Flick noticed the blush and if Mac hadn’t dissed her dog, she would’ve kissed him for making Tally feel comfortable enough around a man to feel attracted. But despite Tally’s approval, she remained unmoved.
“No one,” Flick said through gritted teeth, “threatens my dog.”
Flick opened the door to the gym and immediately saw a bank of prime male flesh, in various states of undress, standing around the raised boxing ring. On the other side of the ring, a group of about ten women stood, including some from the retiree crowd, their attention divided between what was happening in the ring and the gorgeous, ripped male torsos surrounding them.
The women of Mercy, whatever their age, did appreciate a hot man.
“You’re useless, Manning. Get with the program.”
Sawyer! Yay, Sawyer was back. Flick skipped across the gym and pushed her way past the Caswallawn employees—okay, touching that guy’s butt had been an honest mistake—and plastered herself to Sawyer’s side.
“Hey you,” Sawyer gave her a one-armed hug. “I wondered if you’d show.”
“Good to have you back.” Flick stood on her tiptoes to drop a light kiss on Sawyer’s cheek.
“Will you feckin’ concentrate?”
Flick jumped a foot in the air at the bellow coming from the inside of the ring. She turned to look and winced at the carnage inside. The red-headed Scot was standing over Kai, hands on his hips, looking thoroughly pissed off. Kai glared at her, his golden eyes furious. A trickle of blood stained his chin from a cut in his bottom lip and she could see the start of a bruise on his shoulder. He was getting the crap beaten out of him.
Kai staggered to his feet and lifted a finger in her direction. “Do not kiss him again,” he growled. Flick thought about telling him to go to hell but Kai just turned his back to her and sent Mac a ferocious look. “Bring it on, dickwad.”
“I’m going to kick your ass!”
“You can try,” Kai retorted.
Flick looked at Sawyer, who was wearing a strange, speculative look. “Why is he doing this?”
“He lost a bet, remember? Pippa beat him at pool. I made them postpone the fight until I got back because I wanted to watch Kai getting his ass handed to him.”
Male friendships were so weird. Flick winced as Kai flew over Mac’s shoulder to land flat on his back. He immediately sprang up and blocked a punch Mac threw at his nose. “This is insane. Can you stop it?”
“Why would I want to do that?” Sawyer demanded.
“Because he’s getting hurt.” Flick winced as Kai flung Mac away and wiped blood away from a cut above his eyebrow.
“Hurt? He’s barely scratched,” Sawyer responded, deeply unsympathetic. “Kai’s amazing at hand-to-hand but Mac is even better. You should be happy that your man can hold his own.”
“He’s not my man,” Flick muttered.
“Really? ‘Cos I hear that you’ve been staying at his place most nights. And he just warned you to stay away from me."
“He knows I think of you as my brother, so I have no idea why he said that! There's nothing between us but hot sex." Maybe if she kept repeating it she would start to believe it.
Sawyer gripped her chin and made her look at him. “Do you know what you are doing, Felicity?”
Hell, no. “Sure,” she replied, lying through her teeth. She had no friggin’ idea what she was doing at any given moment. On the mat, Kai grabbed Mac’s wrist and spun him around, but somehow the Scot managed to land a kick in Kai’s ribs. Kai grunted and his eyes flicked to her, and then he was flying through the air to bounce off the ropes.
Mac got up and into his face. “Either you concentrate or we end this, right here, right now.”
Kai lifted his hand, looking a little embarrassed. “Okay, point taken.”
Mac jerked a thumb in her direction. “Should she leave?”
Flick bristled. “What did I do wrong?” she demanded.
“You’re distracting him,” Mac growled.
Flick hopped onto the side of the ring and held the top rope. “I’m just standing here and if he’s distracted then it’s his problem. And while I have your attention, if you ever threaten my dog again, I’ll turnyouinto haggis! And you can’t make me leave.”