Page 11 of Winter's Surprise
“Then what’s going on?”
“That waiter—” Jake shook his head.
“What about him?” Michelle asked, wondering if he knew the man from somewhere else.
“He won’t stop staring at your… at your chest, and it’s pissing me off.”
“Ah, gotcha.” Relief washed over her. Logically, she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, but without knowing Jake, she wasn’t entirely confident in that fact. “Yeah, I noticed that too. I’m just ignoring it.”
“Just ignoring it?” his eyebrow raised with disbelief.
“Yup!” She smiled.
“All right, ignoring it we shall.” Jake took a sip of his pint and smiled.
“That good?” she asked him, tilting her head toward the beer.
“Tasty, want to try?” he offered.
She shook her head as she brought her own glass to her lips. The liquid coated her throat and warmed her from the inside.
“For the record?”
“Yeah?” she asked.
“Men can’t justignorea woman like you.” Jake lifted his menu, and she couldn’t help but stare at him.
After a minute, she realized he wouldn’t say more on the topic. Michelle didn’t know how to respond either, so she followed his lead. Her eyes were unfocused at first as she stared at the burger selection. Their conversation flowed to what each person ate on previous visits before she felt him tense beside her.
“It’s not worth it,” she told him as the waiter walked away with their orders. “I do appreciate your need to stand up for me.”
Jake shrugged after casting her a side glance. “How about you explain to me how you’re still single?”
Michelle laughed. “You say that like I’m choosing to go home to an empty house, day after day.”
“No—”
“I guess I hadn’t met the right person. My best friend is always trying to play matchmaker.” Her mind wandered to the string of men Janey had set her up with. Not one had clicked for her.
Jake smiled, and a part of her sighed. “No luck I see.”
“Nope.”
“How about you? Why areyousingle?” Michelle asked and took a sip of her whiskey.
“Because I can never get past that question.”
A hardness was around Jake’s words. Hurt. Anger. Sadness. None of which Michelle expected.
“What do you mean?” she asked after giving him time, hoping he would elaborate.
Jake drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Two years ago, I lost my wife and daughter.”
Her body froze as she heard his words on a loop in her head. Neither spoke as he let her process the information. Lost? If they’d run off, he would’ve clarified by now. Michelle’s blood ran cold. Part of her wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him how very sorry she was to hear that. The other part of her, the one that knew very little about this man, screamed to keep her ass put.
Michelle nodded when Jake glanced at her, telling him without words that she did in fact hear him. Jake drank deeply from his beer, and he began to emotionally shut down. She hated that he’d lost his world.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and felt the stiffness in his muscles loosen a fraction. “One of the guys she set me up with, I saw him a few times. We hit it off nicely the first time, so I agreed to another. A couple of things were off on the second date, but I told myself it was because I was too picky. I couldn’t meet him again after the third date. My internal alarm was going off.”
