Page 20 of 28 Dates

“No.” She laughs and munches on a piece of shrimp, almost moaning with how much she loves the food here. Pride infuses my chest. She’s always been sexy to watch as she enjoys food. And I love it that she loves mine so much. “Well, yes. Sort of. See…” She drifts off.

I’m on the edge of the seat. Has she already met someone else? I dig my fingers into my thighs to hide my tension, but nothing works.

She looks so uncertain, eyes hesitatingly coming back to meet mine. “Is this weird? Me talking about this with you? I don’t want it to be.”

It’s painful as hell. “It’s fine. Just let me have it.”

“Okay.” She takes another bite. Another sip. As she kills time, stalling, pressure in my chest rises. It’s all I can do not to lean over the table and swipe her lunch to the floor so she doesn’t have anything to distract her. “I went on one date last week with this guy, and to be honest, it really creeped me out.”

“He hurt you?” Fire burns my eyes as I spit out the question. “Jesus, Caty, you have to be careful.”

The force of my words startles her, and she jumps in the booth, hands dropping to her side. The nickname I used to use with her slides off my tongue so easily I don’t even realize I’ve done it until her eyes widen. Caty disappeared and went back to Caitlin the day I walked out of her apartment the last time. I needed that separation and then, it just never felt right. She’d told me once she hated the nickname unless I was the one using it.

I kick the wandering thought out of my head.

“It wasn’t bad…okay, well, it was creepy. Not bad, but afterward I talked about it with Teagan, and she thinks I need to meet these guys where I feel safe.”

“Of course you should.” A hundred questions pummel my brain, making me ache. Did she tell Trey? Did he kick the guy’s ass? If he’s not prepared to, I will, and I don’t even know what the guy did to freak her out so much. “You should always feel safe.”

“I know. Which is why I wanted to talk to you to see if you’d be okay if I meet them here.”

Watching Caitlin go on a string of dates? Shoving toothpicks into my eyeballs sounds more fun.

A warm thrill slides down my spine at the same time. She thinks ofmy placeas her safe place.

Plus, I can keep an eye on her while checking out the competition.

There’s no other answer. “Of course you can.”

Chapter 8

Caitlin

Teagan:Have fun on your date. Has to be better than the last one, right?

Oh, she’s so wrong. I haven’t told her about the cute hipster guy with skinny jeans, flannel top, and gray slouchy beanie who wastotallymy kinda cute. That was, until he smiled so sweetly right before he picked his nose. Twice. Then there was Ryan, who I enjoyed somewhat, but every time he laughed, he sounded like a group of hogs. After one drink—the guy laughsa lot—I politely excused myself. There was another Ryan, and he wasn’t too bad. I loveStar Warsas much as the next person, more than, honestly, but I also like to have a conversation with a guy that isn’t purely in Yoda-ese. A girl can only take so much.

Oh no. Teagan’s thinking of Jordan. The linebacker-sized hottie wearing a college football jersey on his profile pic, and yeah…that grabbed my attention. What girl doesn’t grow up with the fantasy of having the quarterback fall in love with her at first glance? I blame it on my love of young adult romance novels.

Until he started off our date letting me know how beautiful I was and said I’d be perfect.

For what? To be his date at a friend’s wedding. The problem? He was secretly sleeping with the groom and wanted—no, needed—someone to play wingman while he and the groom disappeared, keeping the new wife in the complete dark that one or both of them are either gay or bisexual and still hiding it.

To each their own, totally. But to use me for that? Nothankyouverymuch.

Although at least he was honest about it.

Needless to say, I’m not all that fired up about another date. These guys…I would have thought a dating app would wring out the jerks and liars and cheaters, but apparently, regardless of what you do or what the purpose is, some people are just willing to lie.

They’re not all liars. Ryan—the hog horn laugher—was really nice. And cute in a geeky eyeglasses-too-big kind of way. But endearing. It was just the laugh. It freaked me out. The nose picker? Hard no.

Being a guy’s beard and possibly being involved in breaking another woman’s heart…hard NO for me.

That still doesn’t mean I’m all that fired up to continue this ridiculous quest of mine. The only thing that keeps me going is realizing that Trey is all I have for a social life, and let’s face it, outside of watching the occasional sports game with him, he’s usually neck deep in another random project, and I don’t just want someone to spend time with, I want someone to spend time with outside of work. Trey makes this difficult.

That doesn’t mean it’s not still strange to be meeting them at Dirty’s. It’s weird as all get-out, even if I haven’t seen Jonas anywhere when I’ve been here. Which is weird on its own because the guy lives at his bar. But it makes things easier for me, too.

Still, awkward as it is, it’s the safest and best choice I’ve got. Heck, Jonas didn’t skip a beat when I asked him, to make sure he didn’t mind.

---