Page 35 of The Nanny and the Hothead
“Super-charged?” she echoed.
“Yeah, that place has a rep for their margaritas. They tell people to limit themselves to two.”
Her jaw dropped. “I had three.”
“You had four,” he corrected, then pointed to a bench.
She plopped down and inhaled a gargantuan bite. Thank Christ she was able to eat while sitting because he sure as hell wasn’t going to cut up her food into tiny bites.
“I’m not usually a lush.” She folded the pizza in half, then hoovered the rest of it.
Impressive!
“When I’m nervous, my mouth gets dry. See,” she said, opening her mouth.
He raised his hand to shield his face. “All I see is chewed-up pizza.”
“Below the pizza, it’s super dry,” she garbled with a mouthful of food.
If his life wasn’t in shambles, this entire evening might be funny.
They sat there, in the dim glow of a streetlight, and ate their pizza side by side. Well, he ate his pizza like a human being while she absolutely devoured her slice and his crust like a starving animal.
“I started my day on a bench,” she mused, her words coming out in a dreamy slur.
A bench! Was she homeless?
“Please don’t tell me you spent the night in a park, Charlotte.”
She sighed. “No, I still have a few more nights in my apartment before I get booted.”
Jesus! She was broke and on the cusp of losing her home!
“Sitting on a park bench was where I met a couple that made me think I would meet my Mr. Cheesy Forever today,” she said, then pointed up in the air.
“What is it?” he quipped, looking for…for what? He didn’t know what the hell a Mr. Cheesy Forever even looked like.
“A plane! Do you see the blinking lights?”
He watched the plane as it headed west toward the darkened outline of the Rocky Mountains. “Yeah, I see it.”
“There could be a Mr. Cheesy Forever waiting for it to land,” she mused, making no damned sense. She slumped forward. “I guess I have to go back to the beginning for that, too,” she finished, then released a resigned groan.
Back to the beginning!
Ines had given him the same advice. Not to mention, that was the second time she’d mentioned finding her Mr. Cheesy Forever. Charlotte popped the last bite of pizza crust into her mouth, then shifted on the bench.
“Look at me, Mitch,” she said gently.
He complied, and she cupped his face in her hands.
“You’re a hothead, and I know why,” she whispered.
His pulse quickened. Mere inches away, he’d only need to lean forward to press his lips to hers.
“What do you think happened to me?” he asked, mesmerized by this hot mess of a woman.
“The same thing that happened to me. Somebody broke your heart,” she whispered, her wise, drunken words insulating them from the cruel world.
