Just His Taste

by Candice Gilmer

  And sure enough, Tessa had pointed to Jason, and he just happened to see it and waved back at her.

  “Yeah, this will be easy,” Ava whispered. Maybe too easy.

  Chapter Five

  Tessa beamed at Jason. “I really can’t thank you enough.” She squeezed his hands at her car.

  Jason nodded. “No big,” he said. “It was nice having a date.”

  She pulled him in for a hug. “Yeah, I know, and with Lucas…”

  “I know. I saw him.” Jason didn’t miss the dirty looks Tessa’s ex gave him throughout the wedding, every time Tessa came around. Granted, Jason couldn’t spend that much time with her, being that he was cooking and serving, but he did his best.

  And he wouldn’t deny it—having Tessa as an excuse had been nice when the randy single women at the wedding started their flirting. Because there were always randy women running around a wedding, looking for someone to flirt with, maybe even take home.

  Maybe his friend Roark was on to something, being the wedding planner’s stand-in date. He saw Roark and Stephanie slow dancing on the dance floor, which was a bit of a surprise because he didn’t think that wedding planner ever stopped moving. But she could sure put on a nice wedding. If he was lucky, maybe Stephanie would contact him again about catering.

  It wasn’t like the barbecue cook-offs he enjoyed, but today had its own charm. Of course, about anything around a barbecue grill had its charm.

  “Thank you,” Tessa said a final time as she released him from the hug.

  “You’re welcome.” When he pulled away, he took a second to press a kiss on her cheek, and she did the same back. He released her and held open the car door for her. She climbed in and said goodbye before heading off.

  Jason waited until she was gone before stretching his sore back. And once again, he scanned around for Ava, the redhead with the kinky mind.

  No luck.

  He kept his looking subtle, but he didn’t see Ava anywhere. Earlier, when he’d spoken to Bruce, he had seen her walking by. Heck, so had Bruce, for a second.

  But she’d disappeared again. Yet he had this feeling she’d been around all day, though he didn’t know why.

  Just one of those old cop-hunch things.

  He’d worked his way back to his stuff, to finish packing the last bit, when a guy came up to the table.

  Not just any guy.

  Lucas Wyman, Tessa’s ex-boyfriend.

  “Gregorian,” he said.

  “Wyman,” Jason replied. He’d known Lucas Wyman for years. A wrestler, just like Roark, Bruce and he, but Wyman had wrestled for North, while Jason had been on South’s team. Rivals on the mat, but, mostly, they got along in public.

  Hell, he’d introduced Tessa to Wyman a hundred years ago.

  Wyman looked Jason up and down. “Thought that ship sailed,” he said.

  Jason set down the box he held. “What do you want, Wyman?”

  Wyman raised his eyebrow. “You and Tessa were ancient history.”

  “History is often repeated.”

  “Uh-huh.” Wyman picked up a bottle of Jason’s sauce. Smelled it, then set it back down. “I think you’re being a nice guy, pretending to be Tessa’s date so she didn’t look bad.”

  “You think?” Jason replied.

  “Otherwise, why are you still here? Alone?”

  “Working. You know how Tessa is.”

  Wyman nodded. “Yeah, I know exactly how she is.”

  Jason stacked another box. “Question is—why do you care?”

  “Just because we broke up doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

  “Actually, it kinda does.”

  Wyman narrowed his gaze. “Don’t screw with her Gregorian, or I’ll—”

  Jason raised his eyebrow. “You’ll what?”

  “I’ll tear you up.”

  “Quite protective of your ex.”

  “I mean it, Gregorian.”

  Jason nodded. “Warning received. Now if you’ll excuse yourself, I have work.”

  Wyman blinked, posturing a little as he left.

  Jason shook his head. The guy is still mental.

  He put the last of his stuff on his cart and hauled it toward his van. On the way, he waved at Bruce as the photographer loaded up his own equipment. With his head in his phone.

  Again.

  Jason shook his head. Dude needed a life that wasn’t connected to his cell phone.

  Jason piled everything into his serial-killer van.

  Damn thing, right out of Silence of the Lambs, was ugly as sin. The kind of work vehicle kids were told to avoid. Still, it held all his gear for barbecue cook-offs and he could put his small grill and smoker in the back, no problem.

  He’d gotten the last of it loaded—why did it take up more room after an event than before?—and closed the door when a voice jarred him.

  “You don’t hand out lollipops in that thing, do you?”

  Jason spun around.

  There stood Ava. Out of that skirt, instead wearing a pair of jeans that hugged every inch of her long legs, a tank top that did the same for her upper body, and her red hair hung over one shoulder, tied in a ponytail.

  And that wickedly flirty smile.

  “Only to the good girls,” he answered. Just looking at her made his blood flow south.

  She smiled a little wider.

  Nope, no more blood remained in his brain.

  “Well, I’m mostly good. But I’d much rather have a drink than a lollipop.”

  “I’m all out of beer,” Jason answered.

  “Well, the bar down the street will remedy that,” she said.

  Jason nodded. “N-need a ride?” Good grief, there he went again! Lord, it was like he was seven or something.

  “Can I trust you?” she asked with that playful look in her eye.

  He raised his eyebrow. “Maybe.”

  “Fifty-fifty? Well those odds aren’t too bad,” Ava said as she stepped a bit closer to him.

  “Better than even money.”

  “Only if I play both sides.”

  “Do you?”

  She licked her lips. “When I have to.”

  He guided her to the passenger side of the van. “I guess you’re in for a night of gambling, then.” He popped the door open for her.

  “Oh yeah?” she asked, her hand on the door.

  “Because I play both sides too.”

  “Touché.”

  An hour and a half and almost two bourbon and cokes later, Jason was having the time of his life. Way better than if he’d had Bruce come over for a beer after the wedding.

  Ava had a sexy laugh. She tossed her head back when she released that full, open, genuine sound that made him want to tell her more jokes, just to hear it again.

  “You didn’t tell her that…”

  Jason nodded. “Sometimes people need a reality check.”

  “But in Walmart?” Ava laughed.

  “The people of Walmart need to be told.”

  More laughter.

  She picked up her own bourbon and coke. “So tell me,” she said, rocking the drink back and forth in the glass, making the ice tinkle. “That gal at the wedding. Is she your girlfriend?”

  Jason played with his little drink straw. Evidently, she’d been more aware of him today than he’d been of her.

  “She was once,” he said.

  Ava sat up straighter. “Well, if I’m stepping on toes—”

  Jason waved his hand. “N-n-no. That’s over. Has been for a while.”

  “Oh.” She drank a bit more of her bourbon. “Are you sure?” Her eyebrow went up as she said it, like she knew something.

  “Pretty sure.” He finished his drink.

  “You wouldn’t want to go back to her?”

 
“What is this, twenty questions?” For a second, she tensed, and he smiled at her. “Feel like I’m in high school. Are you secretly texting my answers to her under the table?”

  She chuckled and held up empty hands. “I just don’t want to meddle with a rekindling relationship.”

  “D-d-don’t worry. No spark.”

  “Not even a little one?”

  “Nope. I don’t look back.”

  “Always forward?”

  “Yep.”

  “They say hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

  “But we don’t grow if all we do is look back.”

  She nodded. “You’re rather wise for a guy.”

  He smirked. “What about you? That guy earlier? What’s that story?”

  She shrugged. “He’s—he was available at the time.”

  “Ahh, one of those,” Jason replied, though, regardless, the guy’s behavior still made him tense. A bit of his police training started coming in. “He usually handles you like that?”

  “Not usually.” She ran her hand over her ponytail. “But he’d pissed me off.”

  “So he was preventing a scene?”

  “Sure. We can call it that.”

  Jason raised his eyebrow. “You know, I was a cop. I can smell bullshit.” The waitress stopped at the table and he ordered another round of drinks.

  She snorted. And damn, even that was cute.

  “Well, I can see auras, and I think you’re bluffing.”

  “Auras, huh?” he asked, not buying a word.

  “Yep. And yours says you’re full of shit.”

  “What else?”

  “That you’re horny.” She finished her drink and dropped the glass hard on the tabletop.

  Jason blinked. “You think?”

  “I know.”

  He leaned toward her. “Prove it.”

  Chapter Six

  Ava swallowed, trying to give herself a moment to reply. Because her impulse was to pop out her wings and show this guy exactly how she could see auras.

  Yeah. He made her lose her inhibitions that easily.

  Which was totally not a good thing.

  And she couldn’t even blame it on the alcohol—fairies didn’t process alcohol like humans. Even in human form, it usually didn’t matter. She could drink bourbon for breakfast if she wanted. Granted, enough of a really high proof could certainly mess with her, but it wasn’t like she would get hammered.

  Hell, she didn’t really know what that felt like.

  So she couldn’t blame the lowered inhibitions on the alcohol.

  It had to be Jason.

  “I’m waiting,” Jason said.

  “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.” She grinned, ignoring her own fluttering stomach.

  “Trust you? I hardly know you.”

  “Then let’s just say I know stuff. And leave it at that.” She laid her hand on the table.

  He put his hand on hers. “I know stuff too.”

  That fluttering in her stomach turned into all-out explosions inside as he lightly caressed the edge of her hand.

  Their fingers laced.

  “What do you know?” Ava asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  “That…” he looked down, “…t-t-that I’ve never—”

  The waitress’s timing couldn’t have been more horrible. She smiled a little too much at Jason as she brought another round. Her friendliness stopped when she practically flung Ava’s drink at her.

  Bitch, Ava thought. She caught it before it slid off the tabletop, which made her pull her hand away from Jason’s. She was pretty sure the waitress knew exactly what she was doing. And probably had done it a time or two before.

  What a brat.

  Then Ava immediately shamed herself for thinking that way. What kind of a Fairy Godmother was she? Who knows, maybe Jason had come in here before, and the girl just carried a torch for him?

  She was Jason’s Fairy Godmother.

  Not his date.

  The waitress batted her eyes at Jason, but he didn’t notice, instead his dark-brown eyes stared into hers.

  He should have been plain. Hardly good-looking at all. His hair—not quite brown, but not surfer blond—was cut short and severe. His face, when she took in the parts, had no distinguishing marks—his eyes, deep and rectangular in shape. Eyebrows the same rectangular blocks. His jaw, nothing special, just, well, a guy’s jaw. No cleft or dimples or freckles or anything to distinguish him from anyone else.

  Yet all of it together worked.

  Worked very well.

  By Hera, why does this guy need a Fairy Godmother?

  She took a sip of her new bourbon and coke, trying to collect herself. Jason seemed to be having similar thoughts, because he did the same. Yet she couldn’t help appreciating his attractiveness.

  And that was all it was. Appreciating his appearance, she told herself. Just like appreciating the Statue of David or Venus de Milo.

  Had nothing to do with those butterflies in her stomach. And he wasn’t much help, because he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her, either.

  Maybe this whole being-human thing wasn’t the best idea for this.

  Jason cleared his throat and glanced away. “So, how did you know the bride and/or groom?”

  So they were back to the small stuff. She could handle the small stuff. “Friend of a friend.”

  “Of?”

  “Both, actually. One of those weird you-know-who-knows-who-type things. What about you? Are you friends with the bride and/or groom, or were you just there to make the amazing barbecue?”

  “Both. I went to high school with the groom. He asked me to do the barbecue, and even though the bride objected, I made a special sauceless batch for her and the other bridesmaids, so no one stained their dresses.”

  “Very thoughtful of you.”

  He shrugged. “I do what I can.”

  “Is that what you want to do?” she asked. “Cater?”

  “Not exactly. I do barbecue cook-offs, and that’s what I enjoy.”

  “Ever won any of those?”

  “Not the top prize, but I’ve placed a few times.” He sipped on his drink. “What about you? What do you do?”

  Loaded question, Ava thought. “I’m a consultant.”

  Jason waved his hand like he wanted her to elaborate. When she didn’t say any more, he said, “Consulting what, exactly?”

  “I work for a dating service. I help people find their Happily Ever After.”

  He smirked. “And how’s that working out for you?”

  “One hundred percent success rate so far.”

  “That’s impressive. So much so I find it hard to believe.”

  “Well, it’s true. I’ve never not been able to unite charges with their HEAs.”

  “Charges?”

  Ava realized what she’d said. “That’s, uh, what we call clients. Because they are more than just any person to us. We invest a great deal of time and effort into finding the perfect match.”

  “So how does one get you as a consultant?”

  “Referrals only.”

  He nodded. Then sat up a bit straighter. “That’s why you asked about Tessa.”

  “Bingo.”

  “That’s not a match for me, so don’t worry about that one.”

  Ava tipped her head to the side, about to say something, when a flicker of light in her peripheral vision made her turn.

  Son of a kraken! Cupid hovered over Jason’s shoulder, arms crossed, glaring at her.

  At least he didn’t have one of his arrows out. That would have made things far more difficult.

  “Will you excuse me?” Ava said, smiling at Jason. “I have to, uh, use the facilities.”

  He stood as she did. “I’ll be here,” he said, touc
hing her arm as she walked by.

  “I’ll be just a minute.”

  Ava walked as casually as possible around the corner to the restrooms, glanced to make sure no one could see her, materialized her wand. In a flash of reddish glitter she shrank to fairy size, effectively vanishing from mortal view. Her wings fluttered behind her, happy to be unfolded and stretched.

  And Cupid was waiting for her.

  “What are you doing?” Cupid snapped.

  “I’m working,” Ava said, her wings flapping fast, making her hair blow around into her face.

  “That doesn’t look like work to me. That looks like flirting with your charge.”

  Ava brushed the hair back. “I always take on human form and talk to my charges. That’s how I do my job.”

  Cupid snorted.

  “Have I ever had a failure on my record? This is what I do. It works. You’d be surprised what you learn when you just talk to a charge, instead of trying to guess what they want all the time.”

  “And what have you learned so far?”

  “Uh…”

  “Exactly. This is not good, Ava. Have you looked at him? Really looked at him?”

  Ava’s shoulders slumped and her wings stopped fluttering so fast. “I have.”

  “He’s falling for you. Badly. You have to do something.”

  “I will, I will. I won’t be staying much longer.”

  “Good. I would hate to report this to Andres on the Council.”

  Ava glared at him. “Go for it. And I’ll report to Jupiter your extracurricular activities.” They both knew their little private time together would not be approved by either the Council or the gods and goddesses.

  “Which would hurt you more than me. Jupiter knows of my past indiscretions. He may not approve, but he would not do anything to me. I’m a god.”

  “And I’m a fairy.”

  “Exactly my point.” Cupid waved his hand, and he disappeared.

  Shit.

  He was right. She had a lot more to lose than he did if their relationship were discovered.

  Ava hated that.

  Chapter Seven

  Something changed.

  Ava slumped in her seat, like her happiness had been sucked away.

  “What’s wrong?” Jason asked, realizing that Ava’s happy disposition had suddenly vanished.