Page 23 of Sin With Me

Well, he definitely was good at smoothing thingsover.

“I’m sorry if I offended you,” he added. “It’s been a rough few days. Actually, make that months. Today was the first one that promised something special, but I got disappointed.”

“Yikes. Lady troubles?”

“I wish it were that simple.”

He picked up one of the two tequilas from the set beside us and raised the glass. I grasped the second one with my fingers, and tapped my shot against his before throwing it back. The alcohol slid down my throat like water.

I dabbed the tissue I was holding over my mouth and took a sip of my water.

“Wanna talk about it? Just don’t cry on my shoulders, theyhurt.”

He chuckled. “I’ll talk about it, but only if you drink.”

“That’s definitely not a problem tonight.” Tonight, I wanted to forget a handsome priest who had my mind spinning all day and all night, and Brady here looked like a good person to forget with. Would he be staying long in town? I looked around the room to see whether Lola had come. She was much better at this conversation-while-drunk thing than I was. “It looks like my friend bailed on me which makes you, Mr. Brady, my drinking partner tonight. I’m warning you, though, the last man I drank with did hold my hair while I puked in the bathroom.”

“You? But you look like such a good girl tome.”

“Perception is a two-way mirror.” I raised my glass, but he waited, a little more interestednow.

“Badgirl?”

“Nah, I guess I’m somewhere in between.”

Brady finally raised his glass, and we tapped them together. “To middle ground,” hesaid.

“To middle ground,” I cheered.

After that one was down, for the first time that evening, I felt the room spin and decided to slow down with the shots. When I checked my phone, Lola had texted that she was sorry she couldn’t make it. On a normal evening, I would have walked out the door, gone to her salon and upstairs apartment, and dragged her ass back to the bar; but today, in Brady’s company, it didn’t seem urgent. Besides, he was helping me forget about Father Cameron, which was the whole point of the evening.

“So, tell me what happened to put you in such a sour mood. Where are you coming from?” I asked.

“New York. Long Island, to be exact.”

Thank goodness I had tequila. I hoped that it somewhat helped camouflage my surprise.

“And where are you headed?”

“Jesus, you sound like an investigator.” He leaned back, smirking.

Seriously? He got me after only two questions?

“My turn to question you. What’s a beautiful woman like you doing in a dump likethis?”

“Well, tonight, she’s drinking.”

“And evading questions.”

Yeah, I’d gotten pretty good at that. “And now she needs to use the ladies’ room because apparently not all the tequila gets absorbed in your veins.”

“Then one more before you leave.” He passed me another shot glass. At this rate, I’d need to call Lola because I wouldn’t know how to make it back to my house, which was diagonally across the street, right beside the church. All I had to do was turn the rightway.

“You’re worried that you won’t be able to get home, right?”

I nodded.

“Well, I’m a pretty good guy, despite the asshole you probably assumed that I was, so I can walkyou.”

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