Page 10 of Offsides

Cowboy looked at her, then to Devlin, and back at Theo, mischief rising in him. Was she really not going to look at the menu?

“You’re sure?” Devlin asked.

“Why? Do you get something weird?”

“Not at all,” he answered, a devilish smile taking over. This wasn’t just going to be good—it was going to be great. “I get the buff chick. It’s a buffalo chicken sandwich. I get it grilled, extra sauce, no bun.”

“Okay, that’s fine by me.”

“You’re sure?” Devlin asked again. “No bun?”

Theo nodded, her face a mix of curiosity as to why he’d asked multiple times, along with exasperation that the man wasn’t simply taking her order. She obviously had an agenda for the evening and wanted to move it right along. Cowboy had a better idea. They needed to inject some fun into this evening, get her to relax, and this was the perfect way to do it.

Devlin glanced back at Cowboy, who simply nodded, knowing exactly what came next. And he couldn’t wait. With a shrug and a sigh, Devlin turned back to Theo, giving her another wink.

“You don’t want my bun, hun?”

“Excuse me?” Theo responded.

“Hey, y’all!” Devlin shouted out, halfway turning toward the rest of the restaurant. “This lady isn’t stunned by my buns!”

A moment later, there was a thump on the table, stealing their attention. A round, pale sphere slightly smaller than a baseball skittered across the table. Cowboy bit back a laugh as a second, swiftly followed by a third, came flying over the booth.

“What the…” Theo squealed, looking around her trying to figure out where the carbohydrate projectiles were coming from.

Cowboy threw his head back, a loud, roaring laughter bellowing out of him. He couldn’t hold it back anymore. The look on Theo’s face was priceless—the same stunned confusion that he and Gunnar had on theirs when they had experienced this same thing for the first time.

“The place is called Bunz; you can’t not order a bun, hun,” Cowboy said.

“You just did,” she spat back.

“And the first time I did it, same thing happened to me.”

“So you set me up.”

There was no mistaking the steam that was coming out of Theo’s ears as she stared him down. Cowboy knew part of him should feel bad about tricking her like this, but the only thing he felt was excitement. He liked getting the reaction out of her—liked seeing the light show up in her eyes. Even if it was because she wanted to reach across the table and smack him. But that light did something to his insides that he still didn’t understand. He just knew that he liked it.

Way too much.

* * *

That did not just happen.

Theo’s eyes swept across the table, registering the rolls—no, buns—that were now strewn across it. Each one sat there, looking innocent, yet mocking her at the same time. Although, it wasn’t really the fault of the roll. Britt Callahan had played her.

“C’mon,” he said, his Texas drawl cutting through his laughter. “You have to admit, it’s funny.”

It was funny. Kind of. It was exactly the kind of thing that she would have loved back in college. Back when she would have let a man like the one sitting across from her now get to her. There was just something so irresistible about him. His laugh, his smile—all of it made her melt a little. Made her want to do things she knew were a bad idea. Like join in with this laughter.

You’re here to get the story, not lose yourself in his chocolate-colored eyes…

“It’s childish,” she told him, giving him a look to drive home the point that she was unamused.

Glancing to her right, she noticed their waiter, who had been a lot more attractive than she’d let on, had disappeared. Hopefully putting their order in. As much as she liked being alone with Cowboy like this, there was business to attend to. And the less amount of time she had to fight off the urge to give in to him and his devil-may-care attitude, the better.

“It was Felicity’s idea actually.”

“Felicity? As in Felicity Sutherland? She came up with the idea to throw bread at people?”