Page 9 of Hotter 'N Hell

It must take up most of his back. I didn’t ask to see it though.

“You from around here?” he asked me.

“Yep,” I replied. “Family goes back a hundred years.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Really? You know your family tree then.”

I wanted to laugh. He had no idea how well I knew my family tree.

I nodded. “And you?”

“Moved here almost a year ago.”

I did a quick check of his ring finger, and there was no mark or a tan line to show where a ring had been.

“What brought you to Madison?”

He shrugged. “A girl.”

The sadness in his eyes as he said it made me think she might be the reason he was here. His loss.

His brown eyes softened. “What brought you here?”

“To the meeting?” I asked for clarification.

“Yeah.”

They had no issue getting right to the point.

Why was I here?To lust after a hot priestwasn’t the answer I needed to give. But what was it? Mourning the girl I had once been?

I pulled my bottom lip through my teeth and then let it free before deciding to go with, “My fiancé was shot and killed in front of me in the parking lot of a bar.”

Just calling Crosby my fiancé made me feel like a fraud. He’d never proposed, although I had grown up believing we were already engaged. If he had lived, he would have broken up with me for the baby momma.

“That’s”—he blew out a breath—“rough.”

He had no idea.

“Hey, I’m Mary.” A woman with short auburn hair, which had awild, curly windblown look, straightened the funky blue glasses perched on her freckle-covered nose as she took the chair across from me.

Although her smile wasn’t fake, her eyes did flicker over to Crow.

Were all the women looking to hook up here?

“Saylor,” I supplied, not sure she cared if I said more or not. She was clearly here for Crow, not me.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, then sighed as she looked at my hair. “Please tell me those are extensions.”

I touched a lock of hair draped over my shoulder. “This?”

She nodded.

“No. The hair is real,” I replied, but seeing as she now looked like I had kicked her puppy, I pointed at my lashes. “These are extensions.”

She let out a small laugh. “Thanks, if that was an attempt to make me feel better, but those dimples outweigh it. What about the blue eyes? That might even out the dimples.”

“Sorry. I was born with the blue eyes.”

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