Page 32 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

The bartender toggled his eyes between Laney and Ethan before finally saying to him, “Can I get you anything?”

“Nah.” Ethan picked up Laney’s glass and kept his gaze on the bartender as he drank from it. A clear sign. “We’re good.”

After the bartender circled around to help other patrons, Ethan leaned in close to her. “You okay?” When she nodded, he narrowed his brows. “I have to finish up taking my kit out to my car, but I wanted to come over here,” he said, evidently having caught onto the exchange between her and the bartender. “You had your shoulders hiked up by your ears, and I thought maybe…”

“Thank you,” she said, and he grazed her shoulder with his fingertips before helping the rest of the band clean up the small stage in the corner.

A few minutes later, Dean grabbed an open seat next to Laney when a trio of patrons left, and the bartender set down the nachos in front of him without casting even a glance in Laney’s direction. Then Ethan was back on her other side, introducing Tony and Jerry, the other two guys in the band. Hank and Angela rounded out their little group too, her baby bump protruding under her sweater.

They all chatted for a bit, but Laney had trouble concentrating on Hank and Angela’s story about how she knew the gender of the baby while he didn’t because Ethan was still drinking from her beer. Friends shared food and drinks all the time, but Laney didn’t know the significance of idly sharing a drink after one person had recently turned the other into a puddle of human flesh.

It had to mean something.

Or maybe nothing.

But more than likely something.

Right?

Laney didn’t want to give in to this pull toward him. She was still working on crawling out from the crater Bobby had left in her life, and falling into Ethan’s orbit would disrupt everything.

But then Hank and Angela left, followed by Tony and Jerry, and Dean was off flirting with some woman at the opposite corner of the bar, so Laney was alone with Ethan. She took that as her cue and fished her keys from her purse.

Ethan slid into the seat next to her, beckoning her to sit back down with a crook of his head. “Leaving so soon?”

“I figured…”

He made a show of checking his watch. “You turn into a pumpkin soon or something?”

She shot him a look but slipped her keys into her purse and planted herself back down anyway.

Ethan pulled Dean’s leftover nachos toward them and stuffed a chip into his mouth, gesturing for Laney to do the same, but she shook her head. “No. My insides are starting to hate me. Dean plies me with too much junk food. I need to eat more vegetables.”

Ethan popped a bean into his mouth. “He’s got the diet of a second grader, huh?”

“Dinosaur nuggets and soda. All day long.”

“The breakfast of champions.” Ethan knocked his shoulder into hers. “Well, I’m a pretty decent cook, you know.”

She did not know that, butof coursehe was.

“I try to eat mostly vegetarian,” he said, sipping on her beer. “I make a mean spinach, mushroom, and feta burger. You could come over whenever you want.”

She fell so easily back into his trap with that smile and smooth voice, but she held her ground. “No.”

“Why not?”

She arched an eyebrow, and he turned his smile up to eleven, scooting closer to her, his hand on the outside of her thigh, stirring up feelings deep in her belly. “I know my brother is not the only one going out with lots of girls. I know you do too.”

“Not really,” he said, and when she cocked her head to the side, he huffed. “You going to hold it against me? You went out with other guys. How long were you with Bobby?”

She pressed her fingers to her warming cheeks. She didn’t know how many more excuses she could come up with. “I don’t care that you date around and hook up with whoever. I’m only saying that I’m not interested in getting into a relationship with anyone, especially with someone who I know isn’t interested in settling down.”

“Delaney,” he said, and she knew it was serious because heneverused her given name. “For the last ten years, I’ve been looking for someone who could live up to you. That’s why I’ve gone out with so many different women. I’ve been hoping I’d be able to find someone who makes me feel the way you do.”

She pulled her hair up, wrapping it around her wrist to air off the back of her neck. It was hot in here all of a sudden.

“I have a really good time hanging out with you,” he told her as if he couldn’t see she was having a mild panic attack. “I always did, and now that I get to do it again, I can’t get enough.”

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