Page 31 of On the Double

“Why not? She’s hot.”

“Because I’m not a fire kind of a guy. I just want…a match.”

Fox frowned at me. “Like, a dating website?”

“No, like an instant fire.”

“A grenade,” Scottie grinned. “Not the way I’d go, but?—”

“No, quick to explode and the fire goes out quickly.”

Lock was the only one who seemed to understand me, but that made sense considering he was the only one who knew about the terrible example my parents set for me. He swallowed his beer and glared at the guys.

“Let it go. He’s not interested in a woman like her.”

I wouldn’t exactly say I wasn’t interested, but not for the purposes a woman like her would expect. “She’s a woman who wants more,” I explained.

“What is it with all of you?” Fox asked. “Every single one of you was so exasperated by the idea of any woman getting her hooks in you. I relished in the feel of Anna falling under my spell.”

“You waited long enough,” I muttered under my breath.

“You’re gonna end up alone and sad,” Brock said with a shake of his head. “Even I wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that Wren was the one for me.”

I pointed at the table just a few feet away where Harper was dangling her toes enticingly. “She’s not the one for me. Hell, she’s not even close!”

“Then why do you keep looking over there?” Scottie asked.

“Because you’re talking about her!”

“Yeah, but your eyes linger.”

“I looked. I didn’t linger.”

Scottie winced. “It was longer than one Mississippi. That’s lingering.”

“Actually,” Brock cut in. “I think it’s one and a half Mississippis that makes it lingering.”

“No, it’s definitely only one,” Lock agreed with Scottie. “Any more than that, and it’s considered leering.”

“Personally, I think it should be three Mississippis,” Fox said,taking a swig of his beer. “Women linger for longer than that and it’s not considered staring.”

“Yeah, but with men, it’s different,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because we have more obvious things to stare at.”

Scottie leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “You mean like earlier when you were at the bar with her and your eyes strayed to her breasts?”

He had seen that?

“Yeah, it was pretty fucking obvious,” Brock chortled. “That was definitely more than one Mississippi. I would go so far as to say that was at least four.”

“And you say you don’t like her,” Scottie chuckled.

“I didn’t say I didn’t like her?—”

“Ah!” Brock pointed at me. “He admits it!”

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