The man, Trick, who happened to also be the owner, laughed.
“Not many chicks can roll up in here and eat those,” he said. “But I’ve heard the same from a few of them.” He jerked his head toward the table. “You have any suggestions on better recipes?”
Actually, I did.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll email them to you. Just get me your email address.”
He reached into his back pocket, pulled out a card, and then tossed it onto my table.
I only looked at it as I finished off my food.
“Do you mind if I join you for the rest of the meal?” Benji asked.
I looked over at the table he’d been previously occupying to see his date, pissed and glaring daggers at the two of us.
Upon seeing me, I would’ve expected him to leave her to come to me, honestly. Most people had a reaction when they saw me.
I was what you would call a ‘buxom beauty.’
I knew that I had a great body. It wasn’t that I was conceited or anything, I wasn’t. Far from it.
But I’d been told since I’d grown boobs that I was beautiful.
A ‘dark and sensual beauty’ as my tenth-grade science teacher and gym coach had called me.
Not that I’d shared my coach’s viewpoints with anyone. But he was just one of many who’d stated my loveliness.
CHAPTER 4
Every day I wake up and think ‘today I’m going to be nice.’ Let me tell you something, life never works out that way.
-Bruno’s secret thoughts
BRUNO
The day had been… long.
Honestly, there were many features of this day that had contributed to the ‘longness.’
I’d woken up this morning and set out to feed the animals and had found two of them dead from an attack in the night.
After taking care of that, I’d gotten a flat tire on the way to the strip club I helped Lynn manage.
I did the books for eight of his ten businesses, and the only reason I didn’t do it on the other two was that there just wasn’t enough fuckin’ time in the day.
After dealing with the flat tire, getting a ride from a buddy into town, procuring a new tire, and then heading back out to the motorcycle, I’d found the goddamn thing twisted like a pretzel and an elderly lady looking at it from her Cadi like she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it.
That was one of the problems with riding motorcycles, though. They were just hard to see.
Though, this one had its flashers on way off the road, so honest to God, she had no reason to smash into it.
So, after having it towed to the impound yard and getting an insurance collector to take a look at it, I’d gone home to get my spare bike and had started my day at least four hours later than I’d intended.
Needless to say, when I’d arrived at the bar, way later than usual, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with bullshit.
But that was what I saw the moment that I breached the door.
Bullshit.
I’d gone on a couple of dates with the woman that was currently standing in front of me with pleading eyes.
She wasn’t my girlfriend, no matter how badly she wanted to be, or Six wanted her to be.
In fact, I was still trying to decide if I liked her enough to have sex with her.
She struck me as an entanglement that I didn’t want to have any part of.
She also struck me as the type to accidentally get pregnant and say, ‘Oh, no! Whoops! Now you have to marry me.’
Well, honestly, I was glad to have a reason not to have anything to do with her now.
It would get Six off my back for a while, and it would also mean that I could get my pleasures… elsewhere.
Like the leggy dark-haired brunette at the table next to us going to town on some chicken wings and beer.
The one with the mouth who’d written me off with a resounding ‘no’ when Six had messaged her in hopes of us ‘hooking up’ on the dating website.
Seeing her in person, I knew that I would need to make a bit more of an effort to get her to change her mind.
Because there was just something about her…
“Bruno, won’t you talk to me?”
I’d rather talk to the voices in my head.
Eye twitching, I peeled my eyes away from Belle at the next table to see the reason for my upcoming headache staring at me with sadness in her eyes.
Sadness that she had no reason directing at me since I wasn’t the one that was all lovey-dovey with another man when I walked in.
And, just sayin’, but she said that she was ‘goin’ out with the girls tonight.’
That man was most certainly not a girl.
“I haven’t seen Benji in a very long time,” Briana promised. “It was just a friendly hug.”
“Sure, a friendly hug where you suck his tongue into your mouth,” Belle offered. “You know, you’re kind of blocking my light, and it’s really hard to see the words on the page. Do you mind stepping back far enough that there aren’t shadows? Since, you know, you aren’t leaving?”
Again, the way she delivered the punches, even verbal ones, were making my heart lighten with each word that came out of her mouth.
Benji, startled by her words, automatically took a step back, which put him closer to Briana.
Briana looked at him, tensed, and then took a step away from him as if she was worried.
I just rolled my eyes.
“Briana, honey. There was nothing to save here.” I gestured between me and her with my beer bottle. “We’re new. I get that. And I’m okay with you finding someone you like.” I took a swig of my beer, groaning. “Damn that’s good.”
“I agree.” Belle offered up her two cents. “This is the best beer I’ve had in years. And I don’t even like dark beers.”
Briana started to argue, of course, making Trouper who was beside me groan.
“Can’t you take this outside?” Belle asked. “This is really messing with my vibe. I’m at the part where they first meet and are getting that love connection, and you’re screwing it up.”
My lips twitched. “No reason to take it outside. Have a good one, Briana.”
Briana opened her mouth to continue her arguing but someone called her name. A woman dressed to the nines in a short black dress, big hair, and so much makeup that I could tell it was too much all the way across the bar.
“This isn’t over,” Briana promised.
“Them’s fightin’ words,” Belle singsonged as she returned to her book. “Oh, damn. Didn’t see that coming.”
It was at that point that I knew she’d gone back to her book.
For the rest of the night, I watched her.
She sat there, ordered two more beers, had a hamburger and french fries to go with her hot wings, and finished the damn book before she started to call it a night.
Sadly, as she was walking out, I got a call from Lynn that had me stepping out before her and not getting to see her to her car like I’d intended.
I did watch from a distance, though, as she got into a sweet little Pontiac GTO and drove off without a single glance in my direction.
Damn.
Girl was smokin’ and she drove a nice car.
A very lethal combination.