Page 4 of His Ex's Little Sister
Nodding, she pats my shoulder with authority and confidence, and then, she straightens up to full height. “That’s just great. I’m sure glad I bumped into you here, Reid. Do you want toknowwhy?”
“Sure.Tellme.”
That’s when the sugary sweetness disappears from her face, only to be replaced by contempt that’s strong enough to poisonanox.
“It just saves Danielle the trouble of finding out you brought your sorry ass back to town. You remember Danielle, don’t you? Blonde, wavy hair, light brown eyes, about my height, and you left her high and dry without so much as a Dear Janeletter?”
She pauses as though she’s waiting for me to respond, but I’m not one to challenge the well-masked fury of a womanscorned.
Or her sister, inthiscase.
Robin cocks her head to one side, and she adds, “Do me one favor, Reid. Stay the hell away from my sister. Matter of fact, stay away from my family.Gotit?”
She doesn’t wait for me to answer. Robin pivots on the heels of her cowboy boots, whipping her waist-length red tresses around, and heads off in the direction of therestrooms.
“Well, shit,” Jared says, with a gurgly chuckle that’s annoying as hell. He slaps me on the back. “I guess your little songbird already had a taste of your track record, once removed. And my guess is she don’t wantseconds.”
Robin’s little order makes me curious. There has to be more to explain her anger. I left for basic training over nine years ago, yet the way she spoke sounds like it was just yesterday that it all happened. She is way too angry about this. Something doesn’t add up, and now I have to get the missing puzzle pieces that will give me the wholepicture.
Deciding to make at least one attempt at getting some answers from the convenient but wrathfully sexy source, I follow her past the bar and around the corner of a narrow hallway to wait outside theladies’room.
Robin steps out after a few minutes. The second she lays eyes on me, she presses her lips together into a disapproving scowl, scrunches up her nose, and folds her arms under herbreasts.
“Oh. You again. Do you have a hearing problem, or did you not get me when I told you to keep your distance from myfamily?”
I lean my back against one wall of the corridor, and mirror her stance by folding my arms. “I heard you, all right. I’m just trying to understand a fewthings.”
She huffs out such a long breath that the stray strands of hair hanging over her eyes and beside her temples fly up for a moment, and then come back to rest around her heart-shaped face. Her eyes slowly blaze a trail from the center of my chest—which is eye-level for her—right up to my hair, then back down again, stopping briefly at my groin before resuming her inspection all the way down to the tips of my handcrafted Anderson Bean cowboyboots.
“There’s nothing for you to understand, except to stay the hell away,” she finally says in a cold,clippedtone.
“Well, I’m curious about a fewthings.”
“Forgive me for looking like I was put on this planet to satisfy your every whim,” she deadpans. Except, the last four words of her statement comes out slowly, in a breathy murmur that has me certain I’m having an effectonher.
If that’s the case, there’s only onesolution.
Concentrate the impact to emotionally throw her offbalance.
Maybe then, I’ll get someanswers.
Taking a step toward her, I return her earlier favor and rest my hand on her shoulder. It’s no surprise to me. Her breath catches, her pupils dilate, her chest rises and falls like she can’t get enough air into her lungs, and her heart rate is off the charts. Her reaction confirms that some of this energy between us is simply of a physical nature. She’s attracted to me. I have a reaction too. It’s the electrifying sensation at my fingertips where I made contact with her bare skin—and the other response that starts to take effect in mygroinarea.
“Fine,” I tell her. “Let me explain. First of all, I didn’t recognize you until Rusty told me who you were. You were just a little kid when I left town, yet you seem to know me well enough to recognize my face in this crowd. Care to share how you knew itwasme?”
“You dated my sister all through high school, Reid. And you lived one block from ourhouse.”
“That was nine years ago,” I counter. “I hardly look like I didbackthen.”
“Who needs to memorize your face when all anyone has to do is take note of that massive air of arrogance you carry around?” She rolls her eyes but does not move out of my hold. Maybe she likes me touching her more than she thinks. In fact, her body language completely contradicts her speech. “What else? And make it quick. I’ve got one more set to finish, then my guitar player partner and I have to besomewhere.”
“Anothergig?”
“That’s none of your concern. Oh, and darn, I’m out of time now, so let’s save the third-degree for…well, never. No one in my family owes you anything. Have a nicelife,Reid.”
Again, her words don’t jibe with her body. Robin says goodbye, but she doesn’t moveaninch.
I leverage her apparent paralysis by continuing. “Not so fast. I can’t help but notice that you’re more bitter than a recently pissed off rattlesnake, which makes no sense at all to me. The stuff that happened between your sister and me took place almost a decade ago. What’s with the freshhatred?”
Something I said makes her left eye twitch and her bottom lip trembles as though she’ll cry anysecondnow.
“You’re such a jerk!” shehisses.
This time, she shoves my hand off of her shoulder and pushes past me. I’m not one to resort to harassment, so I let her storm off towards the stage. Robin demonstrates that she is a professional. Her face transforms back to that sweet and cheerful expression she wore at the start of her performance. Good for her. I take my time to get back to the guys. They’re more focused on the women standing around flirting with them than on Robin or me. She whispers something in the ear of the guitar player. He nods, not looking up as he retightens a string on his Gibson acousticguitar.
That’s when she picks up the microphone and announces she’s about to deliver a song dedicated to hersister.
This can’tbegood.
