“He wasn’t,” Faith said. “Until he met Hayley.”
Hayley was young. Not as young as Faith, but young. And Jonathan wasn’t as old as Levi was.
That wasn’t relevant, either.
“I haven’t been to the bar since it changed ownership. Last I was here was...twenty years ago.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-eight. I had a fake ID.”
She laughed. “I didn’t expect that.”
“What? That I’m thirty-eight or that I had a fake ID?”
“Either.”
Her pink tongue darted out and swept across her lips, leaving them wet and inviting. Then she looked down again, taking a sip of whatever it was in her glass. He wondered if she had any idea what she was doing. Just how inviting she’d made her mouth look.
Just how starving he was.
How willing he would be to devour her.
He looked back at Mindy, who was watching him with open curiosity. She didn’t seem angry or jealous, just watching to see how her night was going to go, he imagined.
And that was exactly the kind of woman he should be talking to.
He was still rooted to the spot, though. And he didn’t make a move back toward her.
“Are you going to be too hungover after tonight to come over to my place and discuss your plans?”
She looked behind him, directly at Mindy. “I figure I should ask you the same question.”
“I’m betting I have a lot more hard-drinking years behind me than you do.”
“I’m twenty-five,” she said. Like that meant something.
“Oh, nothing to worry about, then.”
“Four whole years of drinking,” she said.
“Did you actually wait to drink until you were twenty-one?”
She blinked. “Yes.”
“You know most people don’t.”
“That can’t be true.”
He didn’t bother to hold in his laugh. “It is.”
“I’m sure the...” She frowned. “I was about to say that I’m sure my brothers did. But... I bet they didn’t.”
She looked comically shocked by that. Who was this girl? This girl who had been lauded as a genius in a hundred articles, and designed the most amazing homes and buildings he’d ever seen. And seemed to know nothing about people.
“You know the deal about the Easter Bunny, too, right?” he asked.
She twisted her lips to the side. “That he has a very fluffy tail?”
