Beau ignores him and continues. “As I was saying, our boy here is good people, the best actually. Just hang on to your panties because he’ll be in them before you know what hit ya.”
A peanut hits Beau between the eyes. He picks it up and throws it right back to where it came from.
“You’re just envious of my devilishly handsome good looks. I can’t help that I was born with the face of an angel. We all have our lot in life.”
“Oh, please. I saw those devil horns peeking out the moment you said hello. I’ve seen your type before. Big cities…small towns…they all have them,” I chime in.
“Them?” He looks at me confused, but I know his game.
“Those charming playboys we all know better than to fall for. The kind your family always falls in love with but are always too good to be true. I know your type all too well, Mr. Montgomery.”
“Miles. Please call me Miles.”
“Damn, she’s got your number already. I think I’ll leave you to dig yourself out of this one all on your own. Nice to meet you and let me know if you need anything at all. You know where to find me,” Beau says leaving me to school Miles on my own.
“So, if I’m the charming playboy, then who are you?”
“I’m the girl who thinks she’s different than the rest. The one who’ll be able to change you, but I think we all know how that story ends.”
“So cynical.”
“Nah, just wise. Trying to learn from my mistakes instead of repeating them over and over again.”
Chugging back the rest of my beer, I make a show of slamming the glass onto the bar and then standing. “So good.”
“You like EBC, do ya?”
“It’s my favorite. It’s hard to find on tap on the East Coast. I’m gonna get spoiled.”
“How long are you here?”
Taking my purse off the little hook under the bar—the hook all bars should be required to have—I throw it over my shoulder, ready to take my leave and simply ignore his question.
“I didn’t catch your name,” he says.
“That’s because I didn’t give it to you.”
“What brings you to Eastlyn?”
Go! Don’t answer him, just go!
I’m trying to be cool. You know, ice in the veins and all that, but something in those eyes of his warms me right to my core and turns my insides to goo. God, he’s good. My mouth starts explaining how Katie and I met and how we came about switching houses.
“Just like that movie. So, are you Kate Winslet or Cameron Diaz?”
“Ha-ha! Katie and I said the same thing. We both love that movie, but I’m surprised you’ve seen it. I didn’t take you for a rom-com kind of guy.”
“Darlin’, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.” He says this like this fact is going to change. “So, you’re a writer? That’s really cool. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?”
Without giving it a second thought, I sit back down on my stool and tell him about what a voracious reader I was as a child and how much I loved my creative writing classes in school. I tell him about my intentions to self-publish while working a day job, but before I even got the opportunity, I met the right person who became my agent and got me a book deal right out of the gate. I’m one of the lucky few whose first book sold well, and after ten books in the same series, it’s time to start something new.
“Wow, we’ve got a celebrity in our midst.”
“Hardly. I use a pen name. Nobody knows who I really am.”
“Well, if you need a tour guide to show you all the ins andouts of our little town here I’d be more than happy to slap on a name tag and be that guy.”
“Thank you, but I think I’ll manage.”