Page 14 of Under the Influence

“Yes. People are always setting me up. I’m on dating sites. I began to believe I wasn’t capable of feeling any real attraction to a man.”

Thinking back to the engagement party, I admit, “You’d have to be desperate to consider dating one of my club guys.”

Edith rests her hands flat on the table and glares at me. “You shouldn’t have interfered with my plans.”

I don’t know if I should laugh at or feel outraged by her comment. “Why, so you’d be sitting across from Mucky now?”

“Why him?”

“Why not?”

“Maybe Ishouldbe on a date with him,” Edith growls as her temper sets her mouth loose.

“He’s too rough for you,” I insist, using common sense to smother her irritation. “He also wears a shit-ton of rings. Can you imagine his hands in your hair?”

Edith’s irritation quickly falls away. I suspect she’s imagining my hands in her hair. She stares longingly at me, wishing I was someone else.I know the feeling.

If Edith were a little older and someone else’s daughter, I’d already know her lips’ flavor.

Edith’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, but I’m afraid to get a taste. If I want her too much, I’ll feel worse when things end.

“My ex-wife and I married for business reasons,” I explain when she only stares at me. “But I made the best out of the situation. That’s what I do. I find a lane I can tolerate driving in and stick to it.”

“Is marrying for business a family thing?”

“Yes. Lola seems to be genuinely taken with your cousin, though. So, who knows? She might get more than a pleasant arranged marriage.”

Edith studies me. “Are you still hostile toward Val?”

“He’s got a big mouth,” I reply, thinking of him strutting around in his boxers earlier at Lola’s apartment.

Edith nods. “We’re encouraged to mouth off in my family. Are you the kind of man who believes people should be submissive?”

“No, but he was rude about Lola.”

“How?”

“Talking about her as if she was a piece of meat.”

“Maybe he was saying that to hide how much he wanted her. According to Tuesday, your daughter is a cold bitch. Maybe Val feared how she’d react to his genuine feelings.”

I sense Edith only spits fire in my direction to keep me from turning on the charm. If we settled into this attraction, we might find it very difficult to break free of later. And both of us are already focused on our exit strategies.

“I make a very tasty garlic chicken,” I reply rather than get sucked into Edith’s self-destructive trap. “I tweaked it over the years until it was good enough to go on the diner menu. When your family comes to Basin Rock for dinner, you should order it.”

“I don’t like garlic.”

“There’s garlic on the steak we ordered.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

Grinning at her pissy frown, I want to kiss her into a better mood. “Can you cook well?”

“Yes.”

“If I asked you to make me dinner, what would you cook?”

“Something with a lot of garlic apparently.”

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