“Sorry.” The man’s shirt was already open two buttons past desperate. She spun away, feeling icky just being near them.
Jake sat alone at a table in the center of the room, his dark eyes just as intense as she remembered and aimed right at her. She laid her tray on the bar and walked toward him.
There was something in his expression that pulled at her. Something soft and deep and maybe a little broken. Which was crazy, because nothing about him looked at all broken.
“Hey,” she said, reaching his table. “Don’t tell me you eat here too.”
He smiled. “No. I went by the diner earlier. I saw Jenny and she told me you were here.”
“Oh.” So he did still go to the diner, but she wasn’t there. Because she was here. And now he was here too. “Do you need a drink?”
“No, I’m set.” He raised the nearly full bottle in his hand.
Right. She just managed not to thunk her palm against her forehead.
“I saw Casey at the diner,” he went on. “She wasn’t wearing her prosthesis. Is it still bothering her?”
“I don’t know. Some days it seems fine and other days she says it is. I’ve asked her a hundred times, but she never gives me a real reason, which makes me think it’s not really hurting her at all. But obviously I don’t know for sure. I can’t tell her it’s not hurting if she says it is.” She sighed and shook her head at all the things she didn’t know and all the ways she could screw up.
“Hmm. The mystery of a five-year-old.”
That made her smile and when she met his eyes she felt a warm vibration from her head all the way to her toes.
“Can you sit?”
“Um…sure. For a second.” Because she could resist handsome, or so she told herself, but his honest concern for Casey was impossible. She slid onto the wooden bench across from him as classic Aerosmith played in the background. The air hummed between them, or maybe that was just her blood rushing around in places she didn’t usually notice.
He shifted and rested his forearms on the table, causing the sleeves of his T-shirt to strain around his biceps and other parts of her body to flutter.
“You work hard,” he added a moment later.
“I don’t mind. And I’m off at ten tonight. It’s not too bad.”
“Right. Jenny told me. She also said you needed a ride.”
“Really? That’s funny, since Jenny was my ride.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Jenny the matchmaker. “My car wouldn’t start this morning.”
“She said to tell you Casey was especially tired tonight. I’m also supposed to give you a message from Casey that she is not especially tired at all. Jenny said she would call you, but you didn’t have a cell so…I guess I’m the messenger and the ride. If that’s okay.”
The thought of a ride in the dark with Jake sent a shiver up her spine. “You don’t have to do that. I can take the bus.”
“The bus?”
He said the word like it was such a crazy idea. “Sure.” She assumed there was a bus and it wasn’t like she hadn’t taken it hundreds of times. When she was young and her mom was too relaxed to drive her. When she didn’t have money for gas, or her car wasn’t running, or—
His expression turned serious. “You’re not taking the bus.”
“Really?” She raised a playful eyebrow. “Bossy much?”
“I’m the youngest of seven kids,” he said. “I never got the chance to be bossy.”
“Seven? Wow. That’s a lot.”
“Yeah.” He agreed and took a drink of his beer.
“I don’t get off for another hour.”
“That’s fine. I’ll wait. It’s live music night, right?” He gestured with his bottle to a stool on a small raised platform at the front of the restaurant. The owner’s idea to draw in more business.
Her boss passed by the table. “You’re on in fifteen.” He motioned toward a guy plugging in cords and adjusting the microphone.
Jake’s brows shot up and he leaned forward. “Wait. You’re the entertainment?”
She was going to kill Jenny. “Not really. No. Jenny’s sort of boyfriend knows a guy who knows a guy. They were looking for somebody.” She lifted a shoulder. “It’s just this once. They needed someone to fill in and Jenny mentioned me. It’s an extra fifty bucks. No big deal.”
Except the extra money. That was a big deal.
“It’s really just background music while people eat,” she went on. “Most of them don’t even listen.”
Keep talking, Paige. Maybe he’ll get bored and leave.
“You don’t need to stay.”
“Nervous?” He followed the question with just a hint of his sexy smile and her stomach did a full-out dance. It didn’t take much where Jake was concerned.
“Maybe. A little.” She blew out a breath. “Okay. A lot. I’m really wishing I hadn’t agreed to this.”
“I’m sure you’re good. He wouldn’t have asked you if you weren’t.”
“Well, since this is my first time, we’re about to find out.”
“First time singing?”
“Well, I sing to Casey, but she’s a pretty gentle audience.”
“Want to have a drink? Shore yourself up a bit?”
Without waiting, he lifted a hand and easily got the attention of one of the other waitresses. Not hard since they were staring at him like they were starving kittens and he was a bowl of cream. Desperate, hungry, and a little feral.