Page 18 of S.O.S. Billboard

When she faced him again, his demeanor had turned serious; his dark eyes boring into hers.

“I’m not dating anyone.”

O’Shea twitched. “Excuse me?” She pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest. Now he was going to fib to her?

His lips fought a battle to stay neutral over her overtly skeptical posture, but she could tell he was fighting a smirk.

“I said, I’m not dating anyone,” he reiterated.

She scrunched her brows together, growing angry. “Bullshit. Does the name Peggy mean anything to you?” O’Shea knew she hadn’t heard wrong when Brigid had mentioned the woman in Billboard’s life.

“Yes,” Billboard answered patiently. “She was a person I was with for about six months, but,” he continued easily, “we broke up two weeks ago.”

O’Shea blinked. “You broke up.”

“Uh, huh.”

“Two weeks ago.”

He grinned again. “That’s what I said.”

“Then how come Brigid doesn’t know?”

Now the big man looked uncomfortable. He regarded his shoes, shuffling them in place. “Do we have to talk about this?”

Damn.The man seemed like he’d rather be anywhere than standing here getting questioned.

Remembering from last year how quiet and understated Billboard was, O’Shea figured she needed to work with his reticent inclinations, rather than go against them.

She made him an offer.

“How about I take a few guesses as to why you haven’t spilled to your buddies, and in response, you can grunt once for yes, twice for no.”

That lovely color worked its way up into his face again, highlighting the day-old scruff that she yearned to rub against. She behaved herself.Barely. Still…

O’Shea was beginning to enjoy this, and yes, it had everything to do with Billboard’s newly revealed single status.

The man eventually shrugged and grunted once.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” she beamed. “Soooo, you broke up two weeks ago, but you…” She went out on a limb. “…didn’t do the breaking up. Peggy did.”

Billboard’s Adam’s Apple bobbed up and down, then he gave a single grunt.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Billboard.” O’Shea reached out and laid a commiserating hand on his arm. The sparks flew on contact, but she attempted to ignore them this time. “It’s never easy when someone blindsides you and calls it quits.”

“Not exactly a blindside,” he choked out. “We were… There were problems all along.”

“I see,” she responded contemplatively. “Would it have anything to do with your resemblance to a clam?”

He scowled, looking a little confused.

“You know,” she clarified. “Closed up tight, not allowing all your little pearls of goodness and wisdom to slip out?”

“Little pearls of… Geeze, O’Shea.” He shook his head. “You’ve got me wrong. There’s nothing precious in my head. Just a lot of static that I have trouble managing.”

O’Shea gave Billboard a tender smile. He was opening up whether he realized it or not. “Static,” she repeated. “That’s got to be hard on you.”

Billboard shrugged, looking decidedly uncomfortable, and O’Shea understood that having shared something with her that not a lot of people knew, had to have been tough. Since he’d managed—perhaps inadvertently—to give her that much, she wouldn’t push the subject further.

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