Chapter 6 #2
Lisa scanned her menu. “He’s not working tonight. But he is here.”
“What? Where?” May looked around frantically.
“You owe me five dollars,” Lisa said to Elliott, who promptly paid her dues.
“We bet that you wouldn’t be able to keep your cool if you knew he was here on his day off.”
“I kept my cool,” May argued.
“‘What? Where?’” Lisa’s impersonation was over-the-top but not wholly inaccurate. Dammit. May hated being transparent.
“I don’t like when you two are in cahoots.” May narrowed her eyes at Lou. “Are you cahoot-ing with them as well?”
“Me? I don’t cahoot.” Lou tried feigning innocence, but May wasn’t buying it.
The patio door opened behind May, and she heard a familiar, gruff voice announce, “Evening, ladies.”
Xavier.
His voice skated down her spine and up again, covering her arms in chilly bumps beneath the sleeves of her cropped denim jacket.
“Oh, hello, Xavier.” Lisa sounded very much in the know. “Where are Ant and Brady?” She craned her neck, looking for them.
“They bumped into Griffin at the bar. I came to find a table before the place packed out.” He locked eyes with May, who chewed her lip.
“You’re the boss. Surely you can find a table, packed out or no,” May said.
He grinned.
Mercy. She hadn’t seen him in a week, and somehow, he’d become hotter.
“Griffin’s here?” Lisa curled her upper lip. Those two had a past, but whenever they were in the vicinity of each other, their issues appeared to be more present.
“Oh, come on Lisa. You can at least say hello,” May said sweetly.
“No, thanks.” Lisa hid her face behind her menu as the door opened and revealed not only Brady and Ant, but Griffin too.
Ant and Brady stopped to kiss their ladies.
Lisa and May received perfunctory pecks on the cheeks as well.
Griffin, with his dark hair, shadow of a beard, and suit-sans-tie attire, was holding his own in the “hot” department. He lifted his chin in a casual hello.
Lisa rolled her eyes.
May smothered a smile. Those two.
“I’m going to order at the bar. Cheese fries and what else?” Lisa stood, apparently choosing to both run and hide.
“I’ll go with you.” Elliott stood next.
“Me too. May, want something?” Lou asked.
“You’re all leaving?” May, elbows propped on the table, turned her palms up to communicate What gives?
But she knew what they were doing. It couldn’t be more obvious unless one of them announced that they would give her and Xavier a moment alone.
Xavier slid onto Elliott’s abandoned chair after May’s “friends” went inside. He sent a nod over to the guys who had found a table on the far side of the patio.
“Looks like your friends were able to find a seat,” she said.
“Looks like your friends left you alone.” He leaned on his forearms—all sinew and muscle.
“I’m not alone. I have you.” That had come out breathier than she’d expected, but it couldn’t have been helped. She traced the branches of his pine tree tattoo with her eyes before tracking her gaze to his face.
Just gorgeous. Every inch of him.
Rather than reach out and touch that branch tattoo, she tugged on one gold hoop earring instead. She wished she had a drink in hand. He was making her nervous, and all he’d done was sit next to her.
“So, I decided,” Xavier announced, rapping his knuckles on the table as he glanced around, “that I resent your ex-boyfriend.” He stopped rapping and looked over at her.
“That makes two of us,” she said. “Why do you resent him?”
“For starters, he has singlehandedly ruined my chances at taking you out on a date. Or to bed. Or both.”
“Oh.” That’s what she said. That’s all she said. The rest of the sentence had lodged in her throat.
“I’ve been thinking about your conundrum. The wedding. The invitation.” He shook his head. “I can’t let you go alone.”
“You can’t, huh?” She laughed, grateful for a release of some of the tension choking the air.
“I also can’t let you hire me.”
“I would never. And I told Lou you’d be insulted if you were paid like an escort.”
“For you, I’d make an exception.” He licked his bottom lip, and she most certainly did not stare. “Paying me is unnecessary when you could have me for free.”
Her heart raced when their eyes locked. She pictured having him in the way he’d meant it. He had brought up taking her to bed. It was a nice picture.
“What you need is someone you can have fun with so that the wedding won’t feel so heavy.”
She nodded. That was exactly what she needed. Going to Posy’s wedding would mean reopening the wound of losing the Stantons. The mere thought of the whole family under one roof was nauseating.
“You’re offering to come with me so I don’t have a nervous breakdown?”
Rather than glibly agree, he leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I’m offering you an opportunity to break your no-hot-men rule and go on a date with me.”
She pressed her lips together. That sounded…nice. No, better than nice. Dreamy.
And terrifying. The dates she’d been on since she’d left Prescott had been casual. Most of the time the attraction had been one-sided, if it was there in the first place. With Xavier, that wasn’t the case. Their attraction was mutual. She hadn’t experienced mutual attraction in a long time.
“If you’re offering out of pity…” she started, not wanting to seem too eager to say yes.
Xavier let out a short laugh. “You sure it’s not the other way around? I’m risking everything by sitting here and asking. You shoot me down, I have to crawl back to my buddies and tell them about my crash and burn.”
“Oh, and you think I’d be off the hook with Elli, Lou, and Lisa? I’ll never hear the end of it if they find out I didn’t say yes.”
“Guess that doesn’t leave us much of a choice, does it?”
Oh, he was good.
She allowed herself a moment to enjoy the sensual electricity zapping between them. God, if she ever kissed him, they’d probably both ignite on contact. What a way to go.
Suddenly, two beer bottles were plunked onto the tabletop between them. “From your bros,” Cheyenne announced. “Love your necklace.”
“Thanks.” May toyed with the hummingbird charm on the end of the gold chain around her neck. It had belonged to her mom.
Xavier raised his longneck and tilted it in May’s direction. “What do you say? Will you let me accompany you to your ex-boyfriend’s sister’s wedding in Evergreen Cove?”
She guessed that the word yes was written on her face. Her face, her body, which was leaning toward his, and her palm, which was now wrapped around a beer bottle, damp with condensation.
She tilted her bottle but didn’t tap his yet. “This is borderline bribery, isn’t it?”
“Is that better or worse than offering to pay me to go with you?”
“It might be the same,” she admitted. He was charming. And she was tired of fighting the inevitable.
Xavier lifted his eyebrows and waited.
May tapped the neck of her bottle against his. “Okay.”
“Okay, as in yes?” He looked surprised, which was endearing.
“Yes.” She laughed softly.
“Okay.” He was smiling when he tipped the bottle to his lips.