Page 41 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
She stayed silent for so long he thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then she surprised him as she said, “I was warned about you at the bar. It’s not like they said awful things about you, just said that you’re not careful with a woman’s heart.”
He huffed, glancing up to the starry sky. He understood why some women might view him that way, but that was because they didn’t know him. Not truly. Yeah, he was no saint, but he’d never played with a woman’s heart. “What I think is a player is a man who doesn’t care who he hurts. That’s not me. It wasn’t ever me.”
“But you did play around?”
He met her gaze again and shrugged, refusing to lie to her no matter if it made him look bad. “When my dad died and I lost my bar, I was in a dark place. The dream I had worked for, and thought would bemylegacy had been taken away. Drinking and women filled that void for a while. I’m not proud of it. But I never made anyone any promises. I never dated. I had casual sex. That was all that was on the table.”
She didn’t take her eyes off him. “So then why are women so salty about you?”
He hesitated, wondering if he should stick to truth. He figured it might scare her away, but he couldn’t seem to not want to stop pushing forward with her. “Jealously is my guess.”
“Jealous of who?”
He held her gaze, laying it all on the line. Screw the consequences. “The pretty brunette that I couldn’t take my eyes off of the entire time I was in the bar.”
Her brows drew together until realization hit her that he was talking about her. “Oh.”
He loved that little surprise on her face. “In all seriousness, I can’t speak for the women in my past,” he said, liking how she was holding his stare, not looking away from him. “Was I straight up with my intentions? Yes. Was I always kind? Probably not. But I never made promises and I never crossed emotional lines.”
Her eyes searched his for a long moment. “Have you ever had a serious relationship?” she eventually asked.
“During high school I had a girlfriend for most of it,” he explained, resting his arm behind his head. “But that was young love. It ended when she went to college, and she never moved back to town.”
“There was no one after that?” she asked.
“I dated Lauren for a year before I opened the bar, but that didn’t end well.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I was too busy getting the bar going to focus on a relationship,” he explained. “She didn’t appreciate being put second all the time, and I can’t blame her for that.”
A soft wind swept through the branches of the trees, stirring up a quiet rustle of leaves. “Do you miss her?” she asked. “What you had with her, I mean?”
He turned his head, stared at her firmly. “There is only one woman that I want to be looking at right now.”
Her expression revealed nothing, before she glanced toward Gunner, who sang into the night.
Realizing she wasn’t going to comment on that, he switched the subject, curious about her. “What about you? Do you have heartbroken exes in your past?”
She laughed softly. “That’s highly unlikely. I’ve had two boyfriends in my life. One broke up with me for reasons I still don’t really know. And well, you know about Marcel.”
Yeah, he did. He’d like a few minutes alone with him too. Though he was curious about where she stood with him. “Have you forgiven Marcel for what he did to you?”
She snorted, meeting his gaze again. “That’s a loaded question.”
“It’s a curious question,” he countered.
“I don’t think I need to forgive him,” she said after a moment of thought. “I think forgiveness should be for people who love you. Truly love you. What Marcel did is unforgiveable, meaning he doesn’t deserve to be in my life. Leaving him was more about moving on than forgiving him.”
He found that highly unlikely. “You’ve moved on?”
Her lips parted to reply but then they shut. She glanced up at the stars above her, and he could see her eyes growing watery. “How do you move on from something like that? I’m starting over...and really, that’s all I can think of to do.”
“Do you still talk to him?”
“I talked to him once just recently to tell him to let me move on, but now I’ve blocked him,” she said. “There’s nothing he could say that could help with my healing and I refuse to be a sounding board to help him feel better from what he ruined.”
Asking the same question she had him, he asked, “Do you miss him?”
