Penny was content to sit in my lap now that the danger had passed. She was also happy to take the treats Henrietta kept passing to her. Grapes, crackers, cheese, you name it and she devoured it. Once the gifts stopped coming, she began licking her paws to then clean her face with.
“How long have you been coming here?” Pyre asked me as he waited for Margaret to decide if she was going to hit or stand.
“Oh… A little while,” I said.
“A couple times a month since she moved here,” Norma answered, squinting at her cards.
Pyre gave me a panty-melting smile. “Seems like you ladies know her pretty well.”
“We do,” Henrietta confirmed.
Margaret finally tapped the table, indicating she wanted another card. “Better than she thinks we do.”
His grin widened as he passed Margaret her card. “Really? So if I wanted to get to know her on a deeper level and she keeps politely evading those questions…”
“Oh, we can help you there,” Norma said with a conspiring wink.
“Okay,” I gasped. “I think that’s enough of that.” I plunked Penny down in Henrietta’s lap and tugged on Pyre’s bicep. My eyes widened as I realized just how big it was. He was so muscular. Of course I knew he was, I had eyes, but feeling all that power flexing under my hand as he set the cards down and stood up just brought the fact into sharp focus.
Oh, how I want to be gripping those when he…
“Looks like my girl here doesn’t want me talking to you three,” Pyre told them with a chuckle. “I’ll be back for the goods.”
“His girl,” Norma said with a smug look at the other two. “Told you it was a man making her glow like that.”
Pyre’s eyebrows shot up as his grin just got wider and wider as I dragged him—he let me—away from the women.
My face was flaming hot as I eyed him out in the little hallway that led to the rec center. There were less eyes on us out here. “What are you doing here, Pyre?” I asked.
Besides embarrassing me?
I didn’t ask that question out loud. Studying his face, I waited for his answer.
He shrugged. “Like I said, I saw your car here.”
“What was that?” I asked, waving a hand back toward the room where my friends were sitting.
“Just trying to learn more about you.”
“You could ask me,” I pointed out. Being the center of attention like that had me all flushed and jittery. Blending into the background was more my speed, not being talked about like I wasn’t even sitting there, but also having every eye on me.
“I have. We’ve had two dates and all I’ve learned about you is that your parents live over in Cheyenne and you have some brothers. I already know about your work.” He was watching me with a patient look on his face. “Every time I try to learn more you evade the questions.”
“I don’t,” I insisted, thinking back to our dates and trying to figure out if I’d done that.
“Oh right. You told me you wanted ten kids.” His lips lifted into a smirk.
Clearing my throat, I conceded to myself that maybe I hadn’t told him much. That was probably a subconscious thing I’d started doing after too many dates had crashed and burned.Hard to scare them off if you don’t tell them much. Add to that, it had been a very long time since I’d had practice dating. And none of that was fair to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was doing that,” I admitted.
“I know. But you can’t blame me for gathering intel when the opportunity presents itself.”
I let out a huff of a laugh. “You still speak as though you’re in the military. That’s how my brothers talk, too.”
“See? Didn’t realize your brothers were military.” He crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at me.
“Fine,” I told him. “I’ll tell you more about myself the next time we…hang out.”
“Tomorrow night,” he said. “Movie night at my place.”
