Page 7 of Wilde Abandon
“Why?Because she’s yours?Buddy, she doesn’t even know you’re here.She thinks she’s talking to some guy who is such a chump he won’t even meet her in person.”
Okay, yes, his strategy sucked.It had backfired, actually.He’d wanted a chance for them to get to know each other again without their history getting in the way.
But after weeks of messaging each other since he’d come back, sharing stories about their lives, and really getting to know each other, last night she’d laid down an ultimatum.
He stared at her last message.
@WILDE_BAR_GIRL: Either meet me in person and tell me your name, or this is over.
His gut clenched at the thought of losing her again.
The boy in him wanted her to know he regretted what he’d said the moment she’d walked out of his hospital room.He never forgot her.He owed her.
The man…he wanted her back in a way that had nothing to do with simply being her friend again.His whole body heated with just the thought of kissing her, touching her, holding her in his arms as he sank into her.
The girl stole his heart.The woman starred in all his fantasies.
Dean leaned back against the desk.“Stop stalling.Stop thinking about what could happen andmakesomething happen.You keep this up, you’re going to lose her all over again.”
Voices sounded out in the main part of the building.They needed to get started on today’s lessons.
Amy, their resident chef for the next three months, poked her head into his office.“It’s egg day.Let’s make some omelets.”Her gaze never strayed from him.It landed on him every time they were in the same room.
Fox didn’t acknowledge her hungry gaze.He’d hired her to teach the students at the New Adult Education Center he recently opened here in Blackrock Falls, Wyoming how to cook, not to flirt with him.“On our way.”
Her head tilted to the side.“You look tired.You feeling okay?”
“He slept on his desk again last night.”Dean’s disapproval matched the look in Amy’s eyes.
“I had a lot of work to catch up on after the lessons ran long yesterday.”
Amy frowned.“You work too hard.You need to take care of yourself.”She bit her bottom lip.“Or let someone take care of you.”She waved her hand for him to come along.“I’ll make you the best omelet you’ve ever had, and you’ll be feeling better in no time.”Amy backed out of his office.
Dean said under his breath, “I’ll just bet she has other ideas about how she’d like to take care of you.”
Fox stood, stretched his aching back, raised his arms to loosen up his stiff shoulders, andaccidentallysmacked his friend.“Shut up.She works for us.”
“She’d like toworkon you.”
“Not interested.”Even if he hadn’t been hung up on Melody, he wouldn’t have been interested.It seemed like a recipe for disaster.Amy continually said that food was her love language, and she was always trying to feed him.He made sure to take her cooking lessons seriously, because it was a skill he needed to learn to do better, but otherwise tried to keep his distance.
“Then go after the girl you are interested in and lock that down before you miss your chance and someone else steals her away from you.”
“What if she doesn’t want me?”
“I catch you smiling at your phone while you two are sending messages back and forth.She makes you happy.And if she’s frustrated with you because she wants more than you’re giving her, doesn’t that tell you something?”
He desperately wanted to believe that they’d see each other again, she’d forgive him, and everything would be as easy as it used to be with her.Nothing in his life had ever been that easy.
Except with her.
“I’ll talk to her tonight.”A swarm of butterflies took flight in his belly.
“Finally.”Dean stared him down.“If she still makes you happy, hold on to her.Do whatever you have to do to make her forgive you, then be everything she is to you.Put a smile on her face.One that isn’t just for show for the customers tipping her.”
Dean had seen what Fox picked up on every time they were in the bar and saw Melody competently doing her job, serving customers, fending off drunken cowboys making passes at her because they wanted in her pants, not necessarily in her heart.She grinned and bore it, used snappy comebacks for indecent requests, sloppy compliments, and pick-up lines, and expertly dodged grabby hands as she did her job.Only when she was with her sisters or brother did she smile like she meant it.
He hated to think that the conversations they shared had turned into something she didn’t think was authentic or real, just some online troll using her as a distraction.He needed to set her straight.He needed to make this right.