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But once the orgasms faded and the body convulsions subsided, my mind swirled with his words. I was dead wrong about Rafe wanting more. Did that mean he did want more, and if so, did that mean he wanted it with me?
“Yeah right,” I snorted into my margarita at a corner booth inside the Black Thumb. Drinking alone wasn’t really something I did on a regular basis, or ever, but sitting at home hadn’t provided any answers. And there were no margaritas at home. So I sat at the booth with an oversized strawberry margarita, worth all the griping Buddy had done about making it, still overthinking.
Rafe didn’t want more and if he did, it would probably be with one of the sophisticated beauties the matchmakers had lined up for him. At least that’s what I’d been telling myself for the last few days because anything else was just unthinkable.
But I kept coming back to his motives. Rafe wasn’t a bad guy, his work on the Hometown Heroes calendar and the Tulip FD proved it, and Reese would never be friends with someone who was purposely cruel. Which meant I was missing something.
“Oh look, she’s already got a table for us.” Mikki’s thick accent was about the only thing that could have pulled me from my endless loop of thoughts, and when I looked up at her rubbing her round belly, I smiled.
“Did we have plans tonight?” My gaze went from Mikki’s pregnant form in a pretty blue dress with white flowers on it, to Bo dressed in jeans and a flowing tunic that softened the scowl she wore most days.
“No.” Bo stepped closer and frowned at me. “Rumor has it that you were up here drinking away your sorrows and we figured you might want some company.”
I sat up a little taller at Bo’s words and swiveled my head, looking at everyone inside the bar and wondering which set of loose lips had started the rumor. “Drinking away my sorrows? Hardly. It’s fun to get Buddy make margaritas and his cook makes way better buffalo nachos than I do.” None of that was a lie, it just wasn’t the whole truth. “But I’m always up for a little girl talk.”
Bo’s expression was still skeptical but she shrugged and sighed before sliding into the seat across from me while Mikki booty bumped me over with her wide friendly smile. “So why are you drinking alone?”
“I’m not. You girls are here.” I flashed a wide grin at Bo’s unamused expression before taking a long, dramatic sip. “How are things with you?”
Mikki rubbed her belly and groaned. “Great. I’m surrounded all day by gorgeous clothes I can no longer fit into, and I may never fit into again. But pregnant sex is incredible.”
I suppressed a shudder and tried for a smile instead. “Good to know.”
“I hear the calendar is finished,” Bo said, changing topics because she was a world class bulldozer, guiding the conversation until it was where she wanted it. “Got any advance copies?”
“Not you too?” I shook my head and took another long sip of the icy drink. “I haven’t gotten the proofs yet but just like everyone else in Tulip and beyond, you’ll have to wait until next week. Trivia Night release party right here at Black Thumb.”
“That’ll be a fun night out, watching the girls go crazy over my sexy man,” Mikki cooed, still rubbing her belly with a wistful smile on her face.
Bo had none of that or if she did, she hid it well. “What’s going on with you and Rafe? Is that why you’re drinking alone?”
I let out a low growl and shook my head. “I’m not drinking to do anything other than get a nice buzz that’ll allow me to relax. Unwind. Because in addition to running my business, I’ve spent the past twelve months up to my ears in Hometown Heroes stuff. Now that the calendar is done, I can unwind a bit.” Again, not a lie.
“So you and Rafe are still goin’ on then?” Mikki’s question was more like girl talk and less like an interrogation.
“You could say that.” No one needed to know the nature or details of our relationship, besides this was Tulip they would all make up the details they didn’t know anyway.
“So you do like him?” Bo’s dark look was enough to send me back to my glass for another, longer gulp.
“Of course I do. What’s not to like, he’s hot and sweet and we all know it’s rare for guys who look like that to be sweet.” And it turned out that Rafe was a pretty great guy, which was bad news for the women who got sucked into his orbit.
“Wait a minute,” Mikki frowned and turned to me as much as her belly would allow in the booth. “Didn’t y’all grow up together?”
