Chapter 12 #2
She leaned in across the foosball table. “I’ll raise that fifty to a hundred. What do you think, Drew? Are you feelin’ lucky?”
“So lucky.” Drew swallowed hard and nodded. His eyes remained fixated on the breasts she too obviously used to distract him.
You asked for it, man. Not saving you now.
Mike leaned against the wall next to me. “You’ve got to figure out how to keep her here. She’s magic, bringin’ boys in who I ain’t seen in years. I’ve sold more beers in the past ten minutes than in the past three days combined. I miss having that girl around.”
“You think I have any control over her staying or going?” I glanced over at him.
Mike stroked his manicured, gray beard with his left hand. His gold wedding ring flashed in the light. “I don’t know what possessed you to screw it up the first time around, but what was a wild and untamed girl before is now…” He whistled low. “A whole lot of complicated.”
“You said it. Not me.”
“I’m not sure you can handle that kind of complicated.” Mike gave me a skeptical smile.
“I never said I wanted to—”
“What’s going on?” Milly asked beside me.
I jerked to see her on my left. Shit, I’d completely forgotten I left her out there. I was a crappy date. “Erika is about to break Drew’s heart.”
“Seriously? You ditched me to watch whatever this is?”
“They’re calling for another round.” Mike saluted us and left.
“This should be fun to watch,” I said.
“I don’t want to watch this. I want us to sit and eat dinner like adults, not stand in the pool hall like white trash.” She said “pool hall” like they were dirty words. I didn’t consider anyone in here to be any more white trash than me.
“Are you coming?” She chinned toward the exit.
“I’m going to watch her fleece Drew,” I said.
“Fine. Stay if you think this is more important than our date.”
Guilt trips like that flipped a switch in me—straight into stubborn mode, where I’d do anything except what the person wanted.
I couldn’t stand being manipulated that way.
My mother practically mastered the technique when I was in grade school.
She was a patient, wonderful woman, bless her, but her guilt trips were Olympic-level. Borderline diabolical.
I tried to smother my immediate need to snipe back. This was supposed to be a date. “I’m going to stay for a few minutes. Stay with me. This should be entertaining.”
Her eyes narrowed with enough venom to drop a horse. So much for the shy little mouse persona. Guess she’d ripped that mask off. Dante’s warning flashed in my mind. She said, “I’ll wait for you out there and surf my phone while I eat dinner alone. Whatever.”
I watched the swinging doors flap behind her as she exited. Real guilt rode me hard.
But not enough to leave. I might never see Erika hustle again.
The game started. Erika lost the first point on purpose. Now overconfident, Drew lost the next several rounds. Then she turned up the heat and burned him to the ground.
Once the game was over, Erika shot me a cocky grin.
I nodded and headed back to Milly. She put her phone back in her purse and gave me a smile that was all about disappointment.
“Did Drew lose?” Her tone held a lot of judgment.
“Yes.”
“She’s something to show up here and then steal money from Drew.”
“Drew knew what he was getting into.”
“Gambling is illegal in this state.” She stared at her glass of wine.
“They were just having some fun.” I tried smiling at her to settle her down.
“I guess so.” She seemed to relax.
We ate in silence for a while. Exhaustion combined with the beer slowed my mind to the point I hoped I wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel when I left. Good thing I only had a few miles to drive to get back to the clinic.
Suddenly, she announced. “I want you to sleep over at my place tonight.”
“Sleep over?” I repeated.
I just stared at her. My mind stuttered, trying to catch up to the blunt weight of the question.
Was she really asking me to have sex? Just like that?
For a split second, the loneliness I’d been dragging around for months tugged hard.
It would be so easy to say yes. To fall into someone’s arms and forget everything. God, I was tempted.
But the moment the thought surfaced, Erika’s tattoos flashed in my head.
My chest tightened. I couldn’t do it. Not tonight.
Not tomorrow. Not while my nerves still sparked at the memory of someone who was half-ghost and half-wound.
Maybe in a few weeks, if Erika left town for good.
Maybe then I could untangle the mess inside me enough to handle the complication of “sleeping over” at Milly’s place.
But if Erika stayed I’d have to figure out why she still mattered so damn much.
“We’ve gone out enough times. I’ve got it all planned at my house. Let’s leave now.”
Planned? The word hit harder than I expected.
“I can’t tonight,” I said, forcing the lie to sound solid.
“I’m on call, and I’ve got somewhere to be in an hour.
” Technically true, but only if you stretched the truth until it thinned out.
I had just enough time for four precious hours of sleep before I needed to watch Petey.
I needed them more than I wanted to admit.
“Some other time, then.” Her voice faded, deflated.
Guilt punched me square in the gut. I felt like absolute shit for shutting her down, for ruining whatever she’d carefully put together. For disappointing someone who’d actually tried.