Abbi Glines - Take a Chance

“Send them my way and I’ll correct that.”

Adam really was nice, and so less complicated than Grant. But the excitement and bone-melting passion weren’t there.

“I was about to grab some lunch. Want to eat with me? Make it up to me that you stood me up?” he said.

I was hungry, and company during lunch sounded nice.

“Yes. I’d love to,” I replied.

“Good. The restaurant here okay with you?”

I had never actually dined in the restaurant here. “Sure,” I told him. I just needed food. I wasn’t picky.

He held out his arm for me to take it. So nice. I slipped my hand over his arm and he led me up the stairs and toward the doors to the club.

The hostess obviously liked Adam. She couldn’t keep from smiling at him. I was worried she was going to trip walking us to a table.

“Your server will be with you in a moment,” she told Adam. As far as she was concerned, I didn’t exist.

When she walked away, I picked up the menu and tried to hide my grin.

“You find that amusing, don’t you?” Adam said, smiling over at me.

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing and nodded.

“She’s cute and we went out once, but she isn’t really my type.”

No wonder she’d ignored me. I just nodded again and went back to looking at my menu.

“The boss is on his throne,” Adam whispered, and I glanced up. What was he talking about? He tilted his head slightly to the left. “You see the dark-headed guy up there in that round booth talking to Rush Finlay?”

I didn’t want to look. Especially if Rush was up there. He would see me staring. I gave it a few moments, then quickly glanced over my shoulder. Rush wasn’t paying attention to us. He was talking with the dark-headed man. I had seen him before. “Yes,” I replied.

“That’s the boss, Woods Kerrington. He owns the whole damn place. Nice guy if you don’t piss him off.”

He was young. I wanted to look back again just to make sure I had seen him correctly, but I didn’t. “Is he young? He looks really young.”

Adam took a drink of his water and nodded. “Yeah. Like twenty-five or something. His dad owned the place and died of a heart attack a while back. Now the place belongs to Woods. Finlay is a good friend of his and is on the board of directors. Rumor is so is Dean Finlay. When that got out it was really good for business. Everyone wants a glimpse of the famous drummer.”

I didn’t know all that. Interesting.

“Good afternoon. My name is Jimmy and I will be your server today. Can I get you mineral water or sparkling?”

I looked up at the tall, attractive blond who was smiling at me. “I would love mineral, please,” I replied.

“I’m good with this,” Adam replied. “What is the special today, Jimmy?”

“A cold crab bisque with raspberry salad and seaweed-wrapped grouper, fresh off the boat.”

Adam frowned and I decided I was sticking with a sandwich.

“I’ll let the two of you look over things and I’ll be back with your mineral water,” he said, then quietly walked away.

“You into seaweed?” he asked me with an amused smirk.

I laughed and shook my head. He must have been thinking the same thing. I had eaten some strange things while living in L.A., but seaweed was not one of them.

“I think I’m going with the chicken pecan salad on a croissant,” I told him.

“I may have moved to pecan country but I still don’t eat them,” he replied.

I closed my menu and glanced up just as Grant walked into the dining room. His eyes were focused on someone else and it gave me a moment to prepare myself. Would he say anything to me? Or had I made him mad? Did he decide my drama wasn’t worth it? I watched him as he walked over and sat down beside Rush at Woods Kerrington’s booth. Woods said something to Grant and he forced a smile that didn’t meet his eyes.

I had started to look away when his head turned and his eyes met mine. We both froze. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but why did it feel as if I was? His eyes flickered to Adam, then back to me, and a hard edge transformed his face. He wasn’t happy. Well, crap.

I quickly looked back at my menu and counted to ten. My heart was beating fast, which was ridiculous. I shouldn’t be nervous. We hadn’t left things in a good place this morning, thanks to me. So me sitting here, having lunch with Adam, was no big deal. Right?

The chair beside me pulled out and I swung my gaze up to see Grant sitting down.

Okay . . . wrong. This was apparently a big deal.

He didn’t look happy but the tight smile on his face was trying to say otherwise.

“Hello, Adam,” Grant said before turning his intense blue gaze to me. “You could have asked me to lunch,” he said simply.

Technically, I hadn’t asked Adam. He’d asked me.

“You’re here with friends,” I told him, hating how my voice gave away how nervous I was.

Grant leaned closer to me. “I would drop anyone and anything the moment you called.”

There were those words again. The ones that managed to slide through you and turn you into a bowl of jelly.

“I, uh, Adam asked me to lunch. I was hungry,” I said, unable to look at Adam. I had no idea what he was thinking and I didn’t want to know right now.

“Looks like we have three guests now,” Jimmy said as he set the water in front of me.

“Mr. Carter, would you like me to get you something to drink?” Jimmy asked.

Grant didn’t take his eyes off me. “A sweet tea, please, Jimmy,” he replied.

“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said, and left without taking our orders.

“I guess I need to make sure I ask before Adam next time,” Grant said, then leaned back in his seat and put his arm around the back of mine in a possessive move. “So, Adam, how’s tennis going? Like the new job?” he asked in a polite tone.

Adam looked nervous. He glanced back at Woods’s table then back at Grant. I wondered if they were watching us. “Yes, sir. I’m enjoying it. The town is great.”

Grant touched my bare shoulder and he began to trace circles around it in a gentle caress. Adam noticed. This was becoming more and more awkward.

I could feel Woods and Rush staring at me. They had tried to stop me. Not that I listened. It wasn’t like they wouldn’t have done the same thing. Sitting here eating and letting Adam the tennis pro hit on my girl. Hell, no. That was not happening.

Harlow was stiff as a board. I hated that she was so uncomfortable, but she shouldn’t have come to lunch with Adam, the fucking tennis dude. This morning had fucked up my day. If Harlow thought we were going to bed tonight with this shit unsettled, she was wrong.

I listened as Harlow ordered a sandwich and ignored Jimmy’s amused grin. He knew what was going on. He probably talked to Rush and Woods about it when he was filling their drinks.

“I want to show you something when lunch is over. Do you already have plans?” I wanted to add that she needed to take a break, but I didn’t want to sound like an ass.

Harlow glanced at me. “No, I don’t have anything to do.”

“Good,” I said, leaning in to wrap one of her strands of hair around a finger so I could feel its silkiness. “I’m sorry.” I said the words without thinking about them. But I was sorry. I was sorry about this morning. I was sorry about how uncomfortable she was right now. But I wasn’t sorry that I was making sure Adam knew Harlow was not available.

“Adam,” Woods’s voice caught my attention and I looked up to see that he’d walked over to the table. “Nelton is double booked. It was an accident. He needs help with Mrs. Venice before she causes a scene. If you could please help, I will have your lunch brought to you. It’s on the house today.”

He’d just made that bullshit up. I had to cough to cover my laugh. Guess he did have my back after all.

“Yes, sir,” Adam replied, standing up and looking over at Harlow. “I gotta go. Next time,” he said, then turned to leave.

Woods didn’t say anything else before he went back to his table. Rush was staring down at his drink, grinning. He was in on this, too. I coughed again to cover my laughter.

“That was a setup, wasn’t it?” Harlow said, looking at me with her eyebrows drawn together.

“I assure you, when Adam gets out there he will have someone to teach,” I told her. Woods would’ve made a phone call to be sure of it.

“But Woods made that happen,” she said. Harlow wasn’t stupid.

“Yeah, he did. I didn’t ask him to, though. That was all him, and probably Rush, from the look on his face.”

Harlow glanced over at them and they both quickly looked away from us.

“Guess it’s nice to have friends in high places,” she said, turning back to me.

I had been ready to thank Woods but if she was pissed, I wasn’t gonna be thanking him. “I had nothing to do with that,” I repeated.

She sighed and relaxed. “I think I believe you. And honestly, I don’t know how Adam was going to eat with you rubbing on me and glaring at him anyway.”

“I didn’t glare,” I replied with a relieved grin.

She rolled her eyes and picked up her glass. “Yes, Grant, you did.”

Maybe I had, but I didn’t like the guy. He wanted what I wanted. “I want to talk about this morning and I want to show you my place. You’ve never been there and I want you there.”

She took a sip of her water, then set it back down before looking at me. “I acted like a jealous girlfriend and I hate that. I’ve never acted like that before. I’m sorry. We aren’t exclusive. You have a past that isn’t my business, and when Nan threw the bait out there I took it. I shouldn’t have.”

Not what I’d been expecting her to say. Again, Harlow wasn’t like the other girls I knew. Also, we needed to discuss that “exclusive” comment. Because lunch with Adam was one thing, but I’d be damned if she intended to go out with that prick again. “What Nan said was mean and bitter. You didn’t like it and that’s normal. As for exclusive, I am very, very exclusive. Since yesterday on that plane, I knew I wasn’t touching anybody else.”

Harlow tilted her head to the side and studied me silently. Had she thought I was going to go screw other people now? Really? Was my reputation that bad?

“Okay” was all she said. If there one was thing about Harlow that drove me nuts, it was her one-word answers, like “okay,” when I wanted a few lengthy sentences. Dammit. Girls liked to hear themselves talk. Why didn’t she?

“Could you elaborate on that?” I asked, reaching over to take her hand in her lap because I just needed to touch her.

The corner of her mouth turned up. “What else do you want me to say? You aren’t going to sleep with anyone else while we’re doing . . . this thing we’re doing. And I won’t have lunch with anyone else,” she replied.

I needed more than that. “Lunch? That’s it?”

She shrugged. “It isn’t like you have to worry about me sleeping with anyone else. I don’t do that.”

No, she didn’t. And damned if that didn’t make me want to pull her into my lap and growl at anyone who looked her way like a damn dog with a bone. “Dates?” I asked. She’d been on a date with Adam.

She frowned. “I said no lunch. That meant dates, too.”

“Just wanted to clarify,” I told her, and leaned over to press a kiss to her lips. I had sat here and stared at them long enough. My eyes lifted and I saw Woods and Rush watching me. They were enjoying this a little too much.

Grant’s apartment was just outside Rosemary. It was small and I was surprised by that, but then again I wasn’t. His place looked like him. The furniture was worn and it was everything a bachelor pad should be, from the dartboard on the wall to the empty pizza boxes on the counter.

“I should’ve cleaned up before I brought you here,” he said, walking up behind me. I stepped back until I was touching him.

“I like it just like this,” I replied.

Grant’s head dipped to my shoulder and he kissed my neck. “And why is that?” he asked.

“Because it’s you. It’s comfortable and real.”

Grant’s arms came around me and held me. “I don’t know if I want you thinking of me as comfortable. That sounds real close to boring.”

Grant was anything but boring. “Well, you’re not that.”

He moved a hand down to the bottom of my skirt and tugged it up. “I feel the need to prove just how exciting I can be,” he whispered in my ear.

I didn’t want what we were doing to be all about sex. I wanted something deeper than that. But then maybe that was what Grant wanted. I liked it . . . no, I loved it. He made me feel amazing, but was that all we would ever be? When this was over, would I have been just another girl he had sex with? Or would he remember me for other things?