“Fair enough.”
Rocco hesitated. “I saw Carolyn last night at that party.”
“No shit! Why didn’t you say something? Did she—see you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. She texted me.”
“What did she say?”
“Just that she wanted to talk and she wished me a happy New Year.”
“Did you text her back?”
“No.”
“Oh, well, I’m sorry I brought her up.”
“You didn’t. At least not directly. But you did bring up the issue of trust. I’m sure she won’t be the last woman I can’t trust.”
He ran his tongue over his lower lip, thinking of that woman at the bar. He’d never been bitten by a woman before.
He wondered what her reaction would have been had he been the one to do that to her, recalling his attempt to swing her around and put her back up against the wall. That slick move of hers had caught him off guard.
He wished now he hadn’t kissed her. If he hadn’t, maybe he wouldn’t be thinking of her now.
Then again, he hadn’t kissed her. She’d kissed him.
“Carolyn always needs to be in the driver’s seat,” Rocco muttered. “Like that woman last night.”
“What woman?”
“What’s that?”
“You mentioned a woman last night.”
Rocco hadn’t realized he’d said that out loud. He hadn’t meant to.
He shrugged. “That woman at the bar.”
“The one who took all your money?”
Rocco nodded.
He could shake off the loss of the money.
But the woman. She was like a thorn that had gotten under his skin. Thinking about her now was like picking at that thorn—not to remove it but just to drive it in deeper.
He didn’t like that things had ended on her terms, both inside and outside the bar.
“Why do you suppose she chose me?” Rocco asked.
“Carolyn?” Dario laughed. “Because you’re a pretty boy?”
Rocco’s brow wrinkled as he surveyed Dario’s perfectly symmetrical features, sparkling blue eyes, and dazzling smile. “That’s you, not me. And I didn’t mean Carolyn. I meanthat womanat the bar.”
“What do you mean, chose you? She probably played pool with lots of guys. Wasn’t she playing when we got there?”
Rocco shook his head. “No, she arrived after us. But you’re right, she did play with a couple other guys. Only she didn’t play them like she played me.”
