Page 4 of Collateral Damage
Whitt was definitely making her decision seem like the right one.
Honestly, until Cricket found Ben, Bess thought she had an acceptable thing going with Chris. She thought the way he treated her was fine enough. That their relationship was good enough.
Ben changed that. The way he treated Cricket made Bess realize there was more out there.
Better men. Men who told you how beautiful you were. Men who worried about you and wanted to be sure you were happy and taken care of.
“What about you?” Bess let her attention focus back on the man beside her. It wasn’t difficult to accomplish. “What do you do?”
“Security.” Something she couldn’t identify flashed through his midnight eyes. There and gone before she took her next breath.
“Like a security guard?”
“Something like that.” Whitt placed his untouched beer on the table beside hers. “You from around here?”
“Born and raised.” Bess gave him a small smile, knowing what she was about to say threw most people for a loop. “I’ve never even been out of the state.”
Whitt’s brows lifted. “Never been anywhere but Oregon? Not even for college?”
She shook her head. “It’s hard to go too far away when the whole family is involved in the business. Especially with the kind of construction we handle.”
“What kind is that?”
“High-end homes. Most run in the millions.” Bess swallowed down a little more beer, lifting one shoulder as she continued her explanation. “People who build houses like that are pretty high-maintenance.”
“I can imagine.” Whitt’s lips barely lifted. “Not you though.”
For some reason his comment felt oddly flattering. “No. I guess not.”
Whitt leaned against the table, resting one elbow and forearm on the surface between them. “Why did you come here tonight, Carly?”
The way he said the name made her wonder if he knew the truth. That she wasn’t really Carly.
That nothing like this had ever happened to her before.
“Because I had to.” Cricket would never have let her sit another night out. She’d begged off three already this month, using her recent break-up as an excuse, even though she was positive Cricket knew the truth.
That she simply didn’t enjoy going out the way her best friend did.
Bess was always the wallflower. The quiet one in the corner, preferring to watch instead of participate.
She was never the woman men like Whitt sought out.
They chased women like Cricket. Women who were outgoing and always wore a smile.
But not tonight. Tonight she was sitting at a table with a man who picked her from a barful of options, and that felt oddly flattering too.
One of his long, strong fingers reached out to stroke the skin of her wrist. A single touch that told her this night might turn into so much more than she expected when she left the house with Cricket.
Tonight could be an experience unlike any she’d had before.
But for that to happen, she had to make a choice.
Be what she’d always been—
Or take a risk.