Eli was the only person in my world who could get a genuine smile out of me, and all he had do to earn one was simply breathe. My boy was the only bit of light I’d had over the past several years, so over time my smiles had grown brittle and forced around everyone but him. However, in the past few minutes, I’d had more fun with someone who wasn’t my son than I’d probably had in the past six years combined, and that realization was a punch of guilt straight to my chest.
Marin’s eyelids hooded. Her chest rose on an inhale as she stared at my mouth, and hand to God, just having her look at my mouth like that made my dick twitch.
That feeling was accompanied by a voice in the back of my head screaming that this was a huge fucking mistake. A frigid chill worked its way down my spine like a bucket of ice had been dumped right over my head.
It took everything I had to keep from shooting to my feet and bolting for the door. However, before I had a chance to react in any way, Marin’s eyes bugged out and for some inexplicable reason, she threw herself out of her chair.
“Shit,” she hissed as she crawled behind the table on her hands and knees. “Shit, shit, shit!”
“Uh . . . something wrong?” I asked as my gaze darted around the restaurant to see that she’d garnered the attention of several other diners as well. Apparently I wasn’t the only one wondering what in the hell this beautiful woman was doing crawling around on the floor.
“Yes,” she whispered emphatically while tossing her head back to look at me and blowing wayward strands of golden hair out of her face. “You see that guy who just walked in? The one over by the bar?”
I forced my mind off the fact that her face was now dangerously close to my crotch, and my gaze shot in that direction. But I couldn’t possibly distinguish the guy she was talking about from all the other men gathered around the bar. It was bordering on 8:00, so that area was filling up steadily with people coming in from work. “Which guy?”
Her head peeked out over the top of the table so she could scan the area. “Blue button-down, sleeves rolled up, dirty blond hair. The one sitting next to the woman in the tight red dress.”
I definitely saw the red dress. It was impossible to miss in a way that the woman wearing it had more than likely intended. Low cut, skin tight, and short enough to reveal a large expanse of smooth thigh when she sat on the barstool and crossed her legs. It was the kind of dress that screamed for attention.
“Okay, yeah. I see him. So what’s the big deal? You know him or something?”
She snorted indelicately, and damn if it wasn’t adorable as hell. “Yeah, I know him. He’s my brother-in-law.”
I looked down at her with an arched brow. “Then why are you hiding instead of going over to say hi?”
She looked up at me with an expression that read like I was the stupidest kid in school. “Because that woman he’s with is not my sister.”
Oh. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” She continued to whisper-yell. “My sister is currently at home, taking care of their two kids and their household all by herself because her husband is supposedly always too busy at work to come home at a reasonable hour to spend time with his family.”
My head whipped back around to study the couple. The woman in red leaned in close, twisted in his direction as they spoke, but the man stayed straight on his stool, his body facing the bar. “Maybe it’s not what you’re thinking,” I suggested, but it sounded weak, even to my own ears. His body language might not have been giving anything away, but hers most certainly was.
“What are they doing now?”
I looked down at her with a bewildered expression. “You want me to spy on them for you?”
Her pretty features twisted up in a duh. “Well, I can’t do it! If he sees me, the jig is up.”
I had to swallow back my laugh and bite the corner of my mouth to keep from smiling again. Fuck me, but she was cute as hell. I really should have gone home as soon as my own dinner ended. When the hell would I learn?
“Um, excuse me.” At the sound of the newcomer’s voice, Marin and I both looked over to see the waiter standing there, shifting from foot to foot with uncertainty. “Is everything okay?”
“Yep,” Marin answered brightly. “Just lost a contact is all.”
“Do you need some help?”
“Oh, no. I’ll find it. But thank you.”
To help push the guy along, I handed him the folio with my credit card in it, and he quickly retreated, probably in a hurry to close out the table so he could get rid of us.
“Okay, what’s happening now?” Marin asked, pulling my focus back to her.
Knowing I wasn’t getting out of this without playing spy for her, I turned back to the bar to watch. “Nothing’s really happening. They’re just talking.”
“But how do they seem?” she pressed, still crouched down, hidden behind the table.
“They seem . . .” I trailed off, unsure how to answer when I saw the woman reach over and place her hand on the man’s thigh.
“You got quiet all the sudden. Why’d you get quiet? What’s going on?” Her head darted back up, and she sucked in an affronted gasp. “That little hussy!”
Placing my palm on top of her head, I shoved her back down. “Will you keep it down? You’re going to get us caught.” I was in this now, no going back, so I figured I might as well see it through. Truth be told, I was kind of curious how it was going to play out.
“But she’s touching his thigh!”
“Yeah, but he just pulled away,” I told her, fully immersed in this little spy operation. “And now he’s fiddling with his wedding ring like he’s trying to draw attention to it.”
“Okay, so maybe he’s not a complete ass,” she grumbled almost resentfully, like having to relent that he wasn’t totally in the wrong left a sour taste in her mouth.
“Do you not like him or something?”
“Of course I like him,” she said with no small amount of defense. “He’s family. He’s just screwing up with my sister and their kids over and over again, and it’s really starting to piss me off.”
The sound of a throat clearing broke through the strange conversation. “Here you go,” the waiter said, dropping the folio back on the table. “Hope you enjoyed your meal.”
To save face, Marin smiled brightly up at him. “Oh here it is,” she chirped, pretending to find her imaginary contact. “Found it.”
She let out an embarrassed giggle and began to push up off the floor. Before I could think better of it, I stood tall and reached out to help her up, taking her hand in mine. Just like when we’d collided back in the hallway, the touch of her skin against mine sent a jolt of electricity through my entire body.
From the way she gasped, I sensed that she’d felt it too. That voice in my head was yelling at me to retreat, but before I had a chance, her heel caught on the carpet and she stumbled, right into my chest. My hands instinctively wrapped around the curve of her waist to keep her on her feet.
Her plump lips parted on a breath as she stared up at me, the amber in her eyes growing a touch darker, and I swear to Christ, I felt her lean in even closer.
The realization that she fit me perfectly was too goddamn strong to ignore as I held on to her. Her mouth was right there, just a few inches away. All I had to do was lean in, just a bit, and I’d be able to taste her. As it was, she was all I could see and smell.