Page 87 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

“I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say you’re a master of none...”

The air around them sharpened. “Now, Elizabeth, you told me that you didn’t speak double entendre, but if I am not mistaken, that was some great dirty talk.”

“I really wasn’t trying to. But I guess it was.”

She sneaked a look at him from the corner of her eye. He kept his eyes on the road. To the best of his ability.

“It’s so weird to be going out. Even when I don’t have Benny back at home... I guess it isn’t my home anymore. But I mean, back in real life. It’s not my real life. That’s where we used to be. Even then, it isn’t like I went out because he was gone. And now, here I am, exploring the bustling nightlife of Pyrite Falls.”

“You are going to be sorely disappointed if you think the nightlife is bustling.”

“You go out, though,” she said, and he could hear the euphemism in that too.

“Yeah. I do. But I live here. And... I’m not a relationship guy, as we’ve established.”

“You’re a sex guy, though,” she said.

She surprised him when she was bold. He didn’t know why. Because in spite of her smooth appearance, he’d learned she was no shrinking violet. The woman who had weathered the heartbreak that she had, the disappointment. The woman who had moved from home to home as a child. Of course she was tough. Strong. Of course she wasn’t afraid. Of course, even though she was reserved in some ways, she was also bold. Why wouldn’t she be? She’d had to forge her own way, and she had damn well done it.

He could only be in awe of her.

“Yeah,” he said. “I am.”

“Hence the bustling-nightlife stuff.”

“I guess so. I mean, it’s a great way to forge flimsy relationships based on lust and alcohol, and that tends to be my speed.”

“Noted.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

“I just don’t know how to do it,” she said. “And I’m not sure that I could, even if I did. Or that I would want to. My only experience with that kind of thing is... Getting in too deep too fast. Well. Then, there’s you. But I suppose that’s where it’s best left as a one-off.”

“Yeah,” he said. “That was my thought.”

His body disagreed. Vehemently.

Thankfully, right then they pulled up to the front of Smokey’s Tavern, which was hopping, because it was getting to be close to the holidays, and people tended to get real sad this time of year, so the alcohol consumption tended to go up. Also, a lot of people’s mother-in-laws were probably in town, and they were avoiding them by sitting on the barstools and drinking beers, rather than hanging out at home.

No one could be blamed for that.

“This looks rustic,” she said.

“It’s Pyrite Falls, Lizzie, everything is rustic.” He didn’t know where that had come from, and she looked stricken when he said it.

“Elizabeth,” she said.

“Sorry.”

It wasn’t just that she didn’t like it, he could see that. It was something more. He wondered if Carter had called her that. That douchebag.

He went around to the passenger side of the truck again, but she was out before he could open the door for her, and then she was walking inside without waiting for him. He caught up to her, holding the door open. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

When he walked inside, the first person he noticed was his brother.

And Lachlan looked at him with an expression on his face that put Brody in the mind of someone who’d been slapped with a mackerel.

He put his hand on Elizabeth’s back, and realized he probably shouldn’t have done that. But it was too late. He guided her over to where Lachlan sat. “Hey,” he said. “I brought Elizabeth with me. She hasn’t been here before.”

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