Page 52 of Love on the Line

The hairs on the back of Wyatt’s neck stood up. He turned into a convenience store parking lot so he could pay full attention to the conversation. “What weird stuff?”

Anne cleared her throat. “It turns out it was Devon’s birthday today, and apparently he goes to this restaurant a lot, so they kinda, you know, made a fuss over it.”

Nothing strange about that. Time to throw the challenge flag. “What do you mean by them making a fuss?”

She didn’t answer right away, and each second of delay ratcheted his heartrate higher.

“There were just some awkward things like the waitress brought out wine for us. Devon tried to explain that we were working, but she said it was his birthday and she’d already poured it.”

Wyatt inhaled and waited.

“We didn’t want to be rude, so I had some with him.”

What bullshit. A person didn’t have to drink something they never ordered. “Sorry, Anne, but that’s lame. You don’t have any trouble speaking your mind with me. Why didn’t you say you didn’t want to drink?”

She sighed. “I felt bad for him spending his birthday with a stranger. His entire family died when he was twelve.”

What the fuck?

Wyatt squeezed the steering wheel hard. “How do you know that?”

“Well, he looked so sad when the waitress commented he was like family there. I felt horrible when he told me they all had died.”

Yup. She would. Wore her heart on her sleeve. Sure, it was sad, but no guy dumped emotional shit like that on someone he just met unless he had an ulterior motive. Wyatt’s blood heated to a slow boil.

“So, there he was, stuck with me on his birthday,” she said.

Uh huh. Stuck with her. A gorgeous, adorable blonde with a killer body who didn’t seem to have a clue about it. The gut instinct he’d had about this dinner meeting reared its ugly head again.

Before he flew off the handle, he’d better find out more information. That’s what communication was all about. Or at least that’s what he’d read in the article online. It said to repeat back what his partner said and ask for clarification. He counted to five. That’s all he had. Ten was a stretch.

“You said there were awkward ‘things.’ What else happened?”

“Umm…the waitress brought over a big piece of birthday cake.”

Wyatt closed his eyes and leaned his head back. She’d had this business meeting that somehow ended up at a restaurant, drinking wine and eating cake. His pulse throbbed in his throat.

“He asked me if I could take a couple of bites because Toni was watching us, like waiting to see if he liked it, so I didn’t want to say no.”

“Wait, who’s Toni?”

“The owner.”

Now she was on a first name basis with the staff? This was so like her. Never wanting to upset anyone. Even at her own expense.

“It seems like this Devon guy took advantage of the situation.”

“None of it was his fault.” Her tone took on an edge. “He apologized and agreed to meet next week back at the hospital. He had no idea any of that was going to happen.”

“I’m sure.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Wyatt thumped his palm against the steering wheel and blew out a frustrated breath. “Maybe I don’t like my girlfriend going on dinner dates with other men. What happened to exclusive?”

“That was not a dinner date.”

“Really? Because it sure sounds like it. And by the way, how did they even know it was his birthday?”

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