Page 6 of Hopeless Romantic
“How does Bruce feel about sharing you with a rooster?” he asked, while reaching under the bar with one big, manly hand to retrieve a frosty mug and fill it with her favorite local IPA, impressing her with his memory and his mean multitasking skills.
“Not much bothers Bruce,” she said, noticing that while Levi looked relaxed and laid-back, his hands never slowed down, leaving her to wonder what other kinds of things those hands could accomplish.
“Is that a good thing?” he asked, right as her phone pinged with an incoming text.
Frustration tugged at her lips. She didn’t need to read the text to know exactly how her night was going to end. History had taught her as much. History had also taught her what to expect if she didn’t respond.
With a heavy sigh, she dug through her purse—aka her filing system for taxes—dumping two years of receipts, a Ziploc of pellets, and a sorry-looking banana on the counter. When it pinged again, she was working her way through the outside pockets, finding six baseball cards, make that seven, and no phone. Then the pinging started to pick up, one after the other, and she knew, just knew, her one free night this month to enjoy some polite and casual sex with sweet but boring Bruce was about to come to a premature end.
“Looking for this?” Levi reached into her jacket and pulled her cell from the exact pocket where she’d placed it so as not to lose it again. She was a mess.
“Thanks.” She looked at the phone but didn’t reach for it, knowing that the second she did, the clock would strike midnight on her fun and she’d turn back into a pumpkin—the most overrated vegetable ever to grace a caffeinated drink.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked in a gentle, caring voice that had her melting. “If you need me to punch some dickhead, just let me know?”
“Maybe next time.” She took the phone, their fingers brushing for a moment longer than polite, and the screen flashed, confirming both her suspicions.
One, sex with Levi would be anything but nice and polite, and while that excited her, it also terrified her. Two, if she couldn’t find a way to fix her life, sex with any man wasn’t ever going to happen again.
She took a big swig of her beer, closing her eyes to enjoy what might possibly be the last moment of adult fun for a while, then stood. She dropped a few bills on the counter. “I gotta run.”
“Is Bruce seriously canceling this late?” He sounded offended on her behalf.
“Bruce!”Oh my God!Her hands went to her head. “I almost forgot about Bruce.”
“Sounds like you guys are the real deal,” he deadpanned.
Bruce could be the real deal—for someone who had time for such luxuries. Beckett was not that someone and didn’t have a clue as to whether she’d ever be in a position to be a forever-someone.
“Nah, we’re just friends with common interests. And I’m about to be a really shitty friend.” She could already feel anxiety creep up her spine. “Would you tell him I’m sorry, that something came up? He’ll understand.”
She had turned to leave when Levi’s hand came to rest atop hers, holding her in place. “Beck.”
“Right.” She met his concerned gaze, which only added fuel to the stress-induced fire. “You’ve never met Bruce. He lives in Westport. Just look for a guy in a suit and loafers with tassels who’s super sweet, but likely boring the person next to him with stories about his bird-watching excursions. Did you know there are over fifteen types of doves in the Americas?”
“Beck,” he said again, this time in a calming tone that wrapped around her like one of the seven weighted blankets she kept in the house. The real problems started when she looked into those blue orbs watching her in that quiet, assessing way of his that made her squirm. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Or she would be, as soon as she got home.
It wasn’t often that Beckett allowed the things out of her control to get to her. But this summons had more than gotten to her. It had knocked her so off balance, she’d begun to forget reality. Or maybe that was Levi’s fault. Either way, she needed to get out of there.
“Hey, Beck,” he called after her. “Next time you find yourself short a partner for Hug Training class, give me a ring. I don’t violate any health codes. Plus, I know some great techniques to reduce stress.” He patted his chest twice and slid her a teasing wink.
Beckett didn’t dare engage because, while Levi might come off as the King of Cool, something told Beckett that beneath the calm surface lay some seriously deep currents. If she wasn’t careful, they would suck her in and drag her right out to sea.
Chapter 2
Levi was fluent in four different dialects of chick-speak, and decent in two others, so he knew that the simple phrase, “I’m fine,” had exactly twenty-seven different, complex and hard-to-decipher translations, ranging from, “Hold me and tell me I’m beautiful” to “Do I look fucking fine?” And his all-time personal favorite, “Do you have a penis? Yes? Then crawl down into a deep, dank hole and stay there.”
For all his experience with women, and he’d had a lot, Levi had never been on the receiving end of Beckett’s particular variety of “I’m fine,” but it gave him the knees-to-the-nuts feeling he got whenever someone mentioned his sister’s passing. Usually, the best course of action was to smile through it, then escape at the first opening. Only she’d done the escaping, which should leave him feeling relieved.
The kitchen was backed up, the dining room an hour wait, and the red light flashing on the phone made his left eye twitch. He’d managed to turn his dad’s small fish-and-chips stand, which catered to fishermen and guests docked in their family’s small marina, into a full-scale bar and grill.
Now, with thirty-five tabletops overlooking the crystal still waters of the bay, an additional patio with beachfront access, and an exclusive member’s club on the top floor for guests docked in any one of the two hundred berths, it didn’t take an expert to tell him he’d exceeded his goal.
Fan-fucking-tastic, had his goal been to run his dad’s business for the rest of his life. Once again, he’d hard-worked himself into a corner. Like tonight. He’d been so focused on getting one of those sweet smiles from Beckett, he’d overlooked the most important thing.
“Cluuuck cluckcluckcluck cock,”Pecker said, and Levi rubbed his forehead. Because in Beckett’s rapid exodus, she’d left something behind. Maybe that had been her plan all along. Regardless, he was not happy.
