“We aren’t?” Sunny asks, laughing, sipping her cosmo through the straw between bright-red lips.
“I thought we were going out for drinks with friends?”
“We are, but if a sexy piece of man like Levi Soucy looks at me, I’ll be bowing out of here. No offense,” Sunny says.
“None taken.”
“Hold up,” Jace says, putting his finger in the air. “What makes a guy like Levi Soucy better than any other guy here? And you can’t say because he’s a pro football player. That’s obvious.”
“Well, I don’t know if you’ve looked at him lately, but his mama and daddy killed it in the genes department. He’s so sexy. He’s got that confident thing going on, too.”
I mean, I would chime in, but it sounds like Sunny has this handled. I sip a little more of my vodka soda, enjoying the topic of this conversation.
“Also, at the risk of sounding like a gold digger, money. And I’m not saying a guy has to be a millionaire—though let’s face it, he is—but the fact that he asked to buy us a round. I went out on a date with a guy on Wednesday, and he asked me to pay for my own appetizer because he thinks appetizers are a waste of money.”
Both Jace and I grimace.
“Then he went and ate half!”
“What?” I exclaim. “The nerve!”
“You have no idea. I cut out early and ended up paying for my whole meal myself, which I’m not saying I wouldn’t date a guy who can’t afford to buy me a meal, but maybe he could have pitched it as a getting-to-know-one-another meal. We both pay for ourselves. It’s just the expectation of thinking we were doing something different.”
“And the fact that he ate half your appetizer that he didn’t want!”
Jace chuckles. “You seem a little too mad about that part.”
“Don’t mess with my food. I bet he didn’t even ask.” I turn to Sunny. “Did he ask?”
She shakes her head, but she’s distracted, and when I follow her gaze, I spot Levi heading our way again. And several women tagging along behind him. When he sets our drinks down, he turns toward them. “Hey y’all. I’m out with friends. Would you mind giving us some space tonight, darlin’s?”
“Darlin’s?”
No one hears my surprise at the word. Sunny because she’s too busy staring at Levi like he’s the chosen one, and Jace because he’s staring at the retreating girls with a frown. This is quite the group we got here.
“Sorry about that.”
“No problem,darlin’,” I tease.
Levi’s cheeks glow with a hint of red. “I find it works better when I’m nice instead of telling them I really don’t want attention right now.”
“You would know best. The rest of us peons don’t have people following us around.”
“That must be tough,” Sunny sympathizes.
Levi starts to say something with a big grin on his face, but then he peers over at me. “It can be. Anonymity when you’re me is hard to come by.”
“Spoken like a true self-absorbed man.”
He cocks his head at me, and I smile to let him know I’m joking. Maybe. I think I am, but that jealousy is rising up. Those women were wearing barely there dresses with their shoulders and arms showing. I’m sitting here sweltering in a long-sleeved shirt. Tennessee is not the climate to keep covered up all the time, especially in a crowded bar.
Levi downs his shot, then taps the table again. “Okay, which one of you ladies wants to dance with me first?”
“Me!” Sunny nearly shouts.
I start laughing, and Sunny grimaces while she composes herself.
“Come on, then,” Levi says, leading her out to the dance floor.
