Page 45 of Protected By Duval
Unlike Ranger Douglas’ unwanted intrusion, Noelle sat up smiling at the Rangers walking through the door.
“Jack.” She got up from her chair.
Jack walked in with a tray of paper wrapped sandwiches and then stepped aside. The man walking in behind her was someone new, but Noelle wasn’t phased by it.
The fact that Jack was so at ease with him told her what she needed to know.
“Uh… Hi.” He grinned at her and her own smile twisted a little at one corner. “I’m Dillion Ewing,” he held up a drink carrier in one hand. “But you can call me Dally.”
He moved to the next table over were Jack was putting out the sandwiches on napkins.
“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Garcia.”
She shook her head. “Noelle is fine. Thanks.”
Jack looked up. “I don’t know what you like to eat so I got a few different 'wiches and you can pick what you like.”
Dally sat down and looked up at Jack with a kind of puppy-dog expression. “Let me guess, I get last choice?”
Jack thought about it and then sighed. “You let me drive to the diner. You can have your pick after Noelle.”
Dally clapped his hands together. “Sweet.”
Noelle didn’t take long to pick, she saw a piece of bacon poking out from under the bread and picked up that sandwich and put it down in front of her seat.
Dally reached in and snatched up a sandwich. Noelle smiled. It didn’t even look like he took more than a moment to choose.
Jack sighed and picked up the third.
There was a fourth, but Noelle didn’t ask who it was for, she was curious about the ranger sitting next to Jack. “Can I ask how y’all got your… is it called ‘nicknames’?”
Dally grinned at her showing a bunch of pearly white teeth.
She wondered if one of his parents was a dentist seeing how amazing his teeth were.
Jack passed her a little dish full of fries and spoke first. “I’m Jaclyn. My father wanted a boy so I was always trying to make him happy. Of course by trying to be more of a ‘son’ I somehow also pissed him off. When I took my first law enforcement job someone called me Jack and it stuck.”
Dally took a bite of fry off of Jack’s plate and got his hand smacked for the theft. “I thought you had another name that folks were using for a while.”
She shrugged and her mouth turned up in a little smile.
Jack looked at Noelle across the table. A few people floated the idea of ‘Jaws.’”
Jaws.
Noelle nodded slowly wondering how that name had started.
Jack turned toward Dillion. “What about you? I don’t remember you talking about how you got your name.”
Noelle saw the other man shift on his chair.
“It’s a thing.”
Jack met her gaze and then they turned back to look at Dally. “Spill.”
Dally sat forward in his chair, leaning his forearms against the edge of the table.
Noelle mimicked his posture thinking that he might not want to speak very loudly.
