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He tookme to Bonnie Brae Tavern, a no-nonsense family business on University Boulevard that hadn’t changed in seventy years. It specialized in pizza that some would come to blows about if you told them it wasn’t the best in Denver.
I preferred Famous.
I wasn’t going to tell Hank that.
Luckily, they had a greasy spoon menu that hadn’t changed in seventy years either. There was a lot of choice and most of it was damn good.
We settled in a green booth, the plethora of neon beer and Colorado sports team signs providing Denver atmosphere. I ordered a Reuben. Hank ordered a cheeseburger. Then I checked my phone.
“Expecting a call?” Hank asked, sitting back, arm stretched out along his side of the booth, watching me.
“I left a message for Eddie,” I said.
“May be a while before he gets back to you.”
I nodded.
Hmm.
Dilemma.
See, first, I didn’t have a lot of experience conversing with hot guys. Well, I guess I was amassing experience lately, but mostly arguing with Eddie when we weren’t having sex, or when I was in the middle of a life and death situation.Nothanging out at a pizza joint. Second, I was pretty certain that a crime was going to be committed, partially because of me, and Hank was a cop. I was thinking I should report it, though I liked Shirleen and didn’t want to be a snitch.
Still.
I looked anywhere but him, trying to think of what to say. When I ran out of places to look, I caught him grinning at me.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s cute,” he answered.
“What?” I asked again.
“You bein’ shy. I like it. It’s better than the attitude, though that works too.”
My mouth dropped open.
I snapped it shut and focused on a Coors beer sign with the intent of memorizing it.
He leaned forward and I looked at him. “Relax, Jet, I’m not gonna bite you.”
Eek.
The dinner was hard enough. I didn’t need visions of Hank biting me in my head.
“I have a problem,” I blurted out, deciding to be a snitch rather than spending any more time thinking of Hank’s straight, white teeth sinking into my flesh.
“You got a lot of problems,” he told me.
I gave him a glare. I wasn’t fully committed to it because I didn’t know him very well but it was a glare all the same.
“Yeah,” he muttered, his eyes going a funny kind of flirty-lazy while he looked at me. “That works too.”
Sweet Jesus.
I focused on my goal. “I need to talk about my problem.”
