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I’d never live it down.
But I couldn’t help feeling like I was running out of options. I’d tried hitting up Bad Alibi the night before to see if anyone there turned my head and came out with a big, fat nothing. I’d even downloaded a couple dating apps on my phone, but hadn’t had the guts to post my profile.
I rounded the corner into the produce section and spotted a guy with dark hair standing in front of the display of leafy greens. His back was to me, so I didn’t have much to go on other than he had a decent build and a nice enough ass.
I was so busy trying to get a better look that I wasn’t paying attention and crashed my cart into someone else’s.
I jerked my head around to face the tall, statuesque brunette I’d just plowed into. “Shit. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
I’d never seen the woman before in my life, but the way she looked at me as she yanked at her cart to untangle it from mine was like I’d insulted her mother or kicked her puppy.
“Yeah, well, maybe watch where you’re going and you won’t crash into people.” Her face would have been pretty if it wasn’t scrunched up in such an ugly, unhappy way. “Ever consider that?”
My chin jerked back at her attitude. It was just so un-Redemption. The people in this town were nice, or forgiving at the very least. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d encountered someone so rude.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Hey lady, I said I was sorry. It was an accident. No need to be nasty about it.”
If it was possible, her features scrunched up even more as she blew a huff out of her nose, tipped her chin obnoxiously high, and turned on her heel without a backward glance.
Yeah, this chick definitely had to be new, because we didn’t treat people like that in this small town.
The skin on the back of my neck began to tingle as my stomach did a little dip, like it was trying to communicate something to me. This woman was a complete stranger, but I knew from the vibe I was getting that we were never going to be bestest buds. Or even the loosest of acquaintances. I could only hope she was passing through and not the latest permanent fixture.
By the time I got my head together and looked back to the produce section, the guy I’d been trying to check out was long gone. I let out a sigh and shook my head. It was probably for the best anyway. Decent ass or not, it was the same problem with produce guy as there had been with every man I’d laid eyes on the past few days.
I felt nothing.
Not a damn thing. Not a spark or an itch or a tingle.
It was like my libido had dried up and blown away like dust in the freaking wind. Well... with every man except one. The one I had absolutely no business being attracted to. That was a line not to be crossed. Logically, I knew that. At least my head did. My body, well, that was a different story.
My phone rang, startling me out of the foul mood I’d been sinking in that had only gotten worse since my run-in with that snooty brat of a woman.
I pulled it out of my purse and read the screen, blowing out a heavy breath. Guilt gnawed at me. I’d been blowing Gage off lately, responding to texts with curt one-liners and letting calls go to voicemail, making up bullshit excuses about being busy or tired. That wasn’t me. That wasn’tus. We were best friends, and I felt like an asshole for avoiding him.
I swiped my thumb to answer. “Hey.”
“Well shit. She lives,” he started, his voice full of sarcasm. “I was starting to worry.”
That damn guilt was liable to chew a hole right through my stomach. “I’m really sorry. Things at work have been crazy.” The lie tasted horrible on my tongue, but I excused it away by silently promising I’d never do it again. “But it’s all back to normal now.”
His hum rumbled through the line. “So what are you up to?”
I looked down at my empty shopping cart. Jeez, I really hadn’t been very stealthy, had I? “Grocery shopping.”
“Okay. I’ll let you get back to it. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t lying in a ditch somewhere.”
Man, he could really land a blow. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said on a sigh. “You can make it up to me by not skipping out on coffee tomorrow morning. Sound good?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, Viking. Sounds great. And to make it up to you, it’s on me.”
He chuckled, the sound spreading warmth in my chest. “You know that’s not how I work, Bits.” Oh, I knew, all right. In all the years Gage and I had been friends, I didn’t think there had been a single time where I’d been able to pick up the check. Even on the evenings when I was the one to stop and grab dinner, he’d already called ahead and pre-paid. “My momma didn’t raise me that way. I let you pay for something, she’d know and show up on my doorstep, ready to cuff me upside the head. No thanks.”
I let out a little laugh, able to picture that in my mind with perfect clarity. I’d met Marcia Langdon a handful of times over the years when she’d come to visit her son, always with her own mother, Gage’s grandma, in tow. The woman had been single since Gage’s waste-of-oxygen father took off on them when he was ten years old. It had just been Marcia with the help of Grandma Buttons—as she adorably liked to be called—raising the rambunctious boy since then.
Between those two wonderful ladies, they’d instilled manners and a sense of chivalry in him that would make whatever woman he ended up with happy as a pig in shit.
