“Who me?” I asked innocently. Then I walked away to put in their order.
I had intended to go right back to their table, but I got busy helping other customers and then Brett came back and asked me a question about our schedules this coming week. Soon fifteen minutes had passed, and I hadn’t even made a complete circuit of our outdoor dining area yet.
“Table for three please,” a rough male voice asked from behind me.
I was at the edge of the seating area, picking up the tip left behind and pocketing the signed receipt in my apron, so there was no one nearby to confuse me with. I knew he was talking to me.
Even though the host stand was all the way across the makeshift dining area.
“You’ll have to check in with the hostess,” I said to Levi without looking up. “I’m not sure if we have anything available tonight.”
That was a lie. The seating area was almost empty after nine o’clock. Everyone had eaten their fill and moved to dancing on the courthouse green.
“I don’t trust the hostess to give us a good table.”
I finally stopped staring at the same spot on the stained white tablecloth in front of me and found Levi’s bright green gaze watching me. He was particularly alarming beneath the milky glow of the moon and the sparkle coming from the twinkle lights.
On closer inspection than earlier tonight, he was wearing a flannel shirt, pushed up at his forearms and a simple pair of dark wash jeans, I could hardly stand to look at him. My fingers itched to rub his closely shaved head and feel the prickly short strands against my palms. I noticed worn brown cowboy boots and nearly asked him where he’d forgotten his hat. He was like a Marlborough Man ad only without the cigarettes.
The lyrics, cowboy, take me away, suddenly danced through my thoughts like I had somehow wandered into a live-actionDawson’s Creekepisode or something.
“She’s a nice girl,” I told him, shaking my head to chase away my crazy, stupid, lustful thoughts. “Just smile at her. She’ll let you sit wherever you want. Maybe even her lap if you ask real nice.”
His low rumble of a laugh chased after me in our darkened section of the temporary seating area. “I don’t think that’s true.”
I held his gaze. “Let’s make a bet.”
“I’d rather you sat me, Ruby. I’ll smile at you if that helps.”
“It won’t,” I rushed to tell him, but he’d already loosed his weapon of mass destruction. His lips stretched over straight white teeth and that dangerous dimple appeared just to the left of his mouth. I felt my knees tremble and willed my body to keep from accidentally swooning. “I’m immune to your charm.”
“You always have been.”
That wasn’t exactly true, now was it? Not that I’d admit that to him. Or anyone. I barely admitted it to myself.
My hand landed on my hip in frustration. “Then why are you bugging me to take you to a table?”
“Why are you acting like I’m the bug you tried to squish that just won’t die?”
Leaning forward, I finally lost my cool and snapped, “Why won’t you just die? Maybe that’s a better question!” But I instantly thought of Logan and regretted my words. I wanted to snatch them from the air between us and shove them back in my mouth. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have taunted him like that.
He didn’t seem to notice my faux pas though. He was entirely fixated on something else. Me. He took three steps and closed the distance between us, towering over me. I wondered if he could crush me with his brute strength and gigantic hands.
I wondered if he was about to try.
“The last time we were together I kissed you, Ruby. And don’t tell me you were drunk. I know you remember.”
Nibbling on my bottom lip, I ignored the pain that slashed across my chest. “How do you know I remember?”
“Because it was a damn near unforgettable kiss,” he growled, his mouth just inches from mine.
My throat dried out and I struggled to swallow. He could kiss me again. Right now. Just like the first time.
It had truly been an unforgettable kiss. It had been my first real kiss and nothing I’d ever experienced had ever been able to compete with it—no matter how hard I’d tried. It had been passion and promise, anger and truth. He’d kissed me on the balcony of Kristen’s house and I knew I would never be the same again.
And then he’d gone back inside to find Kristen and I’d slept with his older brother.
His older brother that was dead now.
