“Shit-gibbon,” Adam muttered under his breath, his eyes unfocusing. Yup, he probably knew exactly where she’d gotten that term from. Olivia had a feeling Angel’s frustrated insults in relation to her husband were probably becoming more creative—which was probably why Michael had given her the book in the first place. He did enjoy fucking with Adam.

Everyone else ignored Adam’s muttering. They had all become pretty used to it after he met Angel.

“Makes sense,” Patrick said, surprising her. He chuckled at the expression on her face. “Trust me, I know all about wanting to ignore something you can’t control.” Ah, well, he would. Although he and Lexie were a great couple now, he’d done his best to ignore her obvious attraction and interest in her—and his returned attraction and interest—until he could talk to her brother, who was also his best friend. Olivia had been pretty integral in pushing them together in the end.

“It’s not exactly…” Her voice trailed off. Okay yeah, it kind of was.

She couldn’t control the situation with shit-gibbon at all. Olivia was a proactive, sometimes even aggressive person. Something as passive as a security system didn’t appeal to her, in part because it reminded her there was very little she could actually do. It made her feel more helpless rather than less.

“I already told Jared he could pick one out for me,” she grumbled, slouching back into her chair a little.

“Might be a nice peace offering to see if Luke’s still interested in doing that,” Chris said, staring up at the ceiling rather than meeting her eyes as he made the observation. Olivia scowled in his general direction.

“Well I’m not going to let him pay for it,” she snapped.

“Fuck no.”

“Hell no.”

“Duh.” That last was Andrew, while the rest just uttered their preferred curse word and supported her declaration.

Surprisingly, when Luke woke up the next morning he didn’t feel that bad at all. Which might have something to do with the water and pain pills Michael had pushed on him last night. He remembered being woken up for that.

Next to him, Molly panted, wagging her tail when she saw he was awake.

“Ready to go out, girl?” he asked, giving her ears a rub and making her tail start moving twice as fast. She made a little snuffling noise, trying to snuggle further into his body. His head hurt a little and he had cottonmouth, but overall, he was feeling pretty energized. It was time to get up. Get his shit together.

Things to do, a lady to woo, and all that jazz.

After all, he had a date tonight.

At least… hopefully he still had a date tonight.

15