I let out a half chuckle with none of the amusement one would expect. “Me neither, but …” I looked over at Jack who moved his mouth over to Ashley’s ear. What the hell? I couldn’t handle this. Watching him was making my insides churn. I knew what she was probably feeling right now—a little shivery with hormones racing up and down her body. “I thought for a while he was a different person. Anyway,” I tried brightly, “looks like he’s moving on though, huh?”
To see him tête-a-tête like that was an eerily familiar sight from the tabloids over the last few months. My skin heated. What was it with him and blondes?
“Honey, if you only knew the way his eyes track you all over this restaurant …” Brenda sighed. “You may have moved on, but this boy, this famous, gorgeous man who can have anyone, anywhere with a crook of his finger, is all about you.”
Swallowing, I involuntarily flicked my eyes back to Jack, whose eyes were indeed on me. Yes, I’d felt them all night long. I wished there was some way to translate what was going on in his head. Why his eyes were saying one thing, and his actions another? It was dizzying, and I hated it. Thank goodness the night was almost done.
Soon, the rest of the restaurant had cleared out, and it was just Jack’s table left. Sheriff Graves had stopped by to make sure people weren’t loitering outside the entrance, and as it was well past closing, to nudge Paulie to close up.
Blonde Ashley picked up her phone and did a selfie of her and Jack, unaware he wasn’t looking at her camera, but at me. Still. I was beginning to feel a little like prey on the forest floor at night.
“Case in point,” said Brenda as we passed by each other again. “Do you think you could leave some available men around for the rest of us?”
I nodded but was unable to look away from Jack. His eyes looked black from here. If he’d been pretending not to track my every move earlier, he wasn’t hiding it anymore.
“Colton Graves is available,” I answered Brenda. “We broke up today. If we were even technically dating.”
Jack’s eyes flicked to my mouth as I spoke. There was no way he could lip read from there. And frankly it felt like he was touching my lips not reading them. I licked them without thinking, and his gaze narrowed.
“Good to know, good to know,” murmured Brenda next to me. “I’ll … um … leave you to molest each other with your eyes then.”
Her words registered. Pulling my gaze from Jack’s was like trying to break a piece of saltwater taffy. I shook my head and headed to the bar. “Paulie, how soon do you think we can get these folks out of here so we can lock up?”
“I don’t think the guys are gonna make a clean get away. If they want to ditch these girls, I’ll need you to take ‘em out the back and give ‘em a ride home, okay?”
“What? No, Brenda can do that,” I said, panicking.
Brenda passed by again, her hands full of plates. “Sorry, hon, I could kick myself, but I walked. No-can-do.”
“Paulie,” I pleaded, grasping at straws. “If they walked here, they can walk home. Can’t they? Or you take them, I’ll lock up. And maybe they don’t want to ditch those girls.”
“I really ‘preciate that Keri Ann, and you know I trust you with locking up, but I want to make sure those girls go on home and safely. I don’t want none of them hanging around here and causing trouble when they realize them boys’ve gone. ‘Sides, the guys already asked me for help in leavin’. We need to give ‘em a quick getaway, not send ‘em home on foot so they can be followed.”
A loud cackle stood out from the round of laughter at the table.
Paulie lifted a hand and signaled to Devon, who nodded at Jack, and they both excused themselves from the table.
I tensed.
“Aw!” said the girl on Ashley’s other side. “You guys gotta go to the restroom in pairs? I thought only us gals did that?”
Devon just laughed. “Nah, Jack’s gotta go, I’m just going to see Paulie about us maybe staying here with you ladies a little longer.” Clearly, he was a practiced hand at extracting himself from these situations.
I exhaled a resigned breath and headed to the kitchen before Jack could catch my eye again. I was about to be alone in a confined space with him, I didn’t need to get any more psyched out. I knew I was beaten. The sooner we got this over with, the better.
I grabbed my bag, and saying a quick goodbye to Hector and the other guys in the kitchen, jogged out the backdoor into the cool spring night to get my truck. It roared to life, and I did a quick turn around and brought it to idle with the passenger side lined up to the door I’d just exited. One row, three people. Someone was going to be extremely close to me.
I rolled down my window and breathed the sea air, tainted with restaurant refuse, deep into my lungs. Then I closed my eyes and counted slowly, trying to bring my pulse back to some sort of resting rate, and waited.