Page 14 of Bombshell (Whiskey Dolls 1)

The guy pulled a small black folio from his apron pocket and placed it on the table with a smile before taking off.

“I’ve got this,” I said, quickly reaching across the table to grab the check before she could.

“Oh, no. You don’t have to do that,” she insisted as I leaned to the side to grab my wallet from my back pocket. “Really. I can—”

“I insist,” I said as I flipped through my wallet and pulled out my credit card. “Even if the date was a complete shitshow, that asshole still should have paid for dinner. On the behalf of all men, let me make it right.”

Marin’s sharp inhale pulled my attention back to her just in time to see her eyes drift down to my lips, and I realized the smile I was giving her just then didn’t feel forced or plastic.

Eli was the only person in my world who could get a genuine smile out of me, and all he had do to earn one was simply breathe. My boy was the only bit of light I’d had over the past several years, so over time my smiles had grown brittle and forced around everyone but him. However, in the past few minutes, I’d had more fun with someone who wasn’t my son than I’d probably had in the past six years combined, and that realization was a punch of guilt straight to my chest.

Marin’s eyelids hooded. Her chest rose on an inhale as she stared at my mouth, and hand to God, just having her look at my mouth like that made my dick twitch.

That feeling was accompanied by a voice in the back of my head screaming that this was a huge fucking mistake. A frigid chill worked its way down my spine like a bucket of ice had been dumped right over my head.

It took everything I had to keep from shooting to my feet and bolting for the door. However, before I had a chance to react in any way, Marin’s eyes bugged out and for some inexplicable reason, she threw herself out of her chair.

“Shit,” she hissed as she crawled behind the table on her hands and knees. “Shit, shit, shit!”

“Uh... something wrong?” I asked as my gaze darted around the restaurant to see that she’d garnered the attention of several other diners as well. Apparently I wasn’t the only one wondering what in the hell this beautiful woman was doing crawling around on the floor.

“Yes,” she whispered emphatically while tossing her head back to look at me and blowing wayward strands of golden hair out of her face. “You see that guy who just walked in? The one over by the bar?”

I forced my mind off the fact that her face was now dangerously close to my crotch, and my gaze shot in that direction. But I couldn’t possibly distinguish the guy she was talking about from all the other men gathered around the bar. It was bordering on 8:00, so that area was filling up steadily with people coming in from work. “Which guy?”

Her head peeked out over the top of the table so she could scan the area. “Blue button-down, sleeves rolled up, dirty blond hair. The one sitting next to the woman in the tight red dress.”

I definitely saw the red dress. It was impossible to miss in a way that the woman wearing it had more than likely intended. Low cut, skin tight, and short enough to reveal a large expanse of smooth thigh when she sat on the barstool and crossed her legs. It was the kind of dress that screamed for attention.

“Okay, yeah. I see him. So what’s the big deal? You know him or something?”

She snorted indelicately, and damn if it wasn’t adorable as hell. “Yeah, I know him. He’s my brother-in-law.”

I looked down at her with an arched brow. “Then why are you hiding instead of going over to say hi?”

She looked up at me with an expression that read like I was the stupidest kid in school. “Because that woman he’s with isnotmy sister.”

Oh. “Oh.”

“Yeah,oh.” She continued to whisper-yell. “My sister is currently at home, taking care of their two kids and their household all by herself because her husband is supposedly always too busy at work to come home at a reasonable hour to spend time with his family.”

My head whipped back around to study the couple. The woman in red leaned in close, twisted in his direction as they spoke, but the man stayed straight on his stool, his body facing the bar. “Maybe it’s not what you’re thinking,” I suggested, but it sounded weak, even to my own ears. His body language might not have been giving anything away, but hers most certainly was.

“What are they doing now?”

I looked down at her with a bewildered expression. “You want me to spy on them for you?”

Her pretty features twisted up in aduh. “Well, I can’t do it! If he sees me, the jig is up.”

I had to swallow back my laugh and bite the corner of my mouth to keep from smiling again. Fuck me, but she was cute as hell. Ireallyshould have gone home as soon as my own dinner ended. When the hell would I learn?

“Um, excuse me.” At the sound of the newcomer’s voice, Marin and I both looked over to see the waiter standing there, shifting from foot to foot with uncertainty. “Is everything okay?”

“Yep,” Marin answered brightly. “Just lost a contact is all.”

“Do you need some help?”

“Oh, no. I’ll find it. But thank you.”

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