my shiner?” I texted back.
“Yep.”
“He said I can’t train you anymore.” Ford added.
“Apparently, he’d rather have me do busywork for his perverted friends.”
“What???” Tanner asked.
“Never mind. Can he really stop me from training?”
“Here, probably.” Ford wrote. “But not back at the house—if you still want to.”
“Of course I do.” I thought about it for a moment. “And you can scold me all you want when I screw up—just not when I get hurt, okay?”
“Okay,” Ford agreed. “No more scolding for that. Next time I’ll give you a spanking instead.”
“What???” Tanner texted again, and I had to laugh.
Ford was kidding—probably—but the idea didn’t give me much pause. “Gotta get back to mindless drudgery. See you guys later.”
“See you,” Ford replied.
“Seriously, what???” Tanner added one last time, and I couldn’t help but grin.
I expected Wednesday to consist of mind-numbing boredom. Well, that wasn’t really fair to Tina. She was trying her best to keep me busy—ish. It wasn’t her fault I was hired for a job that didn’t really exist, and it was far better working for her than doing unneeded tasks for others. But still, I didn’t have high hopes for how my day was going to go.
But it got off to a good start because Ford and I were able to go for a run. Either Mac had decided that it was a safe enough pastime for me or he didn’t know about it.
Then, after lunch as I was fighting to stay awake while entering numbers on a spreadsheet for Tina, a white knight appeared to save me.
When Tanner strode into the small office, the confident smile on his face was so big that I almost thought he was Aiden. But no, it was Tanner, and he’d come to rescue me.
“I’ve got something for you to do,” he said. If Ford or maybe even Aiden had said that, it would’ve sounded dirty, but Tanner could say things like that and come across as completely earnest.
“Please tell me it doesn’t involve a database.”
“It doesn’t,” he said. “It involves a road trip.”
I liked the sound of that. It caught Tina's interest, too. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“South of Tucson to scout a spot that might work for a motorcycle chase we still need to shoot.”
“You can ride a motorcycle?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“All the way down to Arizona?” I didn't know exactly how far it was, but it seemed like a long drive.