Inside, he found Amber leaning against the wall near the hostess stand, looking grumpy. But damn cute. One corner of his mouth kicked up as he walked toward her. He set both hands on the wall behind her head, leaned in, and touched his lips to hers.
She did a face plant into his chest and his smile widened. He slid a hand up to the back of her neck and held her there against him.
“Amber, party of two.”
They turned to the hostess holding a couple of menus and separated to follow her to their table. The restaurant was small, with an industrial feel to the interior—brick walls, exposed wood beams, wood floors, and stainless-steel tables and chairs. In the summer they had a huge outdoor patio where he and the guys had celebrated their Stanley Cup win two years ago with copious amounts of Don Fulano A?ejo tequila.
“They have the best margaritas in the city,” he told Amber as they looked over menus.
“I had a couple of glasses of wine in the tub. But what the hell. A margarita sounds good.”
He ordered two of the house margaritas made with tequila and mescal, on the rocks. He watched Amber study the menu.
“Wow. This is cool. I don’t know what to have. A taco…or, um, a taco.”
He grinned. “Yeah, tacos it is. But there’s a lot of variety. You like chicken? Or there are vegetarian ones…my favorite is the taco al pastor—pork shoulder.”
She finally decided on a fish taco with chipotle mayo. They ordered and Duncan requested chips and guacamole to start.
“Okay,” he said, once that was all out of the way. “Tell me what happened this afternoon.”
She related the story of her accident and her phone call to the foundation to see if she could reschedule. She didn’t meet his eyes during much of the story, looking at the table. Their margaritas arrived, served in short, chunky glasses with salted rims, and she paused for that.
“Are you sure you weren’t hurt? Whiplash?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. It shook me up. I wouldn’t have been able to do well in the interview even if I’d made it there.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Sure you would have. You would have pulled it together and done great. Don’t try to make it sound like you shouldn’t have bothered trying to get there. Could you have called Easton?”
“No. He was working.”
He blew out a long breath. “Well, you could have called me.”
“You’re away a lot. And you’re busy too.”
“Yeah, I am, but I wasn’t today.” He felt that frustration rising inside him, but he didn’t want to get angry again and piss her off. “Seriously.”
“Okay, okay, I get it.”
He reached across the table and took one of her hands. “All right, let’s just drop it. For now.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m being a bitch.”
“No, you’re not.” One corner of his mouth lifted.
She grimaced. “Thank you for this. The margarita is awesome. How was your road trip?”
He made a face. “It was okay. Won two, lost one. So that was good, but felt like we weren’t playing our best.”
“You had a good game the night I was there.”
He grinned, remembering. “Yeah. Maybe you should come to every game.”
“Ha. I enjoyed it, but I obviously can’t do that. And your sister was nice. After she threatened me with death if I hurt you.”
His eyeballs nearly popped out into his margarita. “What?”
Amber laughed. “She’s a little protective of you.”
“Fuck that, she is not. She’s a pain in my ass.”
“She cares about you. It was sweet. Although I felt a little like I wasn’t measuring up.”
Duncan shook his head, trying to make sense of that. “My little sister being all protective and grown-up? Whoa.”
“I like her. She’s fun.”
“Yeah, she’s always been fun. A little too much fun and not enough settling down.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a little fun before you settle down. And she seems to be pretty settled with Marc.”
“Huh. Yeah. Who’d’ve known. Captain Codger got my flaky little sis to settle down, and she got him to lighten up. Never would’ve thought those two would be a match, but it seems to be working.” He paused. “How long will it take to get your car fixed?”
“No idea. They haven’t estimated the damage yet.” She blew out a breath and picked up her drink. “Hopefully not long.”
As usual, his mind was searching for a way to help her, but he didn’t say anything, given her strong reaction earlier.
Their chips and guacamole arrived; the guac was super fresh with lime and onions, hot peppers and cilantro, and the chips were made there, so they were also fresh and warm.
“Wow, this is good.” Amber reached for another chip. “I see why you like this place.” She tipped her head. “I like how you know all these little out-of-the-way restaurants.”