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Turning back to my truck engine, I fiddled with a few things while I left him waiting. I could hear him growing agitated, his heavy sighs full of annoyance at me. “Fine. I’ll help.”
“How?” Cyrus moved next to me, handed me a wrench, and pointed to another bolt. “Go ahead and loosen that one.”
“Take me out on one of your normal dates, I guess. A fake date, obviously. Show me how you treat your normal dates and I’ll let you know if you’re shit at dating.” I struggled with the bolt until I finally got it with a loud grunt and then did a little jump for myself. “Yes!”
“You want me to take you out on a date?” He nodded at the bolt. “Good job. Now, do the next three.”
I went into the next bolts with more confidence. “A fake date, Cyrus. Don’t worry. I’m not asking you to actually date me. I haven’t bumped my head or anything.”
“You’re an ass.” He reached around me to grab his drink and the natural scent of him, plus his sweat, acted like a pheromone to my poor under-addressed hormones. “I guess I should also mention I’ve been told to work on my manners.”
My laugh came out slightly stilted as I worked to ignore the pulsing happening between my thighs. “You don’t say.”
“Just tell me when to pick you up. Set the time and let’s not speak about this again. If you want me to finish helping you, we should just shut up.”
I reached out and rested my hand on his shoulder, a move I typically wouldn’t have made. His muscles flexed under my fingers and I resisted the urge to watch them move. “Want to get it over with tonight? I’m free.”
“Fine. I’ll go home and clean up after we’re done here and then come back to get you.” He glanced down at my hand and cleared his throat. “Less talking and more working, PoJo.”
“Yep, yep! Sounds good.”
14
***Poppy***
“HewenttoOklahomabecause they offered to pay more. There was no loyalty to the home team.” Cyrus glared at the TV above the bar as he spoke to the bartender. “I can’t even look at him now.”
“Let me tell you, man. If another bar offered to pay me more, I’d fucking leave too. Loyalty over common sense is just dumb. It’s not a game for old men and it’s not like he has a career to fall back on when his knees go out,” Steve, the bartender at The Locker Room, our local sports bar, argued back at Cyrus.
“We would’ve given him more in time. Oklahoma isn’t going to give a shit about him. One bad game and they’ll start rethinking the trade. He’ll be out faster than he ever would’ve been if he stayed here.” Cyrus looked over at me and gestured toward Steve. “Tell him he’s an idiot.”
I grinned at Steve and shrugged. “You’re an idiot, Steve.”
“Don’t encourage his bullshit, Poppy. He’s always in here arguing with me about something. He’s lucky I haven’t kicked his ass out yet.”
“Very lucky, considering this is apparently where he takes all his dates.” I rolled my eyes and rested my elbows on the bar. “You’ve seen them, right? How do they go?”
Cyrus’s big hand landed on my knee under the bartop and squeezed. “If I wanted Steve’s advice on my dating life, I would just give up dating completely.”
Steve, really getting into the conversation, moved closer. “Oh, they’re not good. He comes in here with women who look like they made a real effort for him and then he yells at me or the TV all night. It’s embarrassing. By the time they leave, the woman has more often than not been on her phone, since her date hasn’t paid any attention to her.”
I knocked Cyrus’s hand away while laughing. “God, Cyrus! Tell me that’s not true.”
He shrugged. “What?”
Steve got called away to the other end of the bar, leaving me staring at Cyrus like he was insane. “You don’t pay attention to your dates?”
“Sure I do.” He looked back up at the TV and ground his teeth together. “He should’ve made that.”
I agreed with that assessment. “It was like he wasn’t even trying.”
“This part of the date is for food, anyway. Afterwards, I take them for a ride and we park and talk then.” He didn’t meet my eyes when he mentioned that part, I noticed.
“You park and talk?” The disbelief dripped from my voice. “Really?”
He cut his eyes at me. “You really want those details, Poppy?”
I shuddered. “Nope. Not even a little bit.”
