Page 63 of When the Walls Come Down
“Is this seat taken?” a man asked in a low rumble.
I put my chin to my shoulder and found a tall, muscular guy with a dense sleeve of tattoos standing behind me. He was good-looking. Nice smile. A few weeks ago, I’d have entertained a conversation. Tonight though…
“Um, yeah. Sorry. I’m meeting someone.”
He extended a hand. “I’m Eric.”
“Nice to meet you,” I mumbled, turning back to my drink.
His large body filled my peripheral vision as he straddled Shane’s stool. “Want some company while you wait?”
It was safe to say I did not. “Actually—”
That was all I got out of my mouth before I heard, “Hey, buddy, she said the seat was taken. Back off.”
My head snapped up and I found Chris glaring from across the bar. He was a decent-sized guy with a sharp wit. But up until that point, I wouldn’t have thought of him as threatening. However, with his eyes narrowed to slits and his lips forming a thin, hard line, I was reconsidering.
Eric’s head swung back and forth between me and Chris and then he lifted his hands in surrender. “Sorry, man. Didn’t mean anything by it.”
Chris waved two fingers to the other end of the bar, and good ole Eric followed. He stood up and gave me a curt nod just in time for Shane to slide into his place.
“Jesus, Peach. Could you put the pheromones away for the night?” Shane said, throwing Chris a pointed chin-jerk.
“Is Chris your guard dog now?” I asked.
He got busy with the buttons at his wrists and then rolling the sleeves on his white shirt up his forearms. “Actually, I think he’s your guard dog. But his tip just went way up for tonight as far as I’m concerned.” He looked up, his browns finally finding my blues, and smiled. “Hey.”
I smiled right back, grinning ear to ear like a freaking giddy schoolgirl.
The thick stubble on his jaw was teetering into beard territory, and damn if that wasn’t sexy. But, then again, it was Shane. There wasn’t much I didn’t find sexy.
“Hey,” I replied, wishing this were a different dimension. Preferably one in which he leaned over and kissed my face off.
As it stood, he shot me a wink and loosened his tie. “So, how’s it going?”
“You know. Same old, same old.”
He eyed me skeptically. “Is that a double?”
“Chris brought it over before I ordered. But it was not unwelcomed.”
As if on cue, Chris reappeared in front of us. “Are we eating or just drinking tonight, guys?”
“Both,” Shane replied, quirking an eyebrow at me in silent question.
“Same.”
He patted the bar. “Okay. Two of our usual. Hers with ranch. Mine without. And a beer. I’ll do a…” He leaned around him to see what was on tap. “Honeybee Brown.”
Awww, we had a usual. God, we were cute.
“Gotcha,” Chris replied, placing two waters in front of us before walking away.
“So, how was your week?” I asked.
The side of his mouth twitched. “It was great until this woman I work with decided to torture me. She sat in the office across from mine, chewing on the tip of her pen like she was Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office.”
I shrugged. “It could be worse. This guy I work with bent over in front of my office just to show me his ass. You have no idea how close I came to murdering him.”
His mouth fell open, but it did nothing to hide his smile.
Yeah. Okay. That was a little past friendship. But Shane and I could do that. For fuck’s sake, the man had sent me a hundred-dollar showerhead/vibrator. There wasn’t much we couldn’t say to each other.
Chris dropped off his beer and Shane clinked it with my glass before taking a sip.
“So, anyway,” he said. “Snake-charming coworkers aside, how was the rest of your week? Did you talk to your family?”
“Yeah. We FaceTimed. I got to talk to a few of my nieces this morning before work. With the time difference during the week, it’s hard. By the time I get home, they’re already in bed. I woke up at five and got to see them while they got ready for school. It was so damn cute. Shelby has recently started talking in complete sentences, but I can only understand like a third of what she says. Luckily, Clare was there to translate, but at one point, Tessa couldn’t find her shoes, so she left the iPad with Shelby and let me just tell you.” I paused, suddenly realizing how incredibly boring this had to be for him. I waved a hand between us, dismissing the conversation. “Never mind. I’ll spare you the details, but it was great being able to see them again.”
“What? Don’t spare me the details. What’d she do?”
“Come on. You don’t want to hear all about that. Let’s debate something random and fun like…what your name would be if you were ever forced into the Witness Protection Program?”
