Still chuckling, she shook her head. “I can’t believe you actually bought that.”
“Why wouldn’t I? You’re a beautiful, single woman. Not that hard to imagine someone wanting to take you out for dinner and”—he made his voice low and sultry when he said— “whatever the night may bring.”
That last part made her laugh even harder. “Sarah told me you were the class clown of the group.”
“I wear the red nose with pride.”
Rolling her beautiful eyes again, this time at him, Gracie said, “Okay, so seriously. When and where would you like to meet tomorrow night?”
“You like Chinese? There’s this little restaurant called Chu’s around the corner from my place. It’s not fancy, but the food is really good. If I remember correctly, Kole said your apartment is only a few minutes from mine.”
“That’s what Sarah said, too. And Chinese is my favorite. What time?”
“How about seven? That way you have plenty of time to get everything on your to-do list done.”
“Sounds perfect. I’ll see you then, Nate.”
“See you tomorrow, Gracie.”
She turned and walked down the sidewalk. Nate waited at the door until she got into her car, giving her one last wave as she drove off.
He went back inside and shut the door, nearly running into Kole when he turned back around.
“Jesus, man. The fuck are you doing, sneaking up on people like that?”
“I wasn’t sneaking, just checking to make sure you hadn’t fallen in.”
“What?”Oh, right. Bathroom. “I was just walking Gracie out.”
“That was mighty nice of you.”
Nate had been around Kole long enough to recognize when he was saying one thing but meaning something else.
“What? We were talking about the wedding.”
“Uh, huh.”
“We were, jackass. We’re meeting up tomorrow night to figure out this whole joint bachelor-bachelorette nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense. Sarah thought it would be fun to celebrate together, and I agree.”
“That’s what the wedding reception is for, dickhead.” Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he added, “And by the way, you do realize you’re totally cheating the rest of us out of a hell of a good time, right?”
Kole’s brows turned inward. “How do you figure that?”
With a deadpan expression, Nate said, “One word. Strippers.”
Laughing, Kole shook his head. “Dude, there weren’t going to be any strippers even if wedidn’thave a joint thing.”
“Why the hell not?”
Kole put a hand on Nate’s shoulder. “I know this is hard for someone like you to believe, but when you find the one, your interest in all that other shit goes away. Like immediately.”
Nate shrugged out of Kole’s grip. “What the hell do you mean, ‘someone like me’?”
“Um…someone who’s afraid of commitment and doesn’t believe in true love. A guy who’s last, serious relationship was in the second grade with a girl named Becky who wore a pink and purple polka dotted bow in her hair.”
“It was pink and white, asshole, and Becky was a very nice girl until that fucker Max Brumwell moved into town. Bastard brings her one rose and suddenly I’m out of the picture.”
