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Chris’s brown eyes bored into me for so long that I started to shift in my seat. Thankfully, it was my turn to bowl. “That’s what you think romance is, and that’s why you’re still single.”
“A choice,” I told him, before letting the ball roll like thunder down the newly-waxed lane.
“Whatever. The point is that romance varies by woman and it’s in the thought, not the act.”
I shook my head as I took my seat. “Come on, Chris, be serious. You brought flowers because you screwed up or wanted a blow job, not because you wanted to.”
“You’re wrong. When you love a woman, you want to see the way her face lights up when you do something just for her. Before everything went to shit, Sandra loved it when I made her Belgian waffles. I told her I took all the calories out just for her. It was stupid, but she loved it and I knew that, so I did it for her.”
I mulled over his words. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“You’ve never been in love before so you don’t know, but I assure you that romance is real. And meaningful.” He shook his head with a smile. “Eva didn’t like it too much.”
I smiled and leaned in. Eva Vargas was a feisty little thing with sinful curves in all the right places. And I had an uncanny ability to get her upset over just about everything. I secretly loved it, sparring with her, but I didn’t know how she felt about it. And I didn’t much care, because I didn’t get personal with women.
Ever.
“When does Eva like anything I do?”
“She really liked it that time you ran into the Mayflowers’ door. Then again, I’m pretty sure we all appreciated that.” Sheriff Xander Willowby’s laugh was loud enough to draw stares from the other bowlers as he took the third seat at our table. Finally.
“Thanks for that, Sheriff.”
“Anytime, man. Anytime.” He looked around the bowling alley, noting the new seats and maybe a few other things I’d missed over the past month while I was busy revamping my website. “Why’d they change everything?”
“Everything?” I looked around and noticed the same old arcade games, the same rickety dartboard, and the same slanted bar that made the strongest Long Island Iced Tea in Texas. “I thought it was just the seats.”
Chris laughed. “You two are both hopeless. No wonder you can’t get a date.”
Xander frowned, deeply offended. “I can get a date. If I want one,” he insisted. “Who has time for women?”
“Don’t listen to him, Xander. He’s just feeling good because as a rich writer and single dad, he’s catnip for the husband-hunters.” The mamas in town had all tried to set up him over the past nine months and so far, none had been successful.
“Too bad I’m not looking to become anyone’s husband.”
“Yet,” Xander and I both said at the same time, laughing at Chris’s look of confusion.
“At least I’ll live long enough to get roped into another ill-advised marriage. The next thing you say about romance, Eva’s gonna chop off the family jewels.”
That pulled another laugh out of me. “Eva? She’s all bark and no bite.” I’ve said and done a lot to get a rise out of her over the last three years, but it was always friendly.
Chris and Xander stared at each other and burst out laughing, once again drawing looks from the lanes around us. “Spoken like a man who’s never been sliced with that sharp tongue.”
“You guys can’t scare me.” It was pretty damn hard to be anything but amused or turned on around the petite spitfire with the raven hair and the gray eyes.
“We can’t,” Xander said with a devious smile. “But Eva can.”
They laughed again and, suddenly, I felt a lot less confident.EvaI was so close to the end of the work day that I could smell relaxation off in the distance. It was the smell of something greasy and fatty, washed down with something full-bodied and red. It was only Thursday, but already it had been a long and busy week. I was ready for an evening built around a bottle of wine.
A knock sounded on the door before Sophie’s blond head appeared in my office. “Are we still on for happy hour at The Mayflower?”
I nodded a little more eagerly than I should, but sometimes a girl just needed a little time with her girls. “Long day?”
Sophie nodded. “Long week. I’ll tell you all about it over cheap cocktails?”
I flashed a smile. “My favorite kind.”
“Sounds like a plan. Six thirty?”
I glanced at the clock on my computer screen and nodded. That gave me a good forty-five minutes of work before locking up for the day. “Meet you there.”
Sophie nodded and tapped on the door frame. “Try not to work too hard. You’re making the rest of us look bad.”
