She’d broken up with her boyfriend. He’d broken up with his girlfriend. He was returning to Hellcat Canyon for good. And she was finally leaving Hellcat Canyon for good.
Suddenly it was perfectly simple. The risk in making a move that could end their friendship suddenly seemed to evaporate in light of the fact that he might be losing her forever. And as they’d talked, they’d moved closer, and closer, and he’d reached up to pull a tiny leaf from her hair. That was a signal.
She knew it.
And she’d closed her eyes first.
As if she’d been waiting for that moment all along, too.
About two minutes later their tongues were twined and his hands were down the back of her jeans and her hands were up the front of his shirt and hot on his skin and they were just about climbing each other when a loud, tipsy cluster of friends poured into the backyard.
They sprang apart, got swept off into different cliques, and then a half hour later Eli left to work the late shift and he couldn’t find her to say good-bye.
Two nights later, he’d arrested Jonah Greenleaf for meth transportation about five feet from where they both stood now.
And BAM!
Glory had brought the full force of her stubbornness down, guillotining Eli out of her life.
She wouldn’t return his calls. No one ever answered the door at their house.
She stopped showing up for open mics at the Misty Cat.
And as the months went on, he figured she’d finally left for San Francisco.
He was left to feel like a cut live wire, arcing and sparking. Haunted by thatclickof the cuffs as his own hands had trapped Jonah’s familiar hands in them and by the expression on Glory’s face when he dragged his best friend out of there. She’d been sitting across from Jonah, nursing a beer, because she didn’t drink all that much.
But then... Eli had popped into the Misty Cat a month ago on an open mic night on a hunch when he was duty. And there she was on stage.
He’d tried calling her one more time.
No answer.
Fuck it. He knew she was hurt. He knew she was furious.
But so was he, and he had every right to be.
Maybe, in fact, more of a right than she did.
That stiffened his spine. He was here on business, so he might as well get on with it.
“Carl was a little concerned those four gentleman believe they’re playing poker for your... let’s get Victorian about it and sayfavors, Glory. Which could get ugly. Know anything about that?”
She stopped fidgeting with the coaster. “Huh.” She sounded faintly surprised.
“Where do you suppose they got that notion?”
She shot him a sidelong glance, clearly contemplating hedging. Glory was stubborn as hell, but she also knew his nickname was the Wall for more than one reason. There really was no sense in trying to get around him.
She heaved a sigh. “Well, it’s like this. They got to arguing over who could buy me a drink...”
This was a day in the life for Glory, for the most part. Men arguing over who got to do something for her.
“...and for starters, I’m the bar-back tonight. I can’t drink with them when I’m working, even if I wanted to.”
“You’reworkinghere? You’re workinghere?”
He shouldn’t have betrayed any emotion at all.
