Page 16 of Fall With Me

“Whatever.”

“I have a younger brother, though.” He placed his hands on either side of me and dipped his chin. As close as we were, I could see that his eyes were more green than brown. And holy mother of pearls, we were ascloseas My Little Ponies. “And Roxy, I do not see the wordsisterwhen I think of you.”

“Oh?” My glasses started to slip down my nose.

“I’d totally get with you,” he announced. Just like that. Bam. Right in my face.

My eyes widened as shock jolted through me. Never in a gazillion years had Nick shown any interest in me. “Um ...”

His lips curled up in a half grin. “But then I couldn’t work here anymore, so that isn’t going to happen. I’d probably make an exception for you, but that’s not the main reason why I wouldn’t ...” He moved one hand and tapped the tip of my nose. “Go there with you.”

I stared at him a moment, flattered, and ... yeah, dumbfounded. “Thanks. I think.”

He winked and then pushed off the bar. Grabbing the towel off his shoulder, he picked up a spray cleaner and spritzed the bar top. It took a moment for my brain to start working again. I fixed my glasses.

“Well, I’d ... totally do you, too, but then it would just be awkward.”

Nick chuckled.

“So ... you really, truly just hook up with chicks and then never see them again?” Curiosity might’ve killed the cat, but it was my best friend.

“I don’t do commitments.”

“Seeing someone more than once isn’t a commitment,” I reasoned with what I thought was valid logic. “I mean, I can almost get not hooking up with someone more than once, but seeing them?”

He looked over his shoulder at me. “It’s just the way I am.”

“Okay,” I murmured, shaking my head. “Aren’t you just a heartbreaker?”

A snicker was my only response. We finished up shortly after what I was considering to be a really weird night at Mona’s. I had the keys, so when Nick opened the door, I wasn’t paying attention to what was outside. I was busy struggling with the lock, and first thought the low chuckle that rumbled out of him had to do with me. It was when I dropped the heavy key ring in my purse and turned around, that I saw what he was laughing at.

“Wha ... ?” I trailed off as my heart began pounding.

There was a county cruiser parked next to my car and there was a really freaking hot cop propped against the passenger side, long legs crossed at the ankles and arms folded across a yummy chest.

Reece was waiting.

I wasn’t really thinking about my list of priorities as I stared at him in the dimly lit parking lot. The muggy night air settled over me as he unfolded his legs and pushed off the cruiser. My gaze roamed over him. I was really just thinking about how the polyester material of his work pants moved along his thighs.

God, he walked with the kind of lethal grace that should be illegal.

Nick leaned in and whispered in my ear, “And right there is the main reason why I wouldn’t get with you.”

I tripped over my feet.

“Hey man.” Nick clapped Reece on the shoulder as he strolled past him. “Have a good night. See you Wednesday, Roxy.”

“Bye-bye.” I didn’t take my eyes off Reece. What was he doing here, at two thirty in the morning? It wasn’t the first time I’d stepped out of the bar late at night and found Reece waiting. Back before “the night thou shalt not repeat,” he used to do it every once in a while, when he was working the night shift and was taking lunch.

But it was something I hadn’t expected him to do again.

The sound of Nick’s motorcycle rumbling to life echoed throughout the otherwise silent parking lot. I needed to say something, because we were standing there, a few feet between us, staring at one another. “Hi.”

Well, that was spectacular.

One side of his lips kicked up as his gaze dipped. “What ... ?” He laughed, and there was a flutter deep in my belly, like a nest of butterflies had suddenly taken flight.

“What does your shirt say?”

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