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Sawyer cocked his head, intrigued. “Juvenile delinquent?”
“Just a little harmless trespassing with body paint, but there were signs posted, and prize pigs involved so…” Her eyes widened as he stopped in front of her. “You really are enormous, aren’t you?”
Sawyer shrugged uncomfortably, hoping it wasn’t his size that was making her anxious. “Been told that once or twice, but I’m harmless.”
“I doubt that,” she said with a wry arch of her brow that put him at ease. “But I don’t think I’ve seen anyone as big as you outside of a Mexican wrestling ring.”
“I enjoy Mexican wrestling,” Sawyer said. “The masks are fun.”
“They are.” She nodded in agreement, but her whiskey-colored eyes narrowed. “Your face…isn’t what I was expecting, either.”
Sawyer’s tongue slipped out to dampen his suddenly dry lips. “Not an unpleasant surprise, I hope.”
She shook her head for a long moment, but when she spoke all she said was—
“Nope.”
Sawyer nodded, trying to ignore the increasing awkwardness of their second meeting. “Well, I confess I had a pretty good idea what you looked like. I saw your picture on the shop website. I don’t like to pry, but I don’t usually kiss women I’ve only seen in the dark, so…” Sawyer took a breath, feeling more self-conscious the longer she stood there staring with that suspicious look on her face. “Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair, I just wanted to see if you might be free for dinner tonight.”
“Dinner,” she repeated, her auburn brows drawing together.
“It’s the meal after lunch, but before late night snack. You might have heard of it.”
“I’ve heard of it.” Her scowl deepened, her lack of appreciation for his joke apparent in the humorless tone of her voice. “But I don’t eat dinner.” She shook her head, sending her curls bouncing. “I mean, Ieat dinner, I just don’t eat dinnerwith people. Male people,” she clarified, waving a hand up and down, indicating Sawyer’s obvious maleness. “You know, who aren’t friends.”
Sawyer smiled his least threatening smile, prepared to take things slow if that’s what Mia wanted. That’s not the vibe he’d gotten from their kiss, but he’d tasted whiskey on her lips Saturday night. She might be more conservative without a little liquid courage, and that was fine with him. He was a patient man, especially when he knew the woman whose trust he was winning would be worth the wait.
“We could be friends,” he said. “I liked how you spruced things up around town Saturday night. The bras up the flag pole were a nice touch.”
Mia’s lips parted, and for a moment, he thought she was going to return his smile.
Instead, she clamped her mouth shut and lifted her hands, shooing him toward the door. “Thank you, but I already have more friends than I have time for.” She shooed him again, with increasingly urgent flaps of her hands, until Sawyer had no choice but to take a step back.
“I really don’t mean to be rude,” she continued as she herded him across the shop. “But you’re only in town for a few days, and I don’t do short term relationships—”
“But I—”
“Or long term relationships,” Mia hurried on, before Sawyer could tell her he was in town for at least the two weeks it would take to finish his consult, and conceivably much longer. “Any relationships, really. I’m a schoolmarm—spinster. It’s kind of a family tradition, and I’m big on tradition. Super big.”
Sawyer’s back hit the door, but before he could reach for the doorknob, Mia lunged around him, hauled the door open, and all but shoved him out onto her front stoop.
“So take care,” she said, waving at him with a falsely cheery smile. “Enjoy Lonesome Point.”
Sawyer opened his mouth to say he’d enjoy it a lot more if she’d tell him what he’d done to get on her bad side, but before he could speak, she’d slammed the door in his face hard enough to make him flinch.
“That went well,” he mumbled, his mood souring as his cocky attitude from this morning came back to bite him in the ass.
Clearly, Mia Sherman wasn’t going to be won over as easily as he’d anticipated.
But that was all right. He wasn’t going to give up yet, not until they’d had a chance to talk when they were both sober and fully-clothed. And in the meantime, he’d keep his eyes open for other eligible women. Lonesome Point wasn’t a big town, but there had to be at least a few other single women between the ages of twenty-three and thirty-three who would be interested in what he had to offer. It would be hard to get Mia—and that kiss—out of his head, but in the past year he’d learned it was best to keep his options open.
Sawyer turned, starting toward the coffee shop down the street, figuring he might as well kill some time before his meeting, only to nearly run over a petite blond woman standing on the sidewalk behind him with a little girl who looked like her pint-sized clone clinging to her hand.
“Sorry,” Sawyer said with a soft laugh. “I didn’t see you two there.”
“Uh huh,” the blonde said, her mouth slightly ajar and a glazed look in her eyes.
“Beautiful morning,” he said, doing his best to be friendly. This might be his temporary hometown soon, and he’d like to get started on the right foot. “Cooler out than I thought it would be.”
