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“I’m sure she was telling the truth,” I said. “No worries.”
We ate our sticks and watched some of the game, all while Tony seemed to be having a mild existential crisis over the truth of what was in the special dip. By the time the sticks were about done, Sofia returned to the table, another round of beers in one hand and a basket in the other.
“As promised,” she said. “I know you have a pizza order coming up, but I took the liberty of making you boys something. Enjoy.”
“Buffalo wings?” Tony asked excitedly, apparently getting over the possible deception in favor of delicious bar food.
“With my own hot sauce,” she said. “One of many. This one is just my favorite with wings. Fair warning, it’s pretty hot.”
“I can’t wait,” I said, and again we smiled at each other. As she walked away, she nearly tripped over a chair leg and had to turn away from me to make sure she didn’t hit the ground. Apparently, I distracted her as much as she distracted me.
“Holy shit, these are hot,” Tony said, sauce already on his cheeks and fingers as one wing was half-eaten. “Like, really hot.”
“Let me try,” I said, pulling the basket to me.
He wasn’t wrong—they were hot. But they were delicious. Something about the breading, I decided. She had added a spice to the breading to marry with the sauce, something that carried the heat all the way into the meat itself. It was impressive as hell. There was so much flavor on top of being stupidly hot.
Like her.
Stupidly hot.
“Dude, I can’t,” Tony said. “I’m tapping out. Call me a pansy.”
“Pansy,” I said, taking him up on it and getting an eye roll for it.
“Seriously, that’s more than I was expecting today. I have to work up to eating something that hot.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “I’ll take care of them.”
And I did, and a good quarter of the pizza that came out afterward. By the time the game was over, we were full, happy, and our thirsts had been quenched.
As Tony headed out, presumably back to the diner for the evening shift, I paid the tab and hung back, waiting until we had said our goodbyes and he had headed out before I approached Sofia, standing at the bar.
“What time are you out of here?” I asked.
“I was supposed to be gone about now, actually,” she said. “But Leo never came back to the bar, and when I went back there, he was actually working, so I let him stay. Besides, I didn’t mind bar work today.”
She flashed that grin again that made my heart thump in my chest.
“So, I’m about to head out, but I was wondering if I could get your number,” I said. “So we can talk about the competition.”
The grin turned into a smile, and her cheeks grew red and flushed.
“The competition,” she said. “Of course. Here.”
She pulled a napkin out and wrote down her number on it, handing it to me to put in my pocket.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You should text me tonight. So I have your number too.”
“Will do,” I said. “Have a good night, Sofia Everything Some Days.”
“Good night, Kieran the Fireman,” she said.
I walked out of the door patting the napkin in my pocket and feeling on top of the world.
9
SOFIA
That was one hell of a Tuesday.
Walking into Papa bitching at me and saying something he knew he shouldn’t have said was enough to make any day the worst of the week. But after he took off and Leo unexpectedly needed to run to the store, everything got much better.
I was shameless in how much I’d flirted with Kieran, but he seemed to be responding in kind, so I didn’t feel bad about it. Besides, how long had it been since a guy even made me look twice, much less made me stumble over myself, grinning and doing everything I could to shake my hips while I walked away from them?
A long damn time.
Kieran absolutely had that effect on me. He was tall and handsome and seemed to have muscles that were hiding other muscles. He was hot. Like all of him was hot.
He had my number. He asked for my number.
I couldn’t wait for him to call me. I had no idea what I would say or talk about besides food, but I was damn sure going to give it a try.
I was also really glad Tony came in with him, giving me a reason to go say hi. Tony was a good guy, and he and I had talked about food and life before. I didn’t think there was any interest there on either side, so it made it easier to use him as a go-to to get to Kieran. From what I was picking up, if Tony had his eye on anyone, it was my sister Luna, but she was as blind to him as could be.
