Page 35 of A Photo Finish
Right now? I want to enjoy it.
But nottoomuch.
“What? The water in this town is poison. Have you smelled it?”
Violet nibbles on her bottom lip and shakes her head at me.
“I’m only having one.”
She nods.
“What?”
“A girl could throw her panties right in your face, and you wouldn’t pick up on it, would you?”
I rear back. Why would a girl throw her panties in my face?
She takes a small sip of her beer, smiling knowingly into the creamy top of it as she does. “Our waitress. She’s into you. Didn’t you notice?”
My eyes shoot up over Violet’s head to look back at the bar, and—sure enough—the girl is staring straight back at me as the bartender places my Guinness on her tray. I didn’t notice because my mind has been fixated on the same girl for two damn years.
I roll my shoulders back and sit up taller, feeling a little less comfortable. “I don’t think so.” Eyes on me, even appreciative ones, have a way of making me squirm. I’m terrified that if someone looks too close, they’ll see what I’m hiding.You’re half the man you were when you left.That’s what Hilary said to me that night. That’s the sentence that’s stuck with me, that’s made me want to hide myself away.
But when the girl comes back to drop my beer off, she winks at me and taps my hand lightly before departing. And I almost can’t believe it myself. “Women are neverinto me,” I grumble as I look down at the carpet.
Violet leans back in her chair with her eyebrows pinched together and points at me. “She is.”
“No chance. I’m too old.”
She snorts. “You’re not.”
I finally look up and shrug. “I have to be at least ten years older than her.”
“You’re ten years older than me.”
“And?” I take a sip of the malty black beer and sigh inwardly. It tastes so fucking good. I can’t remember the last time I let myself enjoy a beer without worrying about taking optimal care of my body.
“It didn’t seem to bother you with me.”
I freeze, placing the pint glass back down. I don’t have that much experience with navigating women and their feelings, but I know a field full of landmines when I see one.
“That was—”
She cuts me off before I can finish what I wanted to say to her, waving me off with her hand, “Don’t worry about it. How’s work going?”
Work. I can talk about work.
“It sucks. We bought a company full of fucking idiots.”
“You’re a regular ray of sunshine, you know that? I think your swearing might be worse than Billie’s.” She pulls her good leg up onto her chair, resting her socked foot on the edge and bending her knee. Looking supremely comfortable—a way that most people don’t look in my presence.
I groan and scrub at my stubble before taking a long pull of my drink. “People swear in the military, Violet. This is why Vaughn is the happy shiny face of the family company.” I spin my glass in my hands. “And the new company? It’s just disorganized. Financials are a mess. Safety standards are fucking terrifying. Nobody knows what they’re doing. Basically, there’s a reason we got a rock-bottom deal on the place.”
She shrugs. “I’m sure you’ll turn it around.”
My cheek twitches at that. “How can you possibly be sure of that?”
“I don’t know. You just don’t strike me as a quitter.”
