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“Mom.” He cracked a grin. “Told her we had a date, and she just about kicked my butt out of the house.”
Millie chuckled. Martha Pullman was just shy of five feet. No way in hell she’d be able to kick anyone’s ass unless it was a leprechaun.
Taz’s smile slowly left his face, and he leaned forward, elbows on the bar. “He here yet?”
“Nope.”
“Maybe he’ll stay away.”
She shook her head. “He’s meeting up with Mike Paul.”
“I’ll take a beer, then, since I’ve got some time to relax before I get to working on this thing between us.”
“There is no thing, champ.” Her reply was quick with a teasing tone. “You know this is just for show.”
“For now.”
Taz held her gaze for a few moments, and Millie shook her head as a slow grin lit up his features. “We did that dance, remember?”
“We did.” He took a draw from his longneck.
“And we do good as friends.”
“True.” He nodded. “But darlin’, it would be nice to have some benefits every now and again.”
She dropped her gaze. They’d had one hot night together a few years back. Millie had been feeling low, and Taz had been feeling something dark. They’d both been searching for something. Millie was pretty sure she’d just needed tofeel, and Taz had just needed to forget. They’d kept company plenty of times since then, but had never ended up back in the bedroom.
He was one of her best friends and she his. It was why he’d had no problem agreeing to what she was starting to think was a stupid idea.
She glanced over Taz’s shoulder, and like the parting of the Red Sea, folks stood aside as her kryptonite appeared, coming in hot.
She saw the exact moment Cal’s eyes landed on Taz, and the look on his face had her gut twisting up hard. Catching on to her discomfort, Taz slowly turned around and leaned his elbows back on the bar.
“This him?” he asked, angling his head close to Millie’s. He didn’t wait for an answer. “Oh, it’s him.”
“You don’t recognize him from his videos?”
“I don’t watch TV, remember?” He chuckled.
Millie realized her error about two seconds too late. If she thought having Taz around would make Cal back off and keep to arm’s length, she was mistaken. He headed straight for them, and damn if her heart didn’t skip a beat.
Or two.
“Shit,” she murmured.
Taz grinned, knocked back the rest of his beer, and winked at her. “This is going to be fun.”
Millie didn’t have a chance to reply because Cal was in front of her. All six foot four inches of him. He smelled of winter and cold, that crisp clean scent that only seemed to cling to him. His hair was damp, as if he wasn’t long out of the shower, the ends frosted from snow. It curled around his neck and touched the collar of his leather jacket. He hadn’t bothered to shave, and that square jaw of his was covered in dark stubble, which, of course, only emphasized how beautiful he was. His eyes settled on her with an intensity that was like a jolt of lightning going haywire inside her.
Would this ever stop? This feeling and connection? This deep pit ofsomethingthat sat I her stomach like a stone? What the hell did she have to do to make it end?
“Hey,” he said simply holding her gaze a beat longer than she liked.
Taz set down his empty bottle on the bar, effectively breaking the ice. “I’m Taz Pullman. I hear you and Mills are old friends.”
Cal’s eyebrow shot up at that. “Mills?” His gaze darted to Taz and back to Millie Sue. “She hasn’t mentioned you.” And there it was. That slight undertone that got her hackles up.
“No?” Taz’s voice was light, and Millie was aware that a lot of eyes were on the three of them. Some folks, those who knew her and Cal’s history, were obviously keen to see where they now stood. While others, mostly the female sort, stood like zombies, unable to move as they took in the sight of the two men who, between them, had enough charisma and charm to light up the entire state of Montana.
