Page 64 of Love You
“So I can go.” She turned away from him for a modicum of privacy. Silly, since he’d gotten more up close and personal with her than any man ever. And he’d truly been turned on by her. No way could he be that good of an actor.
“Go? You don’t want to cuddle?”
She couldn’t tell if he was being facetious. That was the thing about Win, you never knew when he was joking or being serious. In this case, she strongly suspected sarcasm.
“Book club.” Darcy checked her watch. She was definitely going to be late.
“Jeez.” Win ran his hand through his bed hair and finished getting dressed. “You’re running off for that? I thought you’d at least buy me dinner.”
“Maybe next time.” She took one last longing look at his chest. It was simply cruel to put a man that beautiful on God’s green earth and set him free to destroy hearts wherever he went. At least she was made of stronger stuff.
She grabbed her purse off the ratty couch and took one more look at his newly cleaned apartment. Win followed her out to her Volkswagen. She started to get in her car, then did an abrupt about-face.
“Hey,” she said, catching up with him as he returned to his apartment, barefoot.
He turned and his lips curved up. “Already back for more?”
That arrogant smile, so quintessentially Win, tugged at her heart and she tried to tamp down a rush of tenderness that claimed her. On tiptoe, she stretched up and kissed him. “Thank you for rocking my world.”
She was surprised when he didn’t fire back with his usual bravado or make a wisecrack. Instead, he stood there, his hands shoved in his pockets, at a loss for words. If she didn’t know better she would’ve sworn there was a bit of rawness in his eyes. Finally, he said, “The pleasure was all mine,” and just like that he was back to being Win.
She drove off without even so much as a backward glance. He’d been everything she could’ve dreamed of and more. And not for one minute would she regret what they had done together, but she’d never been a woman prone to getting caught up in fantasies. So it was time to leave la-la land and get back to real life.
* * *
“Do you people talk about anything other than dieting and sex?” Rita stabbed a tomato and popped it in her mouth.
“This from the woman whose life’s work is a sex calendar,” Foster muttered into his wineglass.
Rita hadn’t missed the insult and got huffy. “It is not a sex calendar. It’s a fund-raising calendar. And what does my calendar have to do with dieting?”
Darcy thought she made a valid point, though she would argue that the calendar was indeed racy. And out of focus. Rita needed a better photographer. The models were good, though. Especially Win.
Hannah had been right, so far no one had said one word about the book everyone was supposed to have read. Instead, they’d gathered around the coffee table in Hannah’s living room, eating enchiladas, salad, chips and salsa, and drinking wine.
Carrie Jo had spent much of the night giving a blow by blow of her new gluten-free lifestyle and how it made her hair glossier. Darcy had never heard that before. And Deb gave a summary on why it was better to get married in the winter than the summer.
Then the conversation switched to the bar fight.
“Boden banned Dale from Old Glory.” Hannah took a second helping of enchiladas. “Apparently, he’s been going in there night after night, looking for Candace and making all kinds of scenes.”
“After the brawl?” Deb asked.
“Yep.”
“So, are Candace and Win an item?” Foster asked. “Or was she just his flavor of the night when Dale walked in on them?”
Darcy feigned great interest in the label on the Chardonnay bottle before pouring herself a glass. She considered telling everyone the truth, since she knew firsthand that Win had no interest in Candace and that he’d been randomly caught in the middle of her marital problems. But Darcy didn’t know if Win would appreciate her interfering.
“God, I hope not.” Carrie Jo let out a dramatic sigh. “Candace is batshit. Even back in high school there were major signs that she wasn’t right in the head. And poor Dale is a wreck. I don’t know what he ever saw in her but she completely broke his heart.”
“That’s not what I heard.” Deb dredged a chip through a bowl of guacamole. “According to sources close to the case, Dale was stepping out on her.”
“Would sources close to the case be Delaney?” Foster and everyone else turned their heads to stare directly at Delaney.
“Don’t look at me,” she said. “I stay out of my employees’ love lives.”
“I don’t think Dale was having an affair.” Hannah topped off Rita’s glass. “I think they were going through the seven-year itch. Candace got bored and filed for divorce, which is her business. And according to Josh, she was trying to hit on Win at Old Glory and he was the innocent party.”
