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“Hmm, I haven’t tasted it yet.” She glanced pointedly at her still empty plate and waited.
He sighed and dropped a slice on each of their plates. “They’re not scared of me, necessarily. Dylan’s dad didn’t have the best reputation, remember? I guess people around here figured the apple didn’t fall from the tree, especially when he was sent to juvie as a kid. Not long before his dad died, actually.”
“Did the apple fall far from the tree? Is that why you didn’t want me around him?”
“Take your bite, Eloise.”
She wrinkled her nose, eyeing the pile of toppings skeptically before taking the smallest bite possible. The little moan was involuntary, and her eyes slid closed with pleasure as she chewed. “This is incredible.”
“Told you.” He smirked as she took another, much bigger bite. “So, what are you going to trade for answers to your last question?”
“Hmm,” she hedged. She couldn’t think of anything else to offer. “I’ll answer a question from you for every one of mine?”
“Deal.” His smile flashed again, and she was again aware of a subtle undercurrent in his response that she couldn’t quite identify, like he’d scored a point in a game she wasn’t aware they were playing. “Dylan took over the bar and never got involved with that biker gang. He’s a shitty businessman but he hires enough people to handle it and doesn’t have to run drugs out the back or whatever other shit his dad was into.”
Something about that didn’t quite add up in Eloise’s mind. They all drove nice cars and had plenty of money. If Dylan was so bad at running a business and the bar was usually empty, then where were Dylan and his employees getting all that cash? Ethan was never going to answer that question if she asked it flat out, so she went at it sideways. “Then why didn’t you want me talking to him?”
He shook his head. “My turn, remember? When was the last time you went on a real date?”
She frowned and took another bite, ignoring his amused look. So what if he knew she was stalling? “At least a year,” she admitted. “Probably closer to a year and a half.”
He lifted a brow and opened his mouth for a follow-up question, but she held up a finger to quiet him. “Dylan?”
“I don’t want you around him because he might not be as openly dangerous as his dad but he’s still an asshole,” Ethan said shortly. It was an interesting choice of words but he asked his next question before Eloise could dwell on it. “Why?”
Eloise paused with a bite halfway to her mouth. “Why is he an asshole?”
“No.” He laughed, a little huff of amusement through his nose that Eloise almost didn’t mind was at her expense. “Why haven’t you dated?”
“I should have offered to trade something else.” She hadn’t expected him to dive into questions about her love life, or rather the lack of it. It rankled, having to admit she wasn’t exactly heavily experienced in that area. He seemed like the kind of man that left a trail of broken hearts and satisfied bodies so he wouldn’t be able to understand her difficulties.
“Probably,” he agreed. “Too late.”
Yes, it was, but what was she supposed to say to that? That she hadn’t dated much at the age of twenty-seven because her mother had told her not to? It sounded ridiculous when she put it that way, but she hadn’t even been able to convince herself to call her mother back yet. Ethan’s presence in her life hung over her like a guillotine over her neck. She’d never been any good at lying, unless it was to herself, and her mother would hear the guilt in her tone as she picked up the phone.
“I have a very demanding career,” she said slowly, giving him a fraction of the truth if not the whole of it, “and I was trying to keep my attention on that.”
“So do a lot of people and they still manage to date.”
“Yes, but … I don’t know.” She faltered and dropped her gaze to the tabletop.
“Nobody impressive enough to distract you from your ambitions,” he finished, apparently filling in her absent reasoning with the nearest thing he thought might make sense.
“I suppose so.”
“But you have your friends.”
She looked back up at him with a genuine smile. “Sarah, Chloe, and Kim,” she confirmed. “We work together at Sun Valley downtown. I think I mentioned that the night we had spaghetti? It’s … hard sometimes to be a woman in that environment and they’ve been amazing.”
“Boys’ club?”
She nodded and reached for another slice of pizza. “Yeah, it’s nothing like I expected. More stressful, less fulfilling, and some of the men I work with …” She shuddered, the memory of Dwayne still lingering too close to the surface. “What about you? Do you date?”
He blinked at the change of topic but didn’t object. “Sometimes, but nothing serious.”
She lifted a brow at the vagueness of his response, and he shrugged. “Let’s just say my lifestyle hasn’t been great for serious relationships.”
“Well,” she drawled. “I guess it’s a good thing this isn’t a date.”
