Page 23 of Smoke

When I get through the door, I let it swing shut before slamming my back against it.

“Damn,” I gush out with a breath before sucking in a few deep, mind-clearing ones to enable me to think straight.

I walk over to the vanity and check my face in the mirror. My face is flushed like I’ve just had a fast and furious sex session, not a close encounter with the hot Irish male kind.

“Get a grip, Ten. You can do this,” I tell myreflection. I stick my hands under the faucet and let the cold water run over my wrists to cool me down. It doesn’t work for everyone, but for me, it usually does.

By the time I’ve nipped into the stall and relieved myself for real, when I go back to wash my hands and dry them on a napkin, the pinkness of my skin has subsided somewhat.

With my hands placed firmly on the door handle, feeling less overwhelmed at what I’m about to do, I breathe in deeply, open the door and step back out to face what could possibly be my undoing.

“Hey, you okay?” Paddy asks as I take the opportunity to slide into the opposite side of the booth so I’m facing him and not almost sitting in his lap.

“Of course,” I offer with a smile. “Did you see this menu? It’s a frozen dessert lover’s dream.”

“I have to agree.” His eyes never leave my face as he speaks. “In my book, it’s never a bad thing when the ice cream options outweigh the mains.”

“Let me guess.” I keep my voice light and fun. “You’re still going to go for the straight vanilla option.”

“Yeah, you’re right but I’m going to live on the edge a little and get three scoops, not two,” he high brows me with a side order of cheeky grin. “And you?”

“Mint cookie crunch sundae.” I tilt my head to one side. “Oh wait, they do a butterscotch pecan sundae too.” I worry my lip with my teeth. “Decisions, decisions.”

“Hey, love,” Paddy raises a hand to hail over the server before reaching over. With a brush of his thumb, he frees my lip from my bite.

She places two glasses in front of us and fills themhalfway with water from a jug she’s carrying. “What will it be?” she asks, placing the jug on the table while she gets her pad and pencil from the front pocket of her apron. Her eyes flick between the two of us, but linger more on Paddy. Can’t say I blame her; he is one hell of a good-looking guy, and definitely worth more than a single glance.

“We’ll take a mint and a pecan sundae for the lady here,” he leans a little further towards her and whispers, “She has a bit of an ice cream problem,” like it is some great big secret. “And two scoops of vanilla.”

“I heard that,” I jibe back. “I can’t decide,” I explain to the server, so she doesn’t think that I’m a total pig.

“And there you have it; the problem, so let’s solve it by ordering both and if you can’t quite finish it, then I’m might just give ya a hand.”

“Hey, what I’d do to have a boyfriend that looks like him,” she waves her pencil up and down at Paddy’s seated body, “that wants to take care of your needs and make you happy, Jesus.” She sighs. “Let me tell you, honey, he’s a keeper.”

“What?” I splutter. “He’s not my boy…” I try to put her right, but she’s already halfway back to the counter to put our order in. Probably off in her own little dream world of the perfect man, deeming her totally oblivious to my ramblings.

Paddy bursts out laughing, and immediately I face him, ready to chastise him.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You.” He’s laughing so hard that he can hardly take a breath. “Your face, it’s fucking priceless.”

“So now I’m a joke, am I?” I grouse back at him. This is not going how I expected this to go. I’m supposed to be trying to build some trust between us, enough that he’d start to open up to me. Not for him to think that I’m nothing but a dumb blonde who he can make an utter fool out of.

I reach for my bag with every intention of leaving when his hand finds mine and halts me from sliding out of the booth.

“You’re no joke, darling,” he corrects me, the humor gone and his face as serious as they come. “You’re fucking amazing.”

Chapter

Fifteen

Smoke

The ledgers I should have been going over sit untouched in front of me. I haven’t done a fucking scrap of work since Cub and Rex had reported sighting Tenley at the diner. I’ve been too distracted, pouncing on every message as soon as either of their names had appeared on the screen of my cell.

They’ve done good, keeping me updated every half hour, but had little to report other than Tenley and Paddy seemed to get on better than I’d care to like. They’ve been in the joint coming up to three hours now. How fucking long does it take for you to eat a crappy dessert, anyway? She better have some information after all the talking they’ve done.

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