Page 26 of Love You
“There’s a place near us that just went on the market. It’s open Sunday if you want to take a look at it.”
The houses near Colt and Delaney’s were probably out of his price range. The neighborhood was walking distance from town and most of the homes there had been super-sized by city folk who wanted a country address near the ski slopes on the weekends.
“I’ve got FlashTag duties but maybe.” If the VIPs headed back to the city early enough there might be time to check out the house.
“Jenny Meyers has the listing.”
Shit! Win had slept with her a few times last summer. She’d just gone through a divorce and was looking to get back on the horse so to speak. He’d done his civic duty to help her with that. Then she started getting needy and he . . . did what he always did. Got the hell out of Dodge.
“On second thought, I’m looking for something near the lake.”
Colt raised his brows. “Good luck with that. Let me know when you win the lottery.”
“TJ found something there.”
“That was a couple of years ago. Prices have soared since then.” Colt stood up. “You sure there’s no doughnuts?”
“Ask Darcy but I didn’t see any.”
Colt went back to the station, leaving Win alone to keep his own company, which was too bad because these days he was so over himself. He started a game of Candy Crush on his computer and halfway through thought about TJ. This wasn’t the way his older brother would be spending his day. So Win stopped his game, picked up the phone, called an old corporate client, and cajoled him into booking a weekend of team building. Not bad for an hour’s work. At noon, he went to fetch Darcy.
“You ready?”
She put on her shoes, which she’d kicked under her desk. Her toenails were a bright pink that matched her dress. “If I must.”
“You know it wouldn’t kill you to pretend you like me. I do own an equal share of the company you work for.”
Her response was to look at him and roll her eyes. He opened the door for her and they walked up Main Street to the Morning Glory. The restaurant, popular with locals, was a fifties-style diner. Black-and-white-check floors, red pleather upholstery, and enough chrome to open an auto body shop. Felix, the owner, was a champion snow boarder, who’d crashed so many times he could no longer compete. But he made a damned good tuna melt. Apparently, Felix wasn’t the easiest to work for because he bled staff faster than anyone Win knew.
“Look what the wind blew in.” Ricki, the waitress, grabbed two menus and showed them to a booth toward the back of the restaurant. She wasn’t his number-one fan. Ricki was friends with Deb. Back before TJ, Win and Deb had had some unresolved feelings for each other—she was another woman he’d let down. But that was water under the bridge and he and Deb had patched up their differences. Ricki apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.
“Don’t spit in my food, okay?”
“I’ll try not to.” She pulled a pad from her apron pocket and a pencil from behind her ear. “What’ll you have to drink?”
They both got waters and ordered meals without cracking the menus, since they knew it by heart. The place started to fill up and Ricki ran off to seat a couple of city council members.
“I guess you haven’t won Ricki’s heart the way you have the rest of Glory Junction’s female population.” Darcy pulled the paper off her straw.
“I bet she wouldn’t throw me out of bed.” He winked, then gave her a slow, pointed look. “Some women just want me for my body.”
“If you’re talking about Saturday night, would you get over it already?”
“Why should I?”
“Because it’s humiliating.” She played with her fork, unwilling to look him in the eye. “I really would appreciate it if we never spoke of it again. Especially now that we’re forced to work together.”
“Forced? I think we’re a great team,” he lied for the second time that day. Darcy was way out of her league when it came to outdoor adventure sports. He was pretty sure she didn’t even own a pair of hiking boots. And their styles clashed. She was anal-retentive and he was . . . well, the opposite.
“I hope so because I want my promotion.” This time, she held his gaze, squinting her eyes at him. “Don’t screw this up for me.”
“Why does everyone automatically assume I’m a screw-up?” Granted, he had a more laid-back way of approaching things. It didn’t make him a screw-up. “I’ve got a bonus riding on us getting this account. So as long as you have my back, I’ll have yours.”
“Did you go through my itinerary?”
“Yep. Looks fantastic. But I may have to change things up a bit.”
She gave him the stink eye. “Don’t mess with my itinerary, Win.”
