Page 7 of Fierce-Michael

She was sick of being silly and stupid too.

Time to grow up and look at life differently.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not boring. I don’t think you are either. Are you? I believe I said stable, not boring.”

“I don’t think I’m boring,” he said. “Just depends on who I’m around.”

“Then we need to wiggle some of what you’re hiding out of your little toe to start.” Her eyes traveled down the length of his long legs in his jeans to his big feet in a pair of Nikes. “Not sure there is much little on you.”

He let out a funny sound and she looked up to see if there was a smile on his face. Nope. Still serious so it was probably a snort.

“I’ve been told that a time or two.”

His dark eyes were staring into hers. There was a heat there to match what was flowing through her body.

Damn. This was working out well.

“I bet you have,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. No smile yet. “Tough crowd today.”

“Been told that too,” he said.

She looked at his face, still no smile. Not even a tiny crack of one. Good lord, she wanted to say she was going to lose, but was she losing since she was getting the drink with him anyway?

When she thought of that, she smiled huge.

“Let’s see the rest of what you’ve got. It’s in another room, right?”

“It is,” he said. “Why the big smile?”

“Oh,” she said. “Just thought about what makes a champion.”

He lifted one eyebrow at her. “Do you want to explain that?”

“Nah,” she said, waving her hand. “I think you’ll figure it out at some point. You’re a pretty smart guy.”

“Now you’re just trying to butter me up.”

She grinned. “I might be if I was trying, but I’m not. Just stating facts. I tend to do that. Not many like it, but I’ve learned in life that you have to be upfront. I’m sick of guessing about things.”

“That we can agree on,” he said.

“See, stable is a good thing,” she said.

“That has nothing to do with being stable and more about being burned.”

She knew he was a single father but didn’t know the details around it all.

She’d never asked and wouldn’t. It was just bits and pieces over the years.

“Been there and done that too,” she said. “Maybe not like you are saying, but I think everyone could say they’ve made some poor dating choices.”

And decisions in her life.

She was still dealing with that to this day.

What should have been a nice sweet thing in her youth turned into something ugly that she’d always have to live with.

She’d been told she had no reason to feel the way she did now, but what Brian’s parents did had harmed her mentally, compounding with what she was already going through.

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