Page 18 of Totally Off Limits

“Nope. Water’s fine.”

Again, that seemed unusual for her old friend. Sierra remembered he was known as a party animal in high school and, if she recalled, he’d been arrested for underage drinking once or twice. Was that one of the times he’d come to school with a black eye?

And then, the night they’d consummated the lust they hadn’t known was lurking in their hearts, he’d been drinking a beer at the bar. Theybothhad.

So much had changed in such a short time.

“You said something about school?”

Sierra looked up from her plate as if he’d pulled her from the clouds in her brain. “Oh, um, yeah. I’m taking some classes online.”

“What for?”

“Just trying to get a higher degree. It would lead to different work, higher pay.”

“You said you’re a nurse?”

“Yep. That’s why I was giving you grief about smoking. The attention you give to eating the right food makes it seem so odd that you’re killing yourself with tobacco.” She couldn’t read the expression on his face.

“I’m an addict…but you’re right. It’s just a slower form of death.”

Grim.

“Where do you work?”

“I was in the ER at the medical center for a couple years, but I started working for Dr. Peterson in January.”

“Do you like it?”

This was Mickey…and she’d probably never see him again after he left, so what would it hurt being completely truthful? There was no risk of disappointing him like her family. “Not as much as I’d hoped.”

“Is that why you’re going for a higher degree? So you can work somewhere else?”

Sierra chopped off a piece of the patty with the side of her fork. “Kind of. It’s a long story.” Although she could feel his eyes on her, she focused on the food. She’d already said way too much. After chewing the piece of gravied beef, she said, “This is really good, Mickey. Much better than the crappy hamburgers I would have made.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It helps if you enjoy doing it.”

With a smile, she nodded and took the opportunity to change the subject. “So you said you’re in a band with Katie’s husband. Tell me about that.” She wasn’t about to admit that she’d already looked a lot of information up online since the wedding.

“Not much to tell.”

“Don’t be shy.”

With a grin, Mickey picked up his glass of water and took a large gulp. “I’ll say this much: the direction my life has taken has already passed my life expectations.”

Oh. What the hell didthatmean?

“You know about my garage band after high school, right? We made decent music, but our vocalist-slash-guitar player was a slacker. And you remember Sage?”

“Yeah.” From what Sierra could recall, Sage was Mickey’s one and only friend in high school.

“He played drums for the band. Anyway, me and Sage had to push the guy to do anything. And the only reason we had an album and toured once was because of Sage and me. Craig was too busy getting laid and getting high, pretending he was world famous. And, sure, people recognized him more than me and Sage because he was the face and voice of the band—but he didn’t do…squat.”

Sierra grinned, appreciating how hard Mickey was trying not to curse.

“It was all me and Sage. We even wrote most of the music—and damned if it wasn’t like pulling teeth to get Craig to evenlearnthat stuff. He wrote two good songs that were catchy and that our fans liked, and he figured that was his entire contribution to the world, a couple of crappy songs that might be played on a soft rock station.”

“I don’t think I ever met him.”

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