“Funny, that’s what I was thinking,” I said softly.

She clamped her teeth shut.

“Have you eaten?” I asked when she didn’t mosey on her way then didn’t wait for her answer when I went on, “If you haven’t, though you’ve been here, just FYI, the strip comes highly recommended.”

“I’ve had the strip,” she retorted.

I didn’t miss a beat. “Was it good?”

Her nose went up in the air half an inch. “I prefer the fillet.”

Her meaning was clear.

Total bitch.

“Sonny said, and it’s also my experience, there’s not much to a fillet.”

She leaned toward me slightly and said softly, “It melts in your mouth.”

I shrugged. “May be just me but I prefer to sink my teeth into something.”

At that, Gray burst out laughing, my eyes moved directly to him but not before I noted Cecily’s doing the same.

Still laughing, his dancing eyes on me, Gray forced out, “Don’t stop, darlin’, me and the rest of the VFW are enjoying the show.”

Hells bells.

I pressed my lips together.

Gray’s eyes dropped to my mouth, his waning laughter waxed and it was then I heard a number of chuckles all around.

My eyes slid to Cecily to see her face had gone red.

“Are you done welcoming me to Mustang?” I prompted and she shot daggers at me with her eyes.

“Enjoy your strip,” she replied snottily.

“I intend to,” I muttered, Gray’s laughter kept sounding as did the many chuckles.

God. Embarrassing.

Cecily, definitely shoving her nose in the air, flounced away.

I sighed deeply.

“That… was… brilliant,” the woman who had tried to tell off Sonny whispered down the table at me.

I smiled even as I bit my lip.

“Dollface, give me your hand.”

That was Gray and I looked to him to see his arm stretched across the table toward me, his big hand turned up. I took mine out of my lap, rested it in his and his fingers curled warm and tight around mine.

“Last night, I bled for you. Cecily is the female version of taking on a battalion of pissed off assholes. Now I owe you,” he said, smiling at me.

“He’s not wrong,” the man beside me leaned in to mutter then his mutter dropped to a whisper, probably because there were kids at the table. “Thinks her shit don’t stink. Probably not a surprise but you aren’t special. She spreads that cheer all around. Gets on everyone’s nerves.”

I nodded to him.

Gray’s hand squeezed mine and I looked back at him.

“Thanks for havin’ my back.”

“You’re welcome.”

His fingers gave mine another squeeze.

It felt nice.

Sonny arrived and Gray’s hand quickly let mine go so both of our arms could vacate the table’s surface seeing as, if they did or didn’t, either way, Sonny was dumping two plates on the table.

Once this was achieved, his eyes locked on mine.

“Next time you have a verbal catfight, you call me before you engage hostilities. Yeah?” he demanded.

Well, that didn’t take long to make the rounds.

“Uh… all right,” I whispered.

“Clear your plate or you’ll break my heart,” he ordered.

“I wouldn’t wanna do that,” I muttered, looking down at my plate.

It looked sensational.

“I hope not,” Sonny whispered and his whisper was chock full of something, so much of it, even though him whispering at all would make my eyes shoot to his face, it was the emotion that made them make the journey in record time.

When he caught my gaze, his, which was burning with the emotion in his voice, didn’t let mine go.

Then he nodded his head and stomped off.

I watched him go.

I was still doing it when Gray prompted quietly, “Tuck in while it’s hot, dollface.”

I looked to him.

Then it was me who nodded.

Then I tucked in.

VFW charity dinner or not, Gray wasn’t wrong.

It wasn’t only the best steak I’d ever had, it was the best meal.

I loved every bite.

* * *

“’Night, Janie,” Gray called.

I waved.

“’Night you two,” Janie called back also adding a wave and a big old smile.

Gray had his arm around my shoulders and was leading me out the door of The Rambler where, after a delicious steak dinner and conversation that, following Cecily’s warm welcome, included the whole table and that would be the rotating people who sat at it after folks finished and new folks arrived, we had a few beers and a half a dozen games of pool.

During which I wiped the floor with a Gray who didn’t mind even a little bit.

I figured this had to do partly with him watching me play pool not only with his eyes on my behind (which I caught more than once and it made me feel warm in a way I’d never felt before) but also just watching me shoot pool.

He was impressed and didn’t hide it.

It had always been a job, the hustle, second nature.

That night, playing pool and essentially entertaining a handsome, easygoing, often smiling man I liked a great deal and with every passing second liked even more, it became a whole lot more.

“Honest to God, you just picked up a cue and could shoot pool?” Gray asked.

Obviously, we’d chatted. After the first evasive maneuver I had to make to deflect his question about my Dad, Gray made an effort to keep it light, for me.

Not for him.

I learned when Gray was twenty, his Dad died in the car wreck that took away his Grandma’s legs. Tragic without additional tragic circumstances like joyriding kids or drunk drivers. It was a snowy night and they went head-to-head with another pickup, both caught ice and the results weren’t pretty. His Dad died, his Gran lost her legs, the other driver lost his arm.

I also learned his Mom left his Dad when Gray was five after suffering her third miscarriage after she had Gray. She disappeared for twelve years, no word, no sightings but then came back out-of-the-blue and tried to take up where she left off with both Gray and his father. Gray’s Dad, still alive then obviously, was not big on this option. Neither was his Gran. Neither was Gray who without evasion cared deeply for them both. His father loved his mother and her desertion of him and his son understandably didn’t go over well and her return was worse.

She gave up but didn’t leave. Gray told me he ran into her on occasion but didn’t give her his time. She was a nurse at the local clinic. Night shifts.

That explained his not getting stitches last night.

I also learned that I was right; he was twenty-five, twenty-six in March.

For my part, Gray learned Casey was twenty-seven, Casey had currently convinced himself he was falling in love and that I had a natural talent playing pool.

It wasn’t a fair exchange but I was new to this, I was going easy and I was scared.

I was who I was and I had a sense that he knew who I was and didn’t care.

That said, I didn’t expect he’d be all that hip on having a pool hustling girlfriend who traveled the continental United States with her brother, playing pool, hustling idiots and returning back infrequently to have steak dinners with him at the VFW.

I didn’t know what I was doing or where this was going.

I just knew right then, for the first time since I could remember, maybe the first time in my life, I knew I liked right where I was.

So I was living that moment and doing the best I could.

Gray didn’t seem to mind.

“Yeah,” I answered his question as we walked into the cold and Gray moved us down the sidewalk toward the hotel which was away from his pickup thus clearly stated we were taking a short walk. “I mean, I wasn’t as good as I am now but it isn’t far off.”

“You got a head for numbers?” Gray asked and I looked up at his profile, feeling his arm around me, my arm, which had slid around his waist, and thinking, strangely, walking tucked to his side and held by him, that it didn’t seem cold.

Not even a little bit.

“A head for numbers?” I asked back.

“Yeah. Stands to reason, you can naturally play pool, you got a head for geometry, physics. If you see angles, can instantly assess velocity, force, impact then you’d have a head for science, numbers.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

I also left school at twelve so I really had no idea.

That said, I was good with money, for instance, I could assess the percentage of a tip without even thinking about it. I could also without thinking take our bank and divide it knowing down to the penny how much time we had before we needed another score.

Maybe I was.

“Maybe I do,” I told Gray. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Just thought I could play pool.”

“You can’t play pool, dollface, you dominate. Never seen anything like it. It’s sensational. Like watchin’ a master at a canvas. A prima ballerina on a stage,” his arm gave me a squeeze and my eyes, which had drifted to our moving feet, went back to his face to see he was grinning down at me, “not that I ever saw either of those. I’m just guessing.”

I grinned up at him.

Then I replied quietly, “I haven’t seen either of those either but what you said was nice.”

His arm gave me another squeeze; I felt my arm should reciprocate the gesture so it did.

His grin turned into a smile.

I made note of that for future reference.

His eyes turned to face forward.

My eyes drifted down to my feet.

And we both shifted to silence.

Then, it seemed liked seconds had gone by (but it was more like minutes just that I liked walking tucked to Gray in the cold) we were at my door.

Belly full of great food, beer, time spent in interesting and not demanding conversation, Gray’s eyes on me, my eyes able to take in Gray any time I wanted and Janie smiling on happily, I was lost in the night. A nice night.

No, a great night.

The best I ever had. None even came close. Not even when Casey and I scored huge with that idiot with the Rolex who bet five thousand dollars on a single game of pool.

And I’d never been on a date.

So it didn’t occur to me that we were at my hotel door and it was the end of our date.

So it also didn’t occur to me what normally happened at the end of a date.

Not even when Gray’s arm curled me to press my front to his and his other arm slid around me at my waist.

“Be back tomorrow, take you to breakfast at the diner, take you to my place, give you a ride. Does eight work for you?” he asked, his voice soft.

I smiled, liking that I got to go to sleep thinking that was going to be what I woke up to.

Liking it a whole lot.

Then I nodded.

“Good,” he muttered, his eyes dropping to my mouth and then his head dropped and then… then…

Then his beautiful lips were on mine and he was kissing me.

Kissing me!

My first kiss.

It wasn’t a stealth attack but I was still surprised and this worked in my favor because the touch of his mouth to mine, the hardness of his body against mine, his arms around me, his warmth, his smell, all that was him, I liked it. So much, I got lost in it and my body automatically melted into his, my arms around him going tight, my elbows bent, forearms running up his back either side of his spine. My hands felt leather and under that hardness and they pressed in.

Then Gray touched his tongue to my mouth.

My stomach dipped instantly, tingles shot down the fronts of my thighs and my lips opened instinctively.

His tongue slid inside.

Oh my.

That was nice.

Oh my.

That was nice.

My fingers fisted in the leather, my knees got weak, more tingles shot through my legs but these were different, stronger, racing up not down, straight between my legs as Gray’s arms got super tight and he held me super close and my tongue intuitively danced with his.

He looked good. He sounded good. He smelled good. He felt good.

And now I knew he tasted good.

Sublime.

The best taste to touch my tongue.


Absolutely.

Then it got better. His arm around my shoulders moved, his long fingers ran up the back of my neck, sifted in my hair, cupped the back of my head and that felt lovely.

Then he used his hand at my head to tip mine to the side, his slanted the other way and the kiss went deep.

Way deep.

Straight through my mouth, down my throat, through my belly to spasm between my legs even as it seared straight into my soul.