“Exactly.”
I laugh. “Holy shit. That’s savage.”
Her face turns bright red. “My dad always says the fiancé was nothing but a ‘minor inconvenience’ to him ‘taking what he instantly knew was rightfully his.’”
I lean forward, suddenly feeling an overwhelming urge to kiss her. “Do you look like your dad?”
“I’m his twin.”
“Then it’s no wonder your mom dropped her fiancé like a bad habit when she met him. She’s only human, after all.” I touch my fingertips on Samantha’s forearm, and the simple act of touching her sends goose bumps erupting all over my body.
Our eyes are locked for a long, heated beat.
She clears her throat and takes a sip of her drink—a move that prompts me to move my hand from her arm and place it on the bar.
Slow and steady, Ryan. She’s telling you not to rush her.
“Are your parents still married?” I ask.
“Yup,” she says. “Thirty-five years.”
“Still in love?”
Her face turns red again. She nods. “My dad likes to say my mom ‘hung the moon.’”
“Oh, I like that. I’ve never heard that expression.”
“What about your parents? Still married?”
Why the fuck is my heart pounding like a steel drum all of a sudden?“Uh, yeah. And my dad definitely thinks my mom ‘hung the moon,’ too. My whole family does. She’s an incredible woman.” I swallow hard.Oh, Jesus. I don’t understand why my heart is suddenly racing.I look down at her hand on the bar, suddenly overcome with the desire to not only touch it again, but to hold it in mine. But I stop myself, fairly certain she’d pull back. I’m definitely not getting a leaps-before-she-looks vibe from this girl.
“So, did I get the job, sir?” she asks playfully, picking up her drink again.
“Not quite yet,” I reply. “There’s still one bit of information we need.” I lean my elbow onto the bar and flash her my most seductive smile. “Why thefuckhaven’t you been kissed in nine months? It’s incomprehensible to me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh my God, I’m gonna kill Charlotte.”
“I gotta assume you get hit on every day, especially in your line of work. You got something against kissing?”
“Of course not. I love kissing. I’ve just had one of those lulls that tends to happen after a break-up when you’re not a bar-hopping, Tinder-swiping kind of girl.”
“In other words, a Virgo.”
“Exactly.”
“But why not so much as a kiss? Haven’t you, you know, been on a date?”
She shakes her head.
“Wow. And you haven’t missed human contact?”
“Of course, I have.A lot. But, you know, there are mechanical substitutes for boyfriends these days.”
“Baby, there’s no substitute for the real thing.”
She blushes. “True.”
I lean forward. “Please don’t feel shy or embarrassed to talk to me. Revealing our vulnerabilities is the only way true intimacy can happen.”
