Hayes stands in the doorframe, and yeah, I do want a shot with him. In another life, obviously, because any shot we might have had in this one is over.
“Leighton.”
I lean forward, wanting him to say my name like that again, as if he’s been waiting all day for me to show up.
The red-haired woman throws her hands in the air. “I give up. You guys are just asking for it.”
She moves to walk away, but Hayes quickly scurries out of the room and puts his arm around her shoulders, guiding her back over to me. “Rubes, I want to introduce you to Leighton. My girlfriend.”
He winks at me. I guess the whole fake dating thing has begun.
“Her?” Her eyebrows raise another inch.
I glance down at myself. “I look better out of my scrubs.”
Hayes smirks, and his gaze flows down my body and back up.
“I bet,” a guy on one of the stools says.
“I like to play doctor,” another one says.
“You two are out!” Ruby points at them. “What do you think this is, a brothel? You don’t say that shit to a woman.”
To her credit, the two men mumble an apology and toss cash on the bar top then leave.
She looks back at Hayes. “She looks too nice and too cute for you.”
I preen under her compliment even if I’m being compared to who she’s most likely seen on Hayes’s arm before. The supermodel types—gorgeous and stunning. Not me with my strawberry-blonde hair and freckles along my cheeks and nose.
“Well, Rubes, you always know just what to say.” He motions between us. “Leighton, this is Ruby. She owns the bar, and she’s like our bodyguard. Excuse her brashness, that’s just her.”
I put out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
She rolls her eyes and circles out of Hayes’s arms. “What do you drink? Never mind, I’ll just bring something the girls like.”
I raise my finger. “I’ll just take a water. I have to get home to the kids.”
Her eyebrows go another inch higher, but she disappears behind the bar.
Hayes’s eyes find mine. “Hey,” he says in that drippy, sweet, lazy way again, as if he’s been counting the minutes until he could see me.
Get a grip, Leighton. Fake—remember?
He holds out his hand and leads me into the room, shutting the door behind him.
The room is a definite man den with a pinball machine, dart boards, and a giant round table with a bunch of chairs around it. There’s also a ton of Colts paraphernalia on the walls, along with some televisions. It’s a man’s paradise apparently.
My gaze snags on Decker and Easton, who I didn’t know would be here, but at least I know them.
A man I don’t know stands and puts his hand out in front of me. “Jagger Kale.”
I slide my hand into his, lifting my bags higher on my shoulder. His palm is smooth, free of calluses, and has a softness that says he’s not big on manual labor. But damn, he’s good-looking in a rich kid bad-boy-with-money kind of way. “Leighton Sinclair.”
“Nice to meet the woman who’s been able to tame this guy.” He puts his hand on Hayes’s neck and squeezes.
“We heard you met Ruby?” Decker asks. “She grows on you.”
She’d have to, I don’t say.
