Page 33 of Driven Daddy

“You’re wondering to yourself. Self, is this guy a weirdo? I mean, he’s stunningly and hauntingly handsome, but is he a weirdo?”

I nearly snickered, but I managed to swallow it down with a little cough.

“Is that for the weird or the stunningly handsome?”

I shrugged again.

“Oh, you’re a cruel one. Maybe a cruel and capricious woman? I seem to attract them like bees to honey. I know, I know—cliché. But it is very true. An aloof woman is my kryptonite but then they end up being a little…unhinged.”

I gave him my arched brow.

“That one probably didn’t help my case.” He sat forward and laced his long fingers around the big mug.

I couldn’t help but notice the black smudges around his thumb and forefinger. Mechanic?

No, his fingers had tiny nicks of white from old scars, but not the knuckle bruising kind like someone who worked with their hands would have. No, he was something else.

“Someone with freckles can’t be cruel or capricious, right?”

Absently, I touched the bridge of my nose.

“But if I remember that stunning tattoo correctly, there is less of a simple answer. Or the gauges in your tiny, perfect ears. Slightly hidden by the dainty hoops you’ve put through them. Means you have an interesting past.”

I dropped my gaze to my mug. Interesting was one word for it.

“Hey guys, we’re about to lock up.” A different staff member stopped at our table. “Hate to push you off.”

I smiled up at the barista and nodded. Luckily, my hot chocolate had cooled enough for me to take a long draw from it.

My hot, dark-haired stranger tipped his head. “Not gonna give me your name, are you?”

I shook my head.

“Then you don’t get mine.” He stood and tossed a ten on the table. “I’ll get it.”

I lifted my mug again and gave him a shrug.

“It’s a small town, my stunning stranger. I’ll find it out, one way or another.

Probably not. No one knows me here.

I lifted my mug in a toast. “Good luck.”

“She speaks!”

One of the baristas lifted a chair and flipped it over the table as the other stacked up the books.

“I got the hint.” He laughed and gave one of the staff a little salute, and then he turned to me. “See ya around, Green Eyes.”

I couldn’t help myself from watching him walk away. The black jeans did really good things for his butt too.

He was far too attractive for his own good.

I waited until he was well and truly gone. I was a city girl and well-aware of my small stature and what a man could do—even in a small town.

He was still a stranger.

Even if he made all sorts of things come alive inside of me.

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