Page 8 of Spiritwarrior

From the reaction he was having, Jody could have sworn he had just met his soul mate, if not for the fact her star was nowhere within sight of Treepoint.

Glancing away from the waitress as she walked away, he was met with Baylin’s furious glare.

“Could you be more obvious?” she hissed at him.

“What?” He frowned in pretend ignorance.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Jody. For a second, I thought you were going to come when she smiled at you.”

Fuck, he hadn’t been that obvious, had he? He reassured himself that the only reason Baylin had read his reaction so easily was because he had spent several hours during the night fucking her.

Deciding the best way to respond to her accusation was not to, he picked up the menu to study it.

The waitress coming back with the coffee had him placing the menu down, keeping his eyes on Baylin as the coffee cups were placed on the table.

“Are you ready to order?”

“I’ll take a BLT,” Baylin ordered. “What about you, Jody?”

“I’ll take the steak and eggs.”

“How would you like your eggs?”

“Over medium.”

“How do you like your steak cooked?”

“Medium,” he managed to croak out. Why in the hell hadn’t he ordered the same as Baylin?

“All right, I’ll give the cook your order. Just let me know if you need more coffee.”

Jody’s eyes never left Baylin’s, feeling a cold sweat run down his back. What the fuck was going on with him? The whole time the waitress had stood next to the table, he felt as if she were giving off a static charge. If he didn’t know his soul mate wasn’t supposed to appear in his life for another year, he could swear she was the one destined for him.

Picking up his cup of coffee, he put the waitress out of his mind. He had to deal with Baylin, sure his reaction to the waitress was only an intense physical attraction. Silas had warned him last year when he had stopped by unexpectedly toborrow his truck and found him with Mina that he was treading on thin ice where women were concerned. He had listened and stopped going into town to find the sexual release the women offered.

“I’m sorry I’m cramping your style.”

His jaw clenched at the snide way Baylin was glaring at him.

“I wouldn’t let you cramp my style if I were interested.”

He had meant to wait until after they ate to talk to Baylin, but the way she was talking to him had him responding in kind. He didn’t like being unkind, but when push came to shove, he was no pushover.

“You brought me here to break up with me, didn’t you?”

At Baylin’s raised voice, Jody looked toward the counter, seeing the waitress waiting on a lone customer. “Lower your voice.”

“Don’t want your waitress to hear?” Baylin’s voice grew louder.

Jody leaned over the table, keeping his voice low. “If you think you can embarrass me, you won’t. The only one who will be embarrassed is you. I’m a Coleman—I’m used to being trash-talked. Are you?”

Baylin’s jaw snapped shut.

He used the opportunity to say what needed to be said.

“To break up, it would mean we are a couple—we aren’t. I made that plain from the get-go. I wasn’t looking for a commitment. What we did have was an arrangement that neither of us would get serious, both times we talked about it. You agreed each time. You’re the one who is trying to take it from the bedroom to a relationship I clearly said was never going to happen,” he told her coldly.

“Here you go.”

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