Page 50 of Catching Our Moment
“A guy I met at work. He’s been coming in after knee surgery. He wasn’t my client, but we talked whenever he came in.”
“And?”
“And his last appointment was the other day. He came over and said he never made appointments with me because he’d wanted to ask me out for weeks and didn’t want it to be an issue.”
“Aw, that’s sweet,” Grace said.
“Sounds presumptuous to me,” Aliya said, taking a sip of her drink. “I mean, he’s been going there for weeks. Why wait to ask you out? You’re a catch. You could have been snatched up while he took his time.”
“Aliya…”
She threw out a hand at Grace. “What if Shaw had gotten off his ass and kissed you before this bozo decided it was the perfect time? Would you still be going out with him?”
“I’m getting my croissant. I need chocolate.”
“You need to get laid,” Aliya said…loudly. “And not by a guy with a bum knee.”
“He’s a marathon runner,” I threw back over my shoulder.
“So, he’s skinny without an ass. Do you want a skinny guy who doesn’t eat junk food?” Aliya said.
I returned with a warm croissant to enjoy. “Shaw doesn’t eat junk food.”
“Yes, but Shaw has a hell of an ass.”
I pulled the croissant apart, ready to enjoy its chocolatey goodness. “What are you doing looking at his ass?” I said, beating back the memory of what Shaw’s ass felt like and trying not to be possessive of said ass. I took another bite.
“Girl, every woman—and some men—watch Carolina football just to see Shaw’s ass in those tight white football pants. It’s a thing of legend,” Aliya said. She turned to Grace, who was giggling. “Am I right, Grace?”
Grace tilted her head. “Shaw does those deodorant commercials with the towel around his waist, and there’s a reason they get his backside.”
I stuffed half the croissant in my mouth.
My cheeks flamed because she was right. But the fact that my friends were talking about Shaw’s ass… Well, it made me see red. There was so much more to him. “I’m not discussing Shaw’s ass,” I said with a full mouth. But then the memory of seeing him without a shirt made me wish I’d picked up a brownie too. “I have a date next week,” I said, as if I needed to remind myself.
Maybe a new ass to look at would help. I shoved the remainder of the croissant in my mouth.
Maybe the prospect of being physical…kissing…someone who wasn’t Shaw, would be what I needed to stop me from going down this obsessive, dead-end road again.
18
Shaw
The news about Riley was all over the place now. I can’t say I was surprised. Hell, I couldn’t even say I was disappointed. I think if I hadn’t been so out of it when she’d left, I would’ve broken things off before she dashed out the door. It would’ve saved all this drama.
Then again, maybe she planned it this way. She was probably feeding off the publicity it was generating.
Wyatt heard about it and called to check on me, to see if he could do anything to help. But until I spoke to Riley, I was stuck.
Riley was a live-in-the-moment kind of woman. She was beautiful and smarter than most people gave her credit for, but we both knew there hadn’t been a long-term future for us.
Now, it was going to be news: Riley stepped out on Dawson Shawfield with some Hollywood reality TV pretty boy. So our relationship had run its course.
Riley wasn’t a bad person. She just wasn’t my person.
But this also meant people were going to track me down. Maybe I needed to head back to Charlotte for a bit so they didn’t disrupt Kelcie and Aaron. They didn’t need that aggravation. I’d discuss it with Kelcie.
My people suggested I stay out of the public eye, even in our small town. I was getting a bit bored and claustrophobic in my house, so I looked forward to any outing, even the ones in the torture chamber that was Kelcie’s physical therapy office.
