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Mara glanced at the case of twelve bottles in my hand, smirked and took a step back. “No need to get so dressed up on my account. Cute dress, though.”
“Thanks. I didn’t get dressed up for you, I did it for me.” I looked at down at my black slacks and the lacy red button up with the black camisole underneath and shrugged. “Looking good gives me the confidence boost I need, especially where this business is concerned.”
Mara stared at me for a long moment and nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you that one even though you don’t need that confidence every day. Do you?”
I laughed. “I love your honesty, Mara. It’s always blunt, but never cruel.”
“Thanks. It’s my superpower.” She grabbed two beers and put the rest in the fridge. “Xander’s covering for a sick deputy so it’s just us and I ordered pizza.”
“I like pizza but it doesn’t like my hips which means I’ll have to add a mile or two to my workout tomorrow.”
Mara snorted. “Workout, what’s that?”
“Something us mere mortals have to do to stay in shape.”
“I run but mostly for mental health rather than physical. Xander helps with the physical part.” Her lips curled up into a smile and she was the picture of a woman in love.
“Thanks for rubbing it in,” I told her and took a long pull from the beer. “Wow that’s pretty good.”
“I have excellent taste in beer,” she said with a smile. “I just can’t afford to drink it all the time.”
I made a mental note to get Mara all the craft beer she wanted to show my appreciation. “I was thinking about doing a promotion for military service men and women. With the bodyguard school in town, I think we could get a lot of business from our ‘Thank you for your service’ discount.” I told Mara about paintball with Miles and the soldiers. “Most of the business is training personal security and most of them are former military members. What do you think?” Mara stared for a minute and threw her head back in laughter. My heart sank at her laughter. “It’s not that bad. Is it?”
“Oh no, it’s a great idea. I was just thinking at how much Liam is going to love that people are calling it a bodyguard school.”
“I don’t know if people are calling it that, but I am.”
Mara continued to laugh. “Change approved. I’ll make sure that’s what the whole damn town is calling it, and that discount is a good idea. It’ll entice those hardbodies to break their diet a few extra times a month.”
Her reminder of hardbodies, brought Miles’ mouthwatering muscles to mind, and instantly an image of him, naked with his cock jutting out towards me came to mind. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and willed the thoughts away.
“Wow. Inquiring minds want to know what put that blush on your face. Do tell.”
“There’s nothing to tell. I had a good date with Miles which I thought was a great date with even better orgasms. Then he ghosted me like I was a haunted house.”
Mara frowned. “That doesn’t sound like the Miles I’ve met. He’s out of town for business, at least that’s what I heard.”
“Yeah, I heard that too.” Not from Miles, but Pilgrim was a small town and all news traveled fast. “I thought we had a good time and I thought we might become friends.”
Mara shrugged and took a long sip of her beer before she spoke. “I wish I could help, but Xander was my high school sweetheart and I didn’t date again until him.” At my wide-eyed expression, she gave me an abbreviated history of their relationship. “If he hadn’t pushed so hard, I’d still be pretending to hate his guts, so really I’m not the person to offer advice.”
“But your honesty is exactly what I am asking. You think he got what he wanted and vanished?”
“All signs point to yes, but he’s not stupid enough to do something like that with someone in town.”
“Oh my god. That’s exactly why he did it. I don’t live here, not technically. Who cares if he hurts my feelings?” That was a hard pill to swallow but it washed down easily enough thanks to the yummy beer. “Okay, I can handle that. It sucks but I can deal with it. I’ve dealt with worse.”
“You’re not going to yell at him, or kick him in the nuts?”
“Nope. He’s made his feelings clear and I haven’t forced my friendship on anyone in a long time.” Mara cleared her throat. “Okay, on anyone but you. That’s different.”
“Yeah, because I’m not gonna sleep with you.” A loud knock sounded at the door and Mara stood to answer it.
“That’s what you say now, but one kiss and you’d be singing a different tune,” I called out to her, earning a muffled laugh.
