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Los Angeles made sense for Carlos. Something in his charm and bright smiles felt a little too curated to be totally real. Handsome for sure, but he didn’t give offeffortlessvibes.
Unlike someone else at the table.
“I didn’t hear where you’re from,” Carlos said to me.
“Green Lake.” That earned blank stares all around. “Seattle. I live in the Green Lake neighborhood, which probably means nothing to you unless you live in Seattle, too. Which you don’t. But I do.”
Yup. Definitely drunk on two tablespoons of whisky.
Rupert’s drink had gone straight to his face. He flushed bright red from the tip of his nose to the tops of his ears. “You’ll be eager to head back home straight away, I’d imagine.”
“I don’t know.” I paused to let my sluggish brain contemplate the question. “It’s so beautiful here. I was thinking today about how the views we see every day become tired and common, and it takes something new and exciting to make us feel alive again.”
Even my tipsy mind knew that could be an apt analogy for this whole trip. I needed a boost, a change of scenery,somethingto carry with me when I went back home.
Rupert sputtered into his drink and set it down. “That’s an interesting sentiment. I think I’m off to bed.”
He stood and left the table as though a banshee chased after him.
No, not that. Banshees were Irish. I frowned at the last of my whisky, trying to think of the Scottish equivalent of a howling nightmare. All I could come up with was Mel Gibson yelling,Freedom!
“What got into him?” Duncan looked at the empty doorway where Rupert had disappeared.
I shrugged and moved my foot against the table leg again, only, I didn’t find it. I waved my foot around in the air, confused how I could have lost it. I wasn’tthatdrunk. Table legs didn’t just up and leave—
Realization punched me in the gut.
“Oh, no.” I collapsed forward onto my elbows, sinking my forehead into my hands. “Oh, no.”
“Yes?” Duncan said slowly.
I peeked out at him from between my fingers. “I was rubbing my foot against his leg.”
How long had that gone on? Five whole minutes? More?Way to be mortifying overseas, Molly.I could have cringed myself into another dimension.
“You vixen,” Carlos said with a naughty smile.
“I thought it was the table leg!”
“Must be one bony leg.” Duncan kept his eyes on me as he took a drink of his whisky.
Sure, they could have a good laugh over it. I had to spend the rest of this trip with a man as old as my father who thought I had the hots for him. No wonder he’d escaped so quickly.
But wait…
“No,” I moaned. “The thing I said about something new and exciting making us feel alive. He probably thought I meanthim. Orme. Orme and him.”
The whisky in my stomach churned.
“What are modern women thinking,” Duncan scolded, “flirting with men twice their age?”
“It was an accident!”
He tipped his head down at me. “Try telling that to Bea.”
Yeah, I was definitely going to be sick.
eight
