Page 17 of Sweet Pea

“Good. And a big ol’ plate of burnt ends.”

“I’ll freshen up your drinks too,” Sally Anne said, and walked away before I could protest.

“We can’t possibly eat all of that,” I said.

“Oh, did you want me to order something for you too?” Sweet Pea smiled. It was within that smile that I realized for the first time that I wasn’t just unafraid of Sweet Pea, I liked him. As in, I was attracted to him.

“Trust me. Smokey is a pit ninja,” he said. “What this man does with meat is unbelievable.”

I bet he’s not the only one.

“It’s just that I rarely eat like this, especially this late,” I said, lying through my junk food chewing teeth.

“I can tell,” he said, and gave me the once over.

Typically, if a man had ever brazenly eyed me up and down like that, I’d have tossed my drink in his face and walked out. Well, truthfully, I’d toss his drink in his face, finish mine, then walk out, but for whatever reason it didn’t bother me when Sweet Pea looked at me. In fact, and it may have been the A.H. Hirsch kicking in, but I wanted him to do a lot more than look. Not that that could happen. That most certainly could not happen. That was off the table entirely.

“So, we’ve established I’m not a stalker, right?” Sweet Pea asked.

“After that dinner order, I’d say you pose a bigger threat to cows and pigs than to anyone at the courthouse.”

Sweet Pea laughed. “What can I say? A growing boy needs to eat.”

I’ll give you something to eat, was all I could think of.

This man was seriously beginning to fry my brain. It had been a year since Carter and I had broken up, therefore a year since I’d last had sex. I wasn’t one for casual hookups and typically reserved sex for men I was in a serious relationship with, but something about this guy made my pussy ache.

Instead of saying anything, I reached into my satchel, took out a file folder, and slid it across the table to Sweet Pea.

“What’s this?”

“This is what I wanted to give you,” I replied. I studied his face carefully as I watched him examine the folder’s contents, my heart racing as I awaited his response. I wouldn’t have to wait for long.

“What the fuck is this?” he growled, closing the file slowly.

“It’s your life story, or at least what I know of it.”

“I can see that, but why and how the fuck do you have this?”

“When I thought you might be stalking me, I had a P.I. find out everything they could about you.”

“You hired a fucking private investigator to spy on me?” he snapped. “The girls at the Priest would love to meet you.”

“I don’t follow,” I said, nervously.

“Some drag performers I know at the Pink Priest. I’m sure they’d love to get some tips. You could tell them exactly how you hide your massive balls in that tight skirt.”

“Charming,” I replied.

“Don’t get pissy with me,” he snapped. “This folder is full of pictures ranging from when I was a little kid to just a few months ago. Plus, my birth certificate, school records, all sorts of shit from my past. I need to know who this P.I. you hired is and where I can find him.”

“I didn’t hire anyone. I called in a favor with one of the agencies we work with on a regular basis to do a little digging on you. It’s mostly harmless information anyway,” I said.

“How the fuck do you know what’s harmless in the hands of my enemies? There’s information in here about my past, Callie. A past I left behind a long time ago and that I don’t want anyone to know about.”

“That’s why I wanted to give it to you. Now that I know you’re not a threat to me, there’s no reason for me to keep any of this.”

“And the P.I.?”

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