Page 9 of Summer Waves

On the inside, I was kicking myself repeatedly. What the hell was wrong with me? She was just a woman. A very beautiful woman, but still I shouldn’t be acting like a kid.

“I have to be honest,” she whispered and laughed softly. “Jacob has been trying to get me to meet you.”

“Yeah, for the job verification thing,” I nodded.

“No,” she shook her head and grinned. “As in, he was trying to play cupid.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.Oh,” she teased and took a sip of her water. “I’m here to let you off the hook. You can tell him, you aren’t interested and that you’ve done the verification.” Her words sounded confident, but her red cheeks told another story.

“Do you want me to not be interested?”

Chapter Five

Bethany

My heart raced as I stared up at Giovanni. The man was drop-dead gorgeous. He had a chiseled jawline, olive complexion, short brown hair with it a bit longer on top, and gelled back. His black suit looked like it was tailored to fit him. He even smelled yummy.

“Well?” he asked huskily, making me squeeze my legs together. How could a man be so sexy?

“I mean…” I swallowed hard and looked around the restaurant before looking back at Giovanni.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing at the empty seat across from me.

“Not at all,” I said softly. He pulled out the chair and sat down. I nervously played with the tablecloth.

“This really isn’t professional of me,” he chuckled and then rubbed the back of his neck. “In fact, it’s completely unprofessional, but you don’t want me to be interested in you?”

“I…” My cheeks felt like they were on fire. “It’s just that I figured you wouldn’t be interested so it would let you off the hook if I gave you an easy out.”

“Ah. I see,” he whispered and nodded. “Would you be interested in going out sometime?”

My heart skipped several beats. My chest tightened and I was glad to be sitting down because my legs were shaky.

“I don’t want you to feel sorry for me just because my brother works for you,” I looked nervously around the room to avoid eye contact. “I completely under–”

“I’d be interested in taking you out on a date.”

My eyes locked on his.

“What?” I gasped quietly.

“I’d love to take you out on a date,” he said. “And not because your knucklehead brother works for me.” Him calling Jacob a knucklehead made me laugh.

“He is a knucklehead.”

Giovanni nodded.

“He is, but I can’t hold it against him too much since he introduced us.”

If any other man had said that sentence I would have thought they were saying it as a cheesy pick-up line. However, the way Giovanni said it sounded genuine. Or maybe he was just a true player and had the game down to an art.

“Are you a ladies’ man?” I blurted.

The words had barely left my mouth and I was already groaning. Giovanni’s head fell back and he busted out laughing. After several seconds of laughing, he finally looked at me and shook his head.

“Definitely not a ladies’ man. That’s more of Tony’s thing,” he chuckled. “I haven’t been on a date since…” He tapped his chin as he thought. “Hell. I’m not even sure.”

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