Page 20 of Perfect Playbook

I don’t know either. I don’t know what the hell I’m thinking. If the point is to forget about my problems, spending time with her and resurrecting the biggest one I’ve ever had isn’t going to give me relief.

But my judgment clouds with alcohol. It clouds with the sweet smell of either perfume or frosting emanating from her hair. It clouds from the depth of her eyes where some of my own past is still hidden, the part when I was a man with so much less, but so much more.

Yeah, I’m not leaving without asking. “Do you want to get out of here and find somewhere worth our time?”

Chapter Eight

I did not expect that.

His question doesn’t immediately translate, and I blink. One. Two. Three times. And then I can’t help it, but I let out a thick, amused, and somewhat wild laugh that doesn’t belong to me, but I love just the same. It’s the laugh of someone tipsy, free and fun. It’s a laugh of someone hiding inside me I never let out.

Or haven’t since college.

Logan Hunter.

Of course the man with the confidence of ten and never a hair out of place would come across me swimming at the bottom of a gin and tonic with fondant icing smearedon my jeans. The one moment I let my shield fall, I run into Alexander the Great, who proposes my inner war can be solved with a night out.

“Us?” I say. The smile I released while laughing still dances on my lips. I lick them and swallow it down, urging myself to conjure up the maturity required for this situation. “Me and you? Go out?”

Is this a good idea or a bad one? Logan and I haven’t done much more than exchange pleasantries over the years and somehow kept in touch through the thriving grapevine in Starlight Canyon. I knew some of his business. I’m sure he knew mine. We aren’t close anymore but we’re hardly strangers.

Tonight is not my finest hour, and I’m not sure if our history is a reason to stay away or if it means he’s exactly who I should be with tonight.

He loosens his tie then leans in closer. His broad chest is on display, and manly heat radiates on my bare bicep under the sleeve of my vintage t-shirt. The way it sends my core all heavy has me landing back on this being a bad idea. I’ve sworn off men like Logan Hunter.

“Why is that funny?” he asks, leaning in even closer. All six-three of him gobbles up my personal space and warms the atmosphere around me like a humid, exotic vacation. “Maybe we didn’t manage to stay in touch with me being away, but I recall you once saying we should be friends.”

It’s such a benign but loaded statement, because it reminds us both of when we were more.

Nothing could quite make me stop caring about him, not even me being angry with him for turning into this caricature he is now. He used to be better than this. He used to respect himself. He used to respect me. I’ve had nothing but the most complicated feelings for Logan since that day heleft. Sometimes I’m angry he’s not become the man I thought he was, sometimes I’m glad he didn’t, because he surely would have found someone else.

It’s such a problem, missing someone so much you can’t forget them.

Our past is still there, now, as it is every time I see him, our story swirls in his whiskey eyes. He’s seen parts of me I’ve hidden since the moment we parted.

I’m sure he’s not the same guy.

We’vebothchanged.

Logan doesn’t seem to have any of the same reservations. Our guards are down in this adult playground with spirits in our veins.

He runs his knuckle gently along my cheek. “I’ll get you home safe.”

Heat blossoms under the trail of his fingers. Unfortunately, blood isn’t rushing simply to my face. It rushes everywhere else, too. I’ve often wondered how on earth Logan could woo so many women. I don’t wonder anymore. I’m quickly finding reasons to say yes.

As much as I know Logan would attentively listen to my woes, staying here with him tonight could create a whole other set of them, because now that he’s touched me, a lust ignites in the small space between us. I have been off games for far too long. No sex since Nino’s father. Almost six years.Six years.I didn’t even know I still worked down there till now. My core screams for me to accept this invitation.

I shake my head. “No. But thank you…” It’s the right thing, and yet as soon as I say the words I regret them.

My Lord is this confusing.

What’s the alternative to going out tonight anyway? My hotel room, an overpriced minibar, andGrey’sreruns? Do Ireally want to do that more than hang out with Logan? I’m so used to responding negatively to men now, I can’t even tell if I want to do this or not.

He’s probably just being nice anyway. I doubt he wants to go out with me tonight when he can have the pick of nearly any woman in this state. Country. Hell, universe.

“I’m not dressed for it,” I add.

He lets his head flop to the side. Maybe he’s had too much to drink as well because he says, so naturally, as if it was yesterday, “You look good in everything,pastelito.”

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