“You really are a prick you know that?” I snapped, but my words had no malice as I bit back the laugh trying to escape my lips.
“I may be, but I’ve also sat exactly where you are.” He tapped his fist on the bar top between us.
“You mean like this seat?”
“No, I mean I was trying to figure out where I fit in the landscape of politics and government. Started out paging, interning, then worked my way up to city council.”
“And how did you do that?” I blurted, wishing I could pull back a filter.
Before he could respond, a cold hand brushed my shoulder.
My eyes bugged out as I turned to see Aubrey standing next to Chance in all of his sexy, Aussie glory.
The former soccer star still kept his physique and that head of scruffy hair that matched his two little cherub cheeked kids in their double stroller, noming on some breadsticks as they looked at me with their wide brown eyes.
“Aubrey, hey, I was just about to go back out but heard...”
Before I could finish my sentence, Chance thrusted a hand between us, his stare directed at the man across from me. “Chance Bateman.”
The two men shook hands, a silent conversation rushing between them as their eyes locked across the bar.
“Adrian Chase, good to meet you Mr. Bateman, I’ve heard quite a lot about you around the office.”
Chance laughed, putting his arm around Aubrey who still had her skeptical gaze drifting between Adrian and me. “I hope all good things.”
“Mostly.”
“Melanie,” Aubrey piped up. “I was going to tell you that Chance and the kids decided to meet me here for dinner instead of doing takeout, if you wanted to join us.”
I glanced at the happy couple and their precious little kids. That was when an ache filled in my chest that I’d tried to ignore.
Adrian had the career I wanted.
Aubrey had the loving husband who would do anything for her, including buying her coffee every day from me to woo her.
I had this internship.
That was it.
And if I didn’t succeed in it, then what?
Maybe sitting here a bit longer with Adrian Chase was my ticket to getting this park situation figured out.
“You know, I was going to finish my drink with Adrian since he’s buying and talk a little bit more about the park proposal.” I offered a sweet smile to Aubrey but she just blinked slowly.
“You sure about that? Because we’ll be at a booth right over here if you need to wave a flag and get my attention.”
“I’m sure.”
She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly before nodding. “Okay, well, that invitation still stands and if not, I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
The two men shook hands again, saying their pleasantries before the family went to their corner booth.
I kept my gaze on them until Adrian’s words tickled the back of my neck. “They’re a lovely family.”
I turned back toward him, smirking as I grabbed my new drink Frankie had set down. “They are. And they’re not far from here either. Wouldn’t it be nice for them to have a park to play in? Maybe even Chance could expand his soccer program? That would bring a lot more people out to the park and I could see sponsorships and city councilmen really getting more votes for that.”
He laughed, pointing a finger at me as he polished off his beer, Frankie already setting another one in front of him. “You’re good, I’ll give you that, but you’re not going to distract me from talking about you.”
“Me? We weren’t talking about me?” I squeaked, clearing my throat so I didn’t come out sounding like Minnie Mouse.
“Yeah. You have goals and it looks like you’re trying to pave the way from them, you might just need a push from a political prick, as you’ve so lovingly called me.”
I took a big gulp of my drink, wishing maybe he drank enough too so he could forget I called him that. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but I have no interest in leaving my internship or losing the park proposal.”
“I didn’t say you had to.”
“Then what are you saying?” I tried to ignore the steady beating in my chest at each of his words.
Was it because of what he was saying or because the more he talked, the closer he got to me, his leg now ever so slightly brushing against mine and sending a jolt to places that hadn’t been jolted in a very long time.
“Did you know my internship was with the Parks and Recreation Department? I started my junior year of college, working for an overzealous department head who wanted to do the exact same thing you want to do with that empty lot.”
I put my hand to my chest in mock shock and tried to control the beating of my thumping heart. “And you didn’t get it done?”
He sighed. “We tried. We tried really damn hard and I thought I failed when we couldn’t get the position passed with city council. So, it led me to looking into real estate development after spending all that semester going up to these old dudes in suits, trying to convince them that their money and time should be spent on that heap of dirt.”
“And now you’re one of the old men in suits?”
He laughed, the vibration tickling my cheeks and I crossed my legs hard. Damn that laugh for being sexy when I was trying to hate him.
“I wanted to be the opposite of them. I wanted to listen. To really do what was best for the community. So, I got my real estate license the same time as I graduated and worked under some of the guys until I had my own capital and now I’m the youngest man sitting on city council at twenty-nine.”
“Wow, um, that’s impressive.” I tried to hide how impressed I exactly was by covering the flush in my cheeks with another long sip of my drink.
“I’m not just trying to blow smoke up your ass here, I’m just telling you, that’s what I did and it wasn’t easy and honestly half the time I don’t know if what I’m doing actually helps anything.” His gaze flickered through the table, a flash of something behind his lenses.
What was that?
Doubt?
Did this great, cocky guy really have something he regretted?
“Then why don’t you back the park project?” I asked carefully.
He shook his head, raking a hand through his hair so that a few stray strands fell over his forehead.
My hand itched to push them away, to see if they’d run like silk through my fingers.
“The park will cost the city money with maintenance. People say they want green space but no one actually wants to take care of it and when tax payers start complaining about it, that’s when it’ll get shut down and another developer will build the same thing I’m proposing in a few years. So why not get in on it first?”
I swallowed hard, my heart thudding.
Of course, he had a point that it could happen.
But it didn’t have to.
“But what if the animal shelter worked with the Parks and Recreation Department? Used volunteers from the shelter to help take care of it? Or even interns in landscape architecture. Wouldn’t that help with costs?”
He smirked, lifting his half-empty glass. “Now you’re starting to talk like a politician.”
“So, does that mean you’ll consider what I’m saying?”