“Don’t worry. I don’t do well with first dates either.”
“That’s not the way it looks. You seem so calm and at ease.”
“Well, I’ve been on a lot of first dates over the past three years.”
My stomach dropped at his words. “How many is a lot?”
For the first time since I walked through the door, he looked uncomfortable. “Um…probably one every couple of weeks.”
I swallowed hard. “Weeks?”
He nodded, taking the wine from Lizzy. The long sip he drank made me a little nervous. Was he a heavy drinker? Was I going to have to slip out of here in an hour when he was too wasted to talk without spilling wine everywhere? God, I should have stuck to Tuesdays and Thursdays, but stupid me wanted an actual date night.
“Sounds pretty terrible, doesn’t it?”
“Um…no,” I lied, picking up my own wine and taking a long sip to hide how uncomfortable I was.
“It’s okay,” he chuckled. “You can say it. I just freaked you out.”
“Not at all,” I croaked out.
“It’s not like I’m a serial dater. I just…” He sighed, resting his elbows on the table, leaning toward me. “Can I be honest with you?”
I held my breath, terrified of what he was going to tell me. Honesty was supposed to be a good thing, but what if he told me that he was super picky or that he murdered all his previous dates, and that’s why he had to keep going on new ones?
That was highly unlikely, but just to be sure, I checked out how many men were in the bar that might be able to intervene if this guy decided to drag me out by my hair and kidnap me.
“Sure,” I answered, hoping I didn’t sound like I was terrified.
“The reason I’ve been dating so much is because…the last woman I was with broke my heart.”
His eyes dropped to the table. For the first time tonight, he was hiding from me, embarrassed by his admission.
“Oh,” I said breathlessly.
“She uh…” He huffed out a laugh, finally meeting my eyes again. “She found someone new, but didn’t tell me until she had already decided to marry the guy.”
“What?”
Okay, now I was just pissed on his behalf.
“I should have seen it coming. I mean, she was always on edge, always had one foot out the door. But I kept trying because I was falling for her. It was stupid,” he laughed, shaking his head. “And now I’m spoiling this date.”
“No.” I slid my hand across the table, squeezing his hand in commiseration. “I actually know what that feels like.”
“Yeah?”
“Not a great feeling.”
“Who the hell would ever walk out on you?”
I sucked in a breath as Ryder walked to the bar at that very moment and turned to face me. His eyes locked on the way I held Garret’s hand, and there was no mistaking the anger on his face.
I quickly pulled my hand away, then cursed myself for allowing Ryder to get to me when I was on a date.
“That’s him, huh?” Garret asked, his eyes landing on Ryder. “Seems a little jealous.”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t have a right to.”
