Page 39 of Bad Boy for Hire
“Are tangled up with May’s friends. And you know that Lisa and I don’t speak much.”
“Or at all.”
“We’re cordial.” Griffin reconsidered. “I’m cordial, anyway.”
There was water beneath the bridge with those two. Xavier knew they’d had an encounter, but Griff had been quiet about the details. Maybe she was the one he’d left unsatisfied. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he talk about what had happened?
“Okay. Let me put myself in the mindset of someone who cares about more than a one-night stand.” Griffin made a show of placing his fingers to his temples as if channeling a different version of himself. “Do you foresee yourself marrying this girl? Having babies? Moving her into your lakeside mansion?”
“What?” Xavier shook his head, mainly to stop his brain from weighing the pros and cons. “We’ve been on one date. It’s premature to think about marriage.”
“It’s premature to think about having a child too, but this is where we find ourselves.”
“You’re not helping.”
“Sorry. Give me a second to think.” Griffin’s leg bobbed while he looked out into the distance. Hopefully he would come up with a line of questioning that had nothing to do with marriage and babies. “First off, she might not be pregnant. Second, if she is, she might not want to have a baby. Do you?”
“Do I want a baby?” Xavier’s voice cracked, which might have been funny if not for the terror running through his veins at the prospect.
“Let’s assume possibility number one. She’s not pregnant. No way the Universe would give you what you want and then slap you upside the head with future and responsibility before you’re ready.”
Xavier nodded. He could get behind that assumption. He needed to believe that if he expected to walk through life for the next several weeks without having a nervous breakdown.
“What advice did you give Lynx back when he thought his girlfriend was pregnant?”
“I told him to be more careful in the future, and if the worst happened, we’d deal with it together.”
“Brother.” Griffin wrapped his hand around Xavier’s forearm across the table. “Be more careful in the future. If the worst happens, I got you.” He reclaimed his beer. “In the meantime, treat May as if the night went exactly to plan, which, for the most part, sounds like it did.”
“It was a great night,” Xavier admitted.
“There you go. What would your usual MO be after sleeping with a woman?”
“It’s not like it happens that often, but I always made sure it happened at their house.”
“Smart. But then with May, you asked her over.”
“Didn’t think that far ahead.”
“Rookie move, but at least you slept on the couch. Kept a bit of distance.”
It hadn’t been a “move,” more a choice made in the moment. Spooning May seemed intimate, and she had needed some space—he could tell. May was nothing if not independent.
“When will you see her again?”
“I don’t know. She comes into Salty with the girls fairly often.”
“That’s neutral territory.” Griffin nodded his approval. “Ask her when she’s going to be in next. Do your thing. Serve her drinks. Smile, joke. That’s your comfort zone.”
That wasn’t a bad idea. Salty Dog would serve as a great backdrop for easing back into familiar territory.
“I’ll show up too, just let me know when. I’ll distract Lisa. She is a bloodhound, so the more attention I can take from you and May, the better.”
“If she didn’t tell Lisa already.” Not the best-case scenario.
“A possibility,” Griffin unhelpfully agreed.
Part of Xavier argued that it was juvenile to play games like this, but a larger part of him would accept his friend’s support. He might not have been planning marriage and babies with May, but he didn’t want to lose her friendship either.
