Page 70 of The Runaway and the Rugged
“No!” I shouted, the volume of my voice beyond what was necessary. “No—no, definitely not with you. I don’t want to risk you missing out on the chance to get lucky tonight with your friendly dinner companion.”
As painful as it was humiliating to say, it was the truth. No way was I about to become a third wheel to whatever Beau had planned. I’d much rather walk back and not do anything than suffer through that.
“Aw, sunshine,” he teased, bringing his hand to my cheek to give it a soft, playful squeeze. “That’s damn sweet of you to be courteous of my needs, but I promise, ain’t nothing like that goin’ down tonight. I have standards to uphold, you know?”
Standards to uphold?
What the hell was he talking about?
I assumed he was calling it a friendly dinner because he planned on being extremely friendly with her tonight. Was I all wrong about Beau? Was he simply a man who followed firm to his standards and didn’t sleep with anything that had tits and legs?
I wanted to ask, to at least clarify what he meant, but it wasn’t my business. I was merely just being nosy.
“As fun as being a third wheel sounds, no thank you.” I chuckled.
“It’s Friday, sunshine, you got to at least have somethin’ in mind that you want to do.”
His words sunk in and replayed in my head like a mantra.
It’s Friday, sunshine.
It’s Friday.
Friday.
My throat instantly went dry, as a craving for something cold and sweet lingered on my tongue. It wasn’t my best plan, but it wasn’t the worst. I could sulk in peace with a cold drink in hand, and at that moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and with a quiet smile, I told beau.
“Ain’t you gettin’ a brain freeze yet? That’s at least your third slushie and you don’t look like you want to stop anytime soon,” Carl criticized with a bewildered expression and toothpick dangling from his nearly toothless mouth.
“It’s my second, Carl, and no, I haven’t had a brain freeze yet,” I grumbled in the small fold-up chair that I set up beside the counter, near Carl.
“Drink another one and you’ll get one,” he warned. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here. Don’t you have anywhere better to be on a Friday? You should be out, havin’ the time of your life, takin’ that grumpy ol’ Garth along instead of wastin’ here.”
I scoffed into the straw.
“Rather be here alone, without the presence of Garth, drinking this delicious slushie and having small talk with you.”
He snorted, clearly amused.
“Hm, somethin’ tells me he did somethin’ real stupid to have you here.”
“He doesn’t have much experience with women, does he?” I asked, prying for more information from an old man who probably had little to no insight on Garth's dating life.
He laughed.
“No, and it shows too, doesn’t it?”
My mouth cracked a smile.
“Why do you think that is?”
“Not sure, I often wondered myself why he hasn’t found a good woman to settle down with yet. He’s a good-lookin’ man, with a stable job on the ranch, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to find someone.” He shrugged. “Thing is, he wasn’t lookin’ to add someone to the equation, well, that was until you came into the picture.”
My heart stuttered over his words, wondering if maybe I had heard him wrong.
“Until I came along? What do you mean by that?”
He smiled, resting his arms onto the counter.
