Page 21 of The Arrangement
“I just… Why?” I leaned back and gestured at the building.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it.” He rubbed his thumb firmly along the side of my neck, and holy wow, that felt nice. “I’m more impressed you have a bona fide Irish pub down here,” he said, shaking his head to underscore his disbelief and sadly removing his hand. “We can always come back another day, or for dinner.”
I turned to look at McSharry’s and glimpsed my reflection in the rearview mirror.Holy shit, am I pouting?I quickly cleared my expression. “Okay, yeah, we can do that. Luckily, there are plenty of places to grab a bite in the French Quarter.” I put us in reverse, then drove us back toward the heart of town, calling out likely options and pointedly excluding the predominantly seafood joints. “What about the Honey Baked Ham Company? They’ll have a little bit of everything.”
He scrunched his nose, and I nearly choked in my effort not to snort a laugh. That had no right to be as cute as it was. “We could.Orwe could go to Panini Pete’s, which has literally over a thousand more reviews and isn’t a massive chain,” he countered.
“Huh, I haven’t been there in a month of Sundays.” I flicked the blinker on, glad to have a trajectory. JD gave me a strange look. “What?”
“I’m assuming that’s a euphemism, but I swear your Southern phrases are getting stranger by the day.”
I gaped at him. “They are not.”
“Oh, they totally are. Your accent is coming out, too.”
“Excuse you,Sergeant. I donothave an accent.”
He raised an eyebrow and levelled a look at me. “Do you really want me to repeat how you just said that?”
I opened my mouth to dare him, then promptly reconsidered and hunkered lower in my seat and grumbled, “No.” I stayed “sulled up like a ‘possum” as Great Aunt Petunia would say until we pulled into the nearest parking spot to Panini Pete’s.
“Hey,” JD said, placing his hand on my arm and halting me from getting out of the car. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. Despite what some low-brow Neanderthals might think, having a twang doesn’t make you any less intelligent.” Hearing the word “twang” come out of his mouth was just plainwrong. He squeezed my arm, refocusing my attention on the slight smile twitching on his lips. “Besides, the accent is cute.” He winked and released my arm, then slid out of the car as if itwasn’ttwo sizes too small for him.
Oh, it was like that, was it? Lure me into a false sense of security, then hit me with the flirting when I least expected it. Well, two could play that game. Maybe. Well, one of us could try, anyway. Success may vary. Damn, I really needed to work on my internal pep talks. Seriously, why couldn’t I do casual and where was Alex when I needed her?
I was mid-miserable groan when I remembered I had Alex in my pocket. Well, her responses anyway.This should be interesting. I opened the message thread, keeping an eye over the phone so I didn’t run into anything or anyone as I trailed after JD toward the restaurant.
Marc: from a guy
Alex: still don’t c the prob
Marc: that’s not the prob
Marc: it’s the guy helping me fix the shop
Alex: we figured out you were demi ages ago. What’s the biggie?
Marc: well not that guy. Jones bailed. Sent someone else
Marc: he’s the issue
Marc: and bj source
Alex: is he hot?
Marc: it’s Gallagher
Alex: HOLY SHIT
Marc: as in saved my ass from dying, Sgt. James Gallagher
Alex: HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!
Marc: JD Gallagher had my dick in his mouth
Marc: and it might have been the single hottest thing of my life
Marc: and I was in a fucking DESERT
