Page 7 of Wicked Little Secret

The problem was, when she’d begun formulating this idea, she hadn’t counted on enjoying his company this much.

But she needed to stick to the game plan, and anonymity was a big part of that. Which was why not revealing too much about herself was probably a good idea. Hence the lie to his next question.

“Oh, what do you do there?”

“I’m an ER nurse.”

She knew enough about the emergency room from her brother that she could muddle her way through should Pete want more details.

“That must be stressful.”

“It can be. There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure.”

“It was busy today, huh?”

Aw, crap.Did he actually go to the emergency room earlier? That’d be just her luck to get called out on her first attempt at lying.

“How did you know?”

“You said something about not having eaten since this morning. I figured it was probably because you were busy.”

“It’s always a madhouse.”

He lifted his chin toward the game on TV. “Is that why you don’t know we’re in the running to make the playoffs? Or why you looked like you needed a drink when you sat down?”

“Well, I’m going to blame work for being out of the hockey loop. But the drink was about other stuff.”

“Other stuff.” Pete repeated slowly. “Care to talk about it?”

She gave him a flirty smile. “Just needed a little liquid courage to talk with the handsome stranger sitting next to me.”

“Coulda fooled me, sweetheart. When you waltzed through the door, the first thing I thought was I’d never seen a more confident woman in my life.”

Olivia laughed nervously. “I guess I’m good at faking it.”

He pinned her with his stare. “You won’t ever have to fake it with me. That I promise you.”

She knew damn well he wasn’t talking about her projecting confidence, and she believed him that there’d be no need to fake anything if they ended up naked.

He pointed to her empty glass with raised brows. “Do you want another?”

She really shouldn’t.

“Maybe one more.”

He signaled to Dan, and she gratefully took a sip when the bartender set a fresh one in front of her.

“Do you have kids?”

His blue eyes lit up and he smiled brighter than she’d seen him do all night.

“Two boys. My oldest is a junior at BCU, and my youngest just finished Navy boot camp.”

“You must be very proud.”

“So fucking proud. They grew up to be amazing young men. While I’d like to think I played a part, I know their mother was a major factor. I was off flying fighter jets while she was raising them. That’s my biggest regret in life—not being around more when they were growing up. ”

She liked that he was giving props to his ex-wife instead of bad-mouthing her.

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