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“Try again. The truth this time.”
The barmaid sets our beers down and moves to help another customer. I don’t bother looking over since my eyes are already resting on the most beautiful woman here.
“I wouldn’t sleep with North and then kiss you, you moron.” Slender, perfectly angled eyebrows meet over her cute nose. She may be frustrated but I’m elated now that I know she didn’t screw that douchebag.
“The dry spell continues.” I lower my lips leaving barely a whisper of air between us. “Let me know if I can bring the rain.”
“Barrett Fox!” booms a male voice belonging to a guy about to get punched in the junk.
“Your fandom calls.” Catarina smirks, the simmering lust in her eyes dissipating like steam from a hot kettle. I release her and she grabs our beers, handing over mine before taking a sip of her own.
I turn to find none other than Jackson Burke standing in front of me. The “SS Kick Your Ass” as we used to call him.
“Holy shit!” I grin, no longer wanting to murder him for interrupting. He grins back and opens his arms. I give him a huge hug, pounding him on the back as he lifts me off the ground.
The big, brawny asshole. Of course he can still lift me off the ground.
“How the hell are you, man?” Burke slaps my upper arm. His dark brown hair is chin-length, and his beard is in need of a trim. He flashes a white-toothed smile over my shoulder. “Jackson Burke,” he introduces. “What’s your name, beautiful?”
“There are two of you? Fantastic.” Catarina shakes his hand tolerantly. “Charmed. My name is Kitty Cat Everhart and I’ll be over here looking for a man who didn’t crawl out of the Paleozoic era if you need me.” She flashes a siren’s smile before she turns away to watch the band performing on stage.
“She’s a pistol,” Burke says. “How new is that?”
“Brand spanking new.”
He smirks at my choice of phrase.
“She’s my co-worker and we’re pretend dating for a column.”
He hoists one dark eyebrow. “That didn’t look like pretend. I thought you were going to fuck her right there in the grass.”
“It’s not like that,” I say a little harshly, my tone a warning.
“That’s cool.” He points with his beer to the stage where a band is playing. “We’re going next. I know those guys. Was over there when they set up and they invited me up to play guitar. Now that I’m looking at you, change of plans. You’re coming with me. We’ll do the thing.”
Catarina leans on the trunk of a maple tree at the rear of a seated crowd as the band plays Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again.”
“The thing,” I repeat, watching as she casually crosses one foot over the other. She’s seriously gorgeous right now. That high ponytail. The way she peers into her beer glass before she takes a drink from it.
“We have to do it!” Burke gestures to the stage. “The crowd won’t recognize me, but they will definitely recognize you. Come on, Fox. For old time’s sake.”
“Old times. Burke, we aren’t even thirty yet.”
“I’m thirty. Yesterday.”
“No shit?”
“It’ll be my belated birthday gift. Don’t make me call you up on stage because I will do it.”
He would.
“Think it’ll win me the girl?” I swallow the beer in my glass and reconsider.
“You have to ask? That song’s a panty dropper. Especially with you singing lead. Let’s grab a refill and hit the stage, brother. It’s been too long.”
I can’t believe it, but the next word out of my mouth is “Okay.”
Catarina
