Page 16 of Your Place or Mine

Then she looked back at the blonde.

Then back at me.

“Oh no,” she mouthed.

She sat back in the booth like she’d been hit with a sledgehammer made of secondhand embarrassment.

Her friend blinked at her. “What?”

Melanie whispered something, and the brunette’s brows lifted slowly… followed by her head turning in my direction. She stared at me for a solid three seconds, then whispered, “Oh.”

I pretended not to notice. Which, for the record, took a monumental amount of restraint.

I thought back to my earlier encounter with the blonde and glanced down at my zipper. Had my fly been open? What’s making them giggle?

They both looked like kids caught elbow-deep in the cookie jar. Melanie laughed into her drink. The brunette blushed so hard I could see it from here.

Melanie watched me from that booth like a cat watches a laser pointer. Whenever I glanced her way, she’d toss her hair, smile like she knew something I didn’t, or wink.

Once, I swear, shepurred. I ignored it.

Mostly.

But then she crooked a finger at me. Actuallycrookedher finger. Like I was a dog, she was calling over for a treat.

I leaned against the bar, arms crossed.

“She’s doing it again,” I muttered to Drew.

Drew didn’t even look up from the glass he was polishing. “She wants your attention.”

“She can keep wanting.”

He smirked. “You know you’re gonna go over there.”

“Nope.”

“She’s got that look.”

“I’ve built up years of immunity to that look.”

“She’s hot.”

I shrugged. “I like the other one better.”

Drew laughed. “Go on, Romeo. Let the people have what they want.”

I muttered a string of colorful words under my breath, then finally pushed off the bar. I wasn’t going over there forMelanie.

I was going over there because letting her continue to do whatever she was doing felt vaguely dangerous, like she might call out across the room next.

Melanie grinned as I approached, draping one arm along the back of the booth like she was holding court.

“Took you long enough,” she said, eyes sparkling.

“Slow to walk with all this dignity I’m dragging around,” I said dryly.

She laughed, then patted the empty spot next to her. “Sit. Rest those tired, bulging muscles.”

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