Free Just for Fun by Erin Nicholas Page B

to money. That they spent on things like junk food.
    The man sitting on the arm of the chair nearest the door noticed her first. “Hey, Dooley, we got company.”
    Doug pivoted from his seat in the middle of the sofa. When he saw her his mouth spread into a huge grin and he handed his game controller to the guy sitting next to him.
    “Hey, gorgeous,” he greeted as he climbed over the back of the couch. “Solve all the world’s problems?”
    “Um, well, Omaha’s anyway,” she told him. “What’s going on?”
    He looked over his shoulder with a smile. “Mario Kart.”
    “The video game?”
    “Yeah!” one of the men shouted at the TV. “Suck it!”
    She took a deep breath. “Doug—”
    “You know what Mario Kart is?” he asked.
    “Of course.” She didn’t want him to get distracted. “You’ve got to tell the guys to stop yelling. There are other people staying up here.”
    “Son of a bitch!” one of them yelled. “Cocksucker!”
    “Guys, tone it down,” Doug shouted with a grin. “There’s a lady here.”
    There were some glances in her direction and mumbles of “sorry”.
    “It’s not just about me…” She broke off, deciding she needed more explanation of the root of the problem. “Why are you playing Mario Kart? Why are there so many people here?”
    How did he even know five other guys in Chicago?
    “I called Beth and asked if there was any way I could get a video game. She came through. When the guys came up to bring it to me, I asked what they were doing. They were just getting off their shift and they grabbed some other guys too. We ordered some food and started playing. Then Charlie and Dave showed up from housekeeping to get the grape soda out of the carpet—”
    “These guys work here?” she interrupted. And they’d spilled grape soda on the ecru carpet.
    “Well, yeah.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anyone else in Chicago. Mario Kart’s way more fun with other people.”
    “But they work here .” Crap, it was a good thing the security manager hadn’t come up. These guys would have been in enough trouble being in here, even without contributing to a problem with another guest.
    “They’re off the clock. They’re just having some fun. I asked them to hang out until you got here.”
    “Why?” She was quickly trying to figure what she would do if some of her employees were partying in a guest’s suite. That would not be good. Way too much potential for problems.
    “This is Tony, Stan, Roger, Charlie and Dave. Roger’s worked here for twenty-five years. Stan’s been here for sixteen.”
    “Hi, guys,” Morgan said, giving them a smile. “Very impressive.” She glanced at her watch. She needed to get ready for dinner and she wasn’t going to do it with five strange men in her suite. She looked up at Doug and corrected herself— six strange men in her suite. How could she keep forgetting that she didn’t really know him? She knew he wasn’t going to kill her or steal from her, she knew he didn’t have any contagious diseases and she knew he had good credit. Other than that it was all a crapshoot.
    This dinner meeting was important and she didn’t want to be distracted. Or late. This was the first time she’d be seeing Mr. Britton and, more importantly, Todd since…the last time. “Doug, I need to talk to you.”
    He frowned at her. “Don’t you want to chat with the guys, ask them some questions about their experience?”
    “Whoo-hoo!”
    “Yeah, man!”
    They were still shouting but it was quieter now. As the guys were clearly into the game, Morgan took the chance to drag Doug into the bedroom. “I need to get ready for dinner. You have to get rid of them.”
    “Fine.” He didn’t look pleased. “I’ll see what they’re doing tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow?”
    “You’ll be working all day tomorrow. I can hang out with them.”
    “Don’t they have to work?”
    He frowned. “I’ll find out. If they do, I’ll make some new friends.”
    Why