Page 19 of Homebody
“Yoo hoo! Hellooo!”
Tessa dared to raise her gaze and, exactly as she’d feared, Susan Sinclair was half out of her seat, frantically waving at them.
“Do wehaveto go over there?” she asked, knowing the answer.
Ruby lifted one perfectly shaped brow. “What do you think?”
“But I already embarrassed myself in front of him.”
“You were adorably clumsy. Guys love that. Trust me. I fell in Cash’s lap, ass up. It was embarrassing as hell, but we were dating like a week later.”
“Great.” Tessa groaned. There was no getting out of this now.
Dragging her feet, literally, she shuffled between Ruby and Red, propelled by Ruby’s hand on her back pushing her forward.
“Susan. Ted. I bet you’re over the moon Dean’s home for a visit.” Red smiled.
“Oh my gosh, yes. Never happier than when my baby boy is home for a visit,” Susan gushed as Dean let out a big breath that had Tessa’s lips twitching with a smile.
Good to see that Dean was no happier about this ambush than she was.
“Do you all know my new employee Tessa?” Ruby asked, giving Tessa a little shove forward.
She stumbled but righted herself before she face-planted on the table. Once she had her balance, she wiggled her fingers in a little wave. “Hi.”
“Yes, I think I saw you today when I was getting my hair done,” Susan said in an over-the-top performance to convince Dean they didn’t know each other. That they weren’t in cahoots together in this grand scheme to control his love life by using Tessa as bait. “This is my husband Ted. And my son Dean. He’s home visiting from the Navy.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sinclair. Dean.” Tessa nodded to them both in turn, then felt the blood drain from her face as she realized she might have made a huge error.
Was she supposed to know their surname was Sinclair? Red had only called them Susan and Tim. No last name.Crap.
But no, if Susan had an appointment at Ruby’s she would have been in the appointment book under her last name. And Tessa as an employee of the salon could have seen or heard the name.
Phew. Crisis averted, hopefully not too late. If her face looked anything like it felt, Dean would see right through her lies and straight to her panic.
She was terrible at this. She seriously would be lucky if she didn’t end up owing Susan the money back, plus some to make up for her terribleness.
But maybe her performance—good or bad—didn’t matter because Dean’s gaze was pinned on something past her, proving she wasn’t even interesting enough for him to pay attention to her while she was standing right in front of him.
Yup, she sucked at this. Not a femme fatale. Not a vamp. Just a nerd.
“Hey, Tessa. How about a game?” Dean asked, tipping his head toward the pool table and knocking the air out of Tessa’s lungs.
The shock of the question had her speechless, but not Red who said, “She’d love to play.”
At the same time Ruby physically turned her toward the table. “What a great idea.”
Ignoring or not noticing she hadn’t actually answered for herself, Dean stood. “Mom, order me a draft and teriyaki wings when the waitress comes by.”
“Sure thing. Have a good game.” Susan beamed.
Red and Ruby looked equally thrilled while Ted looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here for what he no doubt had figured out was a fix-up.
“Stripes or solids?” Dean asked, grabbing a pool stick out of the rack on the wall.
“Huh?” She was too lost in the gold and green of his hazel eyes, on full display beneath the light hanging low over the pool table, to comprehend what he’d said.
With a smile, he laid one hand on her shoulder and leaned a little lower. “Sorry, it’s loud in here. I asked if you’re stripes or solids. Or did you want to break again and start a new game?”
