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Harper snickers, causing Joey to turn his glare her way.
“Doesn’t matter, anyway,” he says, turning his eyes back on me and nodding toward the woman across the table. “Boring as hell in bed, that one,” he points to the woman across the table from me, “but I’m sure you already know that.” Joey grins wickedly as he reaches down and steals a piece of bread off her plate.
Not wanting to give this fucker an ounce of satisfaction, I slowly bring her hand up to my mouth, keeping my eyes locked on hers the entire time. “Boring? There’s nothing boring about this woman, man. She’s a firecracker in bed,” I say as I place a kiss on her knuckles. Then, glancing back to the asshole, I suggest, “Maybe it was you?”
Joey’s eyes darken with rage, but it doesn’t scare me any. I’ve stared down soldiers in foreign countries who were scarier than this piece of shit. “Fuck you,” he says harshly.
Now, my eyes turn to stone. “Watch your mouth, Joey. There are ladies and children within earshot. If you can’t keep it clean in a family establishment, then I’ll have to escort you outside to remind you of how to talk in front of women and children.” The harshness and insinuation in my tone leave no room for question, and I take pride in the way he swallows hard.
“You can keep her,” he mouths off. “I was done with her anyway.” Then, as if he thinks he got in the last word, he turns and stalks off toward a busty brunette in a low cut top.
“Jerk,” I state before glancing back across the table. I can’t read her expression, as she watches me.
“Sorry about that,” she says, her eyes dropping to the table.
“What do you have to be sorry for? You didn’t invite him over here to spew his misery,” I remind her.
Harper shrugs. “Yeah, but I dated him.”
“Well, that’s a conversation for another time, Sweetheart. Right now, all we need to worry about is getting some pizza in Max’s belly,” I state with a smile, glancing down to the coloring kid. He smiles up at me before returning to his drawing rendition of a baseball field. “Do you like baseball?”
“Yeah, it’s my favorite! And tomorrow I get to pray with Sawyer again. He said he’d bring me a jersey to wear,” Max says with excitement.
I glance over at Harper and give her a questioning look. “Sawyer would be Sawyer Randall, former third baseman for the Rangers. He’s also married to my cousin, AJ.”
“No shit?” I ask before I can stop the curse word.
“No shit!” Max exclaims.
“That’s a bad word,” Harper chastises. She looks over to me, her eyes full of humor. “You too. No more bad words.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I reply with a smile.
Our pizza is delivered, and I quickly help dish up a piece for Max.
“Do you want it cut up or eat it whole?” his aunt asks him.
“Whole like a big boy,” he answers with a decisive head nod.
“You got it,” I say as I slide a piece in front of him. Once I get one slice on Harper’s plate, I place one on my own.
We eat in comfortable silence for several moments, paying absolutely no attention to the eyes I feel watching us from the corner. I go ahead and make sure to touch her often. You know, in case he’s still watching. It’s not just for show, though. I couldn’t stop touching this woman if my life depended on it.
“Hey, Watham?” Max asks, a smear of pizza sauce on his cheek.
“Yeah, buddy?” I ask, using my napkin to clean off his face.
“What’s a numbnuts?”
