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She was determined to make more of an effort—give Jordan an honest chance. Forget Hendrix. He could stare all he wanted to. If she was going to build a better future, she couldn’t let anyone get in her way. If she didn’t turn her attention to developing other areas of her life, her job would continue to be all she had. “Yeah. Another drink sounds good. But I need to visit the ladies’ room first.”
Once Jordan acknowledged her response, she slipped down the hallway that led to the restrooms.
When she returned, she found that he’d already ordered a fresh cosmopolitan for her and a beer for himself. The drinks were at the table, but he wasn’t.
Assuming he must’ve gone to the restroom, too, she was about to sit down to wait for him when she heard him call her name and looked up to see him halfway between her and the pool tables, beckoning her forward. “Your friends have challenged us to a game of pool,” he shouted above the music once she reached him. “Want to play?”
Her friends?Shit.She shifted her gaze ever so slightly and saw Hendrix and Kurt waiting for them, cue sticks in hand. “Not a chance,” she muttered under her breath. But because she’d introduced Hendrix and Kurt to Jordan, he had no way of knowing she wouldn’t be pleased that he’d accepted their invitation, especially since she’d also shown an interest in playing pool.
“What’d you say?” he asked, taking a step toward her.
She drew a deep breath. “I said it...sounds like fun.”
He seemed slightly baffled, as though he could tell he was missing something. “Are you sure?”
She could only answeryes—unless she was ready to do a lot of explaining. And this was a first date. The last thing she wanted to do was delve into her personal history.
Besides, she liked Brant’s brothers. Kurt made the prospect of playing pool with Hendrix a bit more palatable.
She managed to convince Jordan that she was happy he’d gotten them a game, before they walked over and waited for Kurt to rack the balls.
She thought maybe Hendrix was the one who’d asked Jordan if they wanted to play—to irritate her by putting her in the same position he’d been in when he brought that woman to the dessert diner. But it soon became apparent that he wasn’t any happier to be spending his evening with her than she was with him. He remained quiet and stood off to one side whenever possible, stepping up only to take his turn.
She and Jordan lost the first game—so badly it was embarrassing. Her dentist date had been telling the truth when he said he wasn’t any good. But she played better than she ever had in her life in game two and managed to pull off the upset.
“Nice job!” Kurt exclaimed when she sank four balls in a row to finish them off.
If Hendrix was impressed, he did nothing to indicate it. It wasn’t until Kurt had drawn Jordan to the other side of the table to coach him on how to take a basic shot, that he leaned over and murmured, “This dude could never make you happy. I hope you realize that.”
Blinking in surprise, she turned to gape at him. “Because he can’t play pool?”
“Because putting the two of you together would be like pairing a mustang with a...a packhorse.”
“You’re saying I’m too wild for him.”
“I’m saying he’s too domesticated for you. You’re complete opposites.”
“How doyouknow?” she asked.
His gaze swept over Jordan all the way down to his loafers. “It’s obvious. It has to be obvious to you, too. You just don’t want to accept it—for whatever reason.”
Because the men who were more interesting to her—the ones she was truly attracted to—would only break her heart. She was changing things up, being smart about her love life. “You don’t know anything about me,” she said.
He put his cue stick away. “I know more than you think,” he replied and excused himself, saying he couldn’t play another game, after all, because he’d just remembered something he had to do.
Kurt clearly wasn’t pleased that Hendrix was leaving before they could start the rubber match, but Ellen said she was getting tired, too, so he wouldn’t try to recruit a stand-in.
After they’d all said goodbye, she watched Hendrix navigate his way to the door while she and Jordan returned to their table. She would’ve bet her life that he didn’t really have to leave. He’d just had enough of being anywhere near her.
Unfortunately, she also knew that he was probably right about Jordan. As hard as she’d been trying to ignore reality by focusing on her date’s many virtues, she felt no attraction to him and would be doing them both a disservice to pretend otherwise.
She scowled after Hendrix as he flung open the door and stepped outside.You bastard, she thought. His opinion had ruined the illusion she’d been trying to create and forced her to see the truth.
But she couldn’t really blame him for being right.
Why’d he have to say something to Ellen? Hendrix wondered. He’d just agreed with Kurt that he’d be much better off—his business would be better off, too—if Ellen married Dr. Jordan Whoever and moved to Libby. And yet he’d taken the first opportunity to warn her that she was making a big mistake.
“That was stupid,” he mumbled as he climbed into his truck. For one thing, he didn’t know for certain that she’d be unhappy with Jordan.Hecouldn’t see them together, but sometimes opposites worked just fine. He’d been speaking more from jealousy than anything else and hoped to God she didn’t realize that.
