Page 14 of Off the Mark
“Here you go, Eddie. A sibling for Pam,” he said, carefully placing the ball of fur in the arms of this Eddie. “She seems sweet too. Whaddya think you’ll name her?”
He gazed at the kitten with a deep affection. With one finger, he stroked the top of her head. “I told Pam that if I got her a sister, I would name her Tiffany.”
Rowan’s lips twitched at the ends. “That’s a lovely name. She looks like a…like a Tiffany, doesn’t she?”
Then his eyes rose, and he finally spotted me. He went utterly still, brows knitted together like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
I stepped fully into the sunlight. “Hey, Rowan. It’s been awhile.”
His throat worked on a swallow. He blinked. Blushed. “Charlie?”
The man with the kitten—Eddie—turned and nodded when he saw me. “I’m not sure who the hell you are, but anyone who can make Rowan look like he got walloped upside the head is okay in my book.”
I arched an eyebrow Rowan’s way. His lips were already quirking upward. “You always knew how to stop me in my tracks, Maddox.”
“And you always knew how to flirt your way into a free drink.”
Now a full, dazzling smile broke across his face. Gaze still glued to mine, he said, “Yo, Eddie. This is Charlie Maddox. She’s a pro dirt bike racer. Charlie, this is Eddie. He works with me at the center but more importantly has lived across the street for most of my life. So I’ve known him since…” He paused. “Well, since I moved in with my grandmother.”
I extended my hand and shook Eddie’s, aware that this man must have played a crucial role in Rowan’s upbringing. I’d only ever heard Rowan talk about his parents passing away when he was four a handful of times, if at that.
“Nice to meet ya, Charlie. And how do you two know each other?”
“She’s an old friend,” Rowan said, as I replied, “I was his bartender.”
An awkward beat of silence passed until I stammered out, “And friend. Yep.”
“To her credit, Maddox here was an extremely friendly bartender,” Rowan added.
My eyes slid back to his. “You always told me I scowled too much and had terrible banter.”
“Perhaps it’s more truthful to say that you were a friendly bartenderatme, notwithme.”
His tone was playful, so I must have imagined the split-second of frustration on his face when I’d botched that first description of who we’d once been to each other.
Eddie scratched the kitten’s tiny ears. “Whatever this is, I’ll let you figure that out in private.” He shuffled off and tossed a wave over his shoulder. “Tell Dean I’ll be back in tomorrow.”
“But you’re scheduled to work with him today,” Rowan called back.
“I gotta get this kitten home now. He’ll be fine on his own.”
Eddie kept walking, and Rowan made a low sound of annoyance. “Never become an interim executive director.”
“What?”
He shook his head, refocusing on me, and I stepped back. I’d forgotten what it was like to be on the receiving end of Rowan’s full, unwavering attention. My stomach did that fluttery flip motion again.
“It’s not that I’m not happy to see you, because I am.Extremelyfucking happy,” he said.
Flip flip flip.
“But what the hell are you doing in South Philly, of all places?”
I took a deep, steadying breath. “Is it too cliché to say that I’ve got a proposition for you?”
Rowan’s response was a leisurely, crooked grin.
And it was pure sin.
