Page 28 of Jilted

“Was. I’m not like that anymore.”

I tilted my head. “No? How can you be sure if you’ve never had a serious relationship?”

He grinned. “Because I met you.”

I chuckled. “Smooth, Hayes, smooth. I can see why you don’t have a hard time getting women. The bullshit flows easily.” I wiped my mouth. “But I should get back behind the bar. Dad needs to get off his feet.”

“You stay here all night by yourself?”

“It’s a cop bar. Nobody gives me any trouble.”

“Cop bar?”

“Well, cops and firemen.” I pointed to each of the ten guys sitting at the bar. “Cop. Cop. Cop. Fireman. Cop. Fireman. Fireman. Cop. Cop. Cop. My dad worked the first precinct for thirty years. It’s a few blocks away. He retired a captain. But he’s fourth-generation NYPD, and one of my older brothers is NYPD. The other is FDNY.”

“Damn. That sounds like a lot of guns pointed my way if I do something wrong.”

I slid out of the booth and stood. “Thank you for dinner.”

Wilder followed. He reached for my hand and laced our fingers together. “Let me take you out.”

As tempting as it was—as tempting ashewas—my gut told me it wasn’t a good idea. “I don’t think so. I’m going to stick to my moratorium.”

“How long does it last?”

“A year. I have six months left.”

He smiled. “So Ryan’s wedding then?”

“Is that who’s getting married next?”

He stood and kissed my cheek. “Nope. That’s whose wedding is in six months when your moratorium is up. I’ll wait.”

“You’re going to wait six months for me to potentially go out with you?”

Wilder rocked back on his heels. “Yep.”

“The man who has never committed to a woman for more than two months is going to wait six months for a woman whoisn’tsleeping with him?”

He shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, yeah. Sure.”

“You have your man moratorium, and I’ll have my miss moratorium.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“We’ll see.”

I cleared the table, separating the garbage from the leftovers. There were a few trays we hadn’t even opened. “Do you want to take these?”

“I have an early flight in the morning. You take ’em.”

“Thank you. They won’t go to waste. One of my brothers or my dad will eat them if I don’t.”

“I guess I’ll see you in a week. At the wedding?”

“I guess so.”

---