Page 11 of Sparks
“What do you mean,what?” I moved to the edge of my seat. “Fat Bottomed Girls? Really?”
She was silent for a beat, and then cackled like a witch and called to the other girls. “She finally saw it!” To me, she asked, “How many likes do you have?”
“Y’all know I don’t want to be on those gross apps. Why would you do that? I’m going to delete it!”
“Listen here, little boo.” My roommate Rhea’s voice piped in and I could picture her leaning down into the phone as Holly held it. “You will not delete it. You hear me? Not until you scroll through every single man and find a dick to sit on.”
“Oh, my gosh,” I whispered as I pinched my forehead. “We’ll talk about this when I get back. You’re all dead to me.”
“We love you too!” All of the girls shouted their love for me in the background and I rolled my eyes.
“Good-bye.” I hung up and frowned at Shawn’s handsome, smiling face before finishing my drink.
“Seems like they care about you,” he said. “You’ll laugh about it someday.”
I shook my head, although my initial horror was wearing off, leaving me with just a warm buzz and shocked amusement. Why was this man so interested? He’d asked me so many questions, digging deep, and I’d spilled every detail about myself. I would have probably told him anything. Would he do the same?
“You said you’ve been engaged a couple years,” I murmured. “Why haven’t you gotten married yet?”
He pressed his nice lips together and his mouth pulled to the side. “It’s kind of a long story.”
I fanned out my hands. “We’ve got nowhere to go,friend.”
A dry, nervous-sounding laugh escaped him. “You don’t want to rush upstairs and look through all those prospects?” He pointed to my phone.
Actually, after the picture of the business guy it was kind of tempting, but I shook my head. “Nope, I’m good right here.” I was just too curious about him.
“All right then.” He gave a nod. “But I think I’ll need another drink.”
“Me, too.”
Go to bed, my intuition shouted as he stood to get more drinks.
Shut up, I responded. It was just a conversation. I had no interest in men who were taken, but the thought of leaving his company without at least hearing his story made me feel anxious. Because I knew after tonight, I’d never talk to Captain Shawn Fowler again.
Before he started, he drank three quarters of his drink in one long swallow.
“Pretty sure vodka tonics are not for chugging,” I remarked.
He let out a coughing laugh and sat back. “Sure they are.” He made eye-contact with Jerome and next thing I knew his drink was being refilled again. I raised an eyebrow. Someone really needed liquid courage. Interesting.
“All right,” he said.
“All right.” I felt weirdly nervous as I sipped my drink and watched him.
“Okay, so.” He ran his palms down the lean muscular thighs of his jeans. “I met Natalie at a frat party my last year of college.” My insides jumped with a flare of green ugliness hearing him say her name, and I had to put myself in check.None of that, girl.He went on. “She went to a different college and was there visiting a friend. We were wasted, blah-blah-blah. Hit it off. Ended up having a long-distance relationship across the state for a year until we graduated.”
Half of his drink disappeared. I nodded for him to go on.
“She knew I was going into the Marines. I knew she was close with her family and was going to be a paralegal. But we didn’t really talk much about what the future looked like. When it was time for me to join and move, I brought up getting engaged, but she wasn’t in a hurry. She wanted to have some career time under her belt. I tried to respect that. So, we kept doing the long-distanced thing for over a year until…”
My eyebrows went up as our eyes met.
He let out a caustic laugh. “She got knocked up.”
“Oh, shit,” I breathed. My stomach collapsed. Oh, my fucking gosh. I had to set my drink down. He was watching me closely.
“Yeah.” He pulled out his phone, clicked around, and held it up. “Five-year-old son. Bennett.”
