SIX
Lisa
Lisa turned her gaze to the table in question and saw three men rubbernecking their way unashamedly. The man with the youngest-looking face waved and flashed her a white-toothed grin.
She looked back at Ryan, and his gray eyes were so intense she nearly forgot to breathe.
“Thanks, but I won’t be here that long. I’m just refueling. So, uh, see you around?” She offered him a smile and turned to slip into her seat. Forcing herself not to look around, she heard the rubber of his soles squeak on the tiled floor as he ambled over to his table.
Lisa exhaled. What were the chances of bumping into an ex this many times?
It wasn’t altogether awkward, but each time she saw Ryan, she felt several things all at once, guilt being the dominant emotion, and she wasn’t ready to face that just yet. Or at all.
And it wasn’t hard to look at his pretty face.
That bothered her, too.
He’d always been a beautiful man, but the years had perfectly aged him because every woman in the diner was gawking at their table.
Once over, she would have felt a pinch of jealousy because his beautifully masculine face gained a lot of attention. Whatever the swishing feeling in her stomach was, it couldn’t be jealousy.
Taking a sip of the hot coffee, she flipped open her iPad and, using the electronic pencil, scrolled through emails, checking which needed her immediate attention.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bikers rise to their feet, and she forced her gaze to remain on the screen, relieved Ryan was leaving so she could work with her brain fully focused on her to-do list.
But then a shadow fell over her shoulder, and she raised her eyes to see all four men surrounding her. Then they pulled out chairs, plonking down into them. The one who’d waved at her started eating from his half-empty plate of food.
Ryan chose the seat closest to her, and her pulse flipped out, rat-a-tatting under her skin.
“Thought we’d join you instead.” He smiled as if he thought she wouldn’t kick his ass for the intrusion. “These are my buddies. Denver. You might know his old lady if you are friends with Nina. Casey?”
“Oh, yeah.” She answered automatically, giving Denver a small smile. He nodded back with a chin lift.
“This pig is Mouse.” He pointed to the man eating. With his cheeks bulging and his lips closed around the food, the friendly guy winked. “And that’s Primo. Guys, this is Lisa. She’s friends with Nina.”
“Nice to meet you, darling,” Primo said, cradling a coffee cup he’d carried across the diner.
Overwhelmed by testosterone, Lisa took a sweeping inhale slowly and turned to stare at Ryan. He was still smiling.
“You don’t mind us joining you, right?”
“Do I get a choice, Ryan?” she replied coolly, but her tone didn’t seem to affect him because he picked up his cup, sipping slowly, while looking at her over the rim with the intensity she reckoned God looked at a sinner.
“We’re already here now. It’s a long way to walk to the other table.”
Smart ass. Lisa’s lips curled with amusement. Right then, a new email pinged, and she scrolled back to see who it was from. Ah, a repeat client wanted to book her to translate a book series. She quickly typed out a reply.
“So, you know each other through Nina?” the one called Mouse asked, his plate now empty, and he was eyeing her cookies. Without thinking, Lisa offered him the plate, and he took it from her fast as a gorilla would. “Fuck yeah, thanks, they look good.”
But Ryan whipped the plate from Mouse and put it back in front of her.
“Don’t take her fucking food, go buy your own.” He all but growled in warning, and Lisa’s heart shot into her throat.
Mouse scowled and brushed his floppy hair from his eyes with tattooed fingers. “Man, you suck! She gave them to me!”
“Because you were all but salivating at the table, she’s bound to feel sorry for a pitiful dog.”
Denver knocked Mouse’s shoulder. “Go get some. Order me two of the lemon bars for Casey.” Without a word, Mouse scraped back his chair, rising to his feet.
“I didn’t get to hear the answer, though. You know her through Nina? But she called you Ryan.”
“No,” Ryan answered.
“Yes,” Lisa replied at the same time and felt the warmth hit her cheeks when Ryan turned his eyes her way, arching a quizzical eyebrow as if to ask why she was lying. Again.
“Oh, shit. Is there a story here?” Chuckled Mouse. Then he knocked Denver on the shoulder. “Get notes for me; ask questions. I’ll be back.” He ambled off, leaving three pairs of male eyes on her.
“What are you doing here?” Ryan asked, jutting his chin down at the iPad. He was sprawled in the chair, with one leg out straight, half-facing her, completely dominating the space and air around them.
He’d always had an overwhelming presence, and nothing had changed in the interim years.
“I’m checking which work emails need immediate attention before I head to the courthouse. What about you?” She’d noticed the cut knuckles when he’d sat down and palmed a hand around the cup. “Did you fall off your skateboard again?”
The other two chuckled. Ryan offered her a half-smirk. “Something like that.”
“Do you work in law enforcement?” Denver asked, his expression unreadable, but Nina had once informed her that bikers disliked law enforcement with the passion of a thousand suns.
“No, I don’t have the anger issues to be a cop. I’m a freelance interpreter.”
“Lisa speaks a shit ton of foreign languages. She could probably hold a conversation with aliens if they landed in the backyard.”
Something like flattery fluttered through her chest, and she rolled her eyes at him.
“I’d be too busy hiding in the basement to talk to them, but thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Do you speak Italian?” questioned Primo. “My mom’s side of the family is from Tuscany.”
“Mmm, they have the most delicious wine there,” Lisa answered in fluent Italian and watched a smile stretch across Primo’s tanned face.
He laced his hands on the table, leaning forward to look around Denver.
He then went into his own stream of Italian, asking if she’d visited Tuscany and the places she’d eaten at.
They held a full conversation for two minutes until Mouse returned and stared at them with wide eyes.
“What did I miss? Is Primo hitting on her in foreign?”
Lisa watched Ryan’s eyes narrow, and then he whipped his head her way. The most delicious, toe-tingling growl in his tone. “Is he?”
She couldn’t hold back the chuckle. “We were talking about pasta and wine.”
“I only ever hear Italian when I talk to Ma.”
“It’s been a while since I had to use it, so thanks for the practice.” She told Primo.
“He’s only been out of prison for three days and has already made a new friend.” Amused Mouse, chewing on a fat chocolate chip cookie.
Prison? Her eyes widened in shock.
“Don’t worry, it wasn’t for murder.” Primo offered with a wink. “Everyone always wants to know that first.”
“Oh, I wasn’t going to ask.”
“Knock it off before you frighten her.” Warned Ryan. “He’s a pain in the ass, sweetheart, but he’s harmless. He’d cry his eyes out if he lost any of his computers.”
“Because they cost fucking thousands, you illiterate asshat. Don’t threaten my babies; I’ll kick you off your skateboard again.
” Primo looked down her way, winking, making Lisa laugh.
She instantly let go of the tension in her shoulders.
She reckoned Ryan wouldn’t sit a murderer down with her. Would he?
For the next ten minutes, Lisa felt as though she were being interviewed for a job she was unprepared for, with questions from Mouse. He seemed friendlier than most men and wanted to know where she came from and how she knew Nina and Ryan.
“Answer me this, Lisa,” started Mouse, half-smirking, looking Ryan’s way. She didn’t know why until he finished. “Would you date an ex-con?”
She visibly swallowed, her eyes darting toward the ex-con in question. He meant Primo, right?
“No, the fuck she wouldn’t.” Ryan got there first. “Knock it off.”
“I was just asking! Our boy isn’t ugly. And they talked all that romantic shit together.”
Romantic shit. Lisa’s lips pressed together to stop her from smiling.
Whether he was trying to rile Ryan or actually set Primo up on an impromptu date, Lisa got the lay of the land with Mouse and realized he must be the MC’s instigator.
“I’m too busy to think about dating, but thanks for the offer. If I ever change my mind, I’ll contact your matchmaking company.” She replied to Mouse, and he guffawed with a full laugh.
“I like this chick. I see why you’re besties with Nina. You’ve gotta come to one of our parties.”
She peeked at Ryan, and he was totally unreadable. She replied with a noncommittal “Mm.”
With her coffee finished and only one cookie eaten, she passed the other three to Mouse, who accepted them with a grin.
“I don’t want them.” She explained to Ryan before he snatched them back. It was then that she slid her tablet and phone into her purse. “I need to get going, but it was nice to talk to you guys.”
She was met with a round of the same words and a friendly nod from Denver.
“Bye, Ryan,” she said, almost breathless as her waist brushed against his shoulder, but then he rose, too, and stole the rest of her air when he told her. “I’ll walk out with you.”
Oh. Okay then.
“Where are you parked?” he asked after opening the diner door and ushering her out first.
“Down on the right. You don’t need to walk with me; they’re going to think that’s weird, Ryan.”
“Do you care if they do?” He arched a brow down at her, and Lisa rolled a shoulder.
“It doesn’t matter to me; they aren’t my buddies. I was considering you, what they might say when you go back.”
“I can handle it.”
Okay then. Lisa let him escort her to her Toyota Corolla. She depressed the fob to unlock it and turned to face him, finding Ryan towering too close with both hands shoved into the front pockets of his denim jeans.
The biker clothes were such a good look on him; it was almost painful to look at the man without her organs waking up. Down, girls. He’s not ours anymore.
And the last thing Lisa needed right now was to awaken her hormones when they’d been nicely dormant for a good while now.
“Drive safely.” He said gruffly. His stare was really something.
Without a word, she slid into the driver’s seat and placed her purse on the opposite seat.
It was only then that she looked up at the biker.
Almost distracted when she noted his freckles.
He had one right under his left eye, another on the side of his nose, and the third on the lobe of his ear.
Lisa swallowed, bombarded with memories of the times she’d seductively kissed those freckles to turn Ryan on.
Not now, girls, retreat! Her nosy hormones wanted to take a peek at their ex-boyfriend.
“Oh, hey? Was Primo really in prison?”
“Yeah, he got out a few days ago.” Then she saw his gray eyes darken and squint a little. “Are you interested in him?”
There went the whooshing in her belly again, and she put her hand over her shirt to stop the sensation.
“God, no.”
“I wouldn’t let him around you if he were dangerous, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart.
That was the second time he’d called her that. Lisa didn’t know how to process it. But some men were overly affectionate with endearments. That’s all it was.
“I’m not interested in him,” she reiterated, focusing only on his hand, which was resting on the open car door, unable to meet Ryan’s intensity.
“I’d put a stop to it if you were,” he admitted, and Lisa’s neck nearly snapped in shock as she looked up at him. “Don’t drive fast, sweetheart.” Then he closed her door and stepped back onto the sidewalk, waiting for her to drive off.
Under his watchful eye, she felt like a total beginner driver, even though she’d been driving for years. Luckily, she didn’t mess up, and she could finally relax after getting away from the diner and the biker.
“What was that?” she murmured to herself.
Was he saying that he would stop it if she developed feelings for his friend?
Cluelessly shaken, Lisa went about her workday, grateful she was busy and hardly had a moment to think about the weird exchange with Ryan.
But that night in bed, after she’d switched off one of her favorite TV shows, the questions floated through her mind.
But without an answer as to why he’d said it, she was none the wiser.
And decided it was better that way.
Getting her feelings tangled up with that man again would be a mistake.
Right?
Right?
Right.