“Drinks most likely.”
Bobby came their way. “You ready for another one yet?” he asked Bo.
Chase leaned in. “So what were those girls all huddled up with you about over there?”
“Nothing. Just hitting me up for a free drink.” Bobby leaned on the bar. “Hey, so Bo, you get a physical every year, don’t you?”
Bo frowned at his bartender buddy. “Why the hell would you ask me that?”
“I was just wondering if you could recommend a doctor to me.”
“When I’m sick I go to the clinic down the street.”
“You been lately?” Bobby asked.
“Yeah, I went three weeks ago as a matter of fact for my insurance policy on my business. You want me to have them fax you the results?”
Bobby leaned in. “They give you an AIDS test when you went?”
Bo stared at him hard, and then made sense of the nonsense. He smiled. “Sure did.”
“And?”
Bo lifted an eyebrow. “You want to sleep with me or something?”
“Fuck you,” Bobby said then turned around and started wiping down the counter.
“Bobby,” Bo said. Bobby walked over and placed himself back in front of Bo, tuning in. “You can tell them I got a clean bill of health.”
Bobby pursed his lips and walked away.
“You son of a bitch,” Chase said.
“What’d I do?” Bo wasn’t able to suppress his grin.
“They didn’t want to know shit about me,” Chase said.
“You’re the one conjuring up women so I can find the love of my life tonight.”
“Yeah, but it’d be nice to be asked about my AIDS,” Chase said.
“You got AIDS?”
“Fuck no, I don’t have AIDS.”
“Well, there you go. I asked. You’re welcome.”
Maya and Felicity sipped their drinks, waiting for the bartender to come back and report. After a few minutes, he eased toward them with a couple of fresh drinks.
“He got one three weeks ago through a physical he did for insurance. Clean bill of health.”
Felicity clapped her hands together. “Hot damn. We have a winner.”
The bartender shook his head, collected his tip, and put it in his pocket instead of the jar.
“What now?” Maya asked.
“Now, we get their attention and get them over here. Yoo-hoo!” Felicity waved at the boys across the bar.
“Felicity,” Maya said in her loudest whisper. The two men played it cool when they caught sight of Felicity. They appeared to consult on the matter, then stood and walked around the bar.
Maya gripped her knees hard to keep from murdering Felicity. “I’m going to kill you.”
“Don’t speak so fast.” She opened her face up in a smile. “Hello, guys. We just saw you two sitting over there all by yourselves and thought we’d see if you wanted to join us. I’m Felicity and this is—”
“Marlene,” Maya said.
“Marlene,” Felicity said slowly.
“I’m Chase and this is Bo,” the taller guy of the two said.
Felicity patted the seat beside her. “Would you like to sit over here next to me, Chase?”
Maya looked down at her drink as the god of bringing women to their knees straddled the seat next to her. “So, Marlene, why’d you need to know if I’d had an AIDS test?”
Chapter Two
Maya’s face was so hot she thought it might start steaming. Her tingling chest tried to make her brain register mortification, but she was too consumed with this guy’s presence inches from her. He had looked good from across the bar, but up close was a completely enhanced story. His tanned skin played the perfect backdrop to his piercing, dark eyes. As he spoke, her gaze was drawn to his full lips, and she wondered what it might feel like to kiss him hard, among other things.
She snapped out of it and attempted to string words together into a sentence. “My friend is, well, she’s mentally ill.”
“I’ve got a friend or two like that.” His smile seemed intent on putting her at ease, but with her nerves, that was a tall order.
“So, where are you staying?” she asked.
“You get right to the point, don’t you?”
Another shot of heat soared to her neck. “No! God, no. That’s not what I meant.”
“I’m just teasing you.” He gave her arm a quick touch that sent goose bumps racing under her skin. “Actually, I’m staying at my house. I live here.”
“You’re a local?”
“I take it you’re not?”
“No, I’m just down here on vacation.”
He nodded like he’d heard that line a million times. “You’re staying here in PCB?”
“Actually, no, with a friend over in the South Walton/30A area.”
“Which community?”
“Seacrest?”
“Beautiful town. A have a buddy who lives there.”
She twirled the stem of her wine glass. “I didn’t realize 30A was so close to Panama City.”
“Yeah, we’re just down the road, but we’re two different worlds as far as the people go.”
She glanced around the bar. “You’re right about that.”
“Too redneck for you over here?”
“No, I didn’t mean that.” She touched his knee, and then retracted her hand quickly, her stomach fizzing a little. “I haven’t offended you, have I?”
He chuckled. “Takes a lot more than that to offend me. Where are you from?”
“Indianapolis. Go Colts!” She pumped a tight fist into the space in front of her. What in the world? She didn’t even like baseball.
“You a big football fan?”
Football. Jesus, where was her head? “Actually, no. I don’t really follow it.”
He smiled and took a drink of his beer, gripping the bottle with his strong hand. “What do you do?”
“I’m an Operations Director for a marketing firm.” She shook her head with a small smile. “Actually, I’m a VP now. I just got a promotion.”
He held his beer to her glass for a toast. “Congratulations.”
She grinned. “Thanks. I start the Monday I return from vacation.”
“Operations. So you keep everything running?”
“I guess you could say that. It’s not creative. I’m not creative.”
“I doubt that,” he said.
“No, really, I’m not. I’m much better at organizing and details. Gun to my head I couldn’t come up with marketing copy for anything, really.”
“Gun to your head, you could do it.”
She messed with the hem of her dress, trying to process the conversation she was having. This guy was so typically a guy her sister, Meade, would sit and talk to, promptly fall in love with, and then he would in turn, in some way, ruin her life and whatever plan she was in the midst of.
“Bo!” A girl who stood somewhere right around five feet tall with a low-cut shirt exposing a massive chest threw her arms around him and hopped into his lap.
“Jordan.” He put his hand on her arm, possibly to pry it off of him, but he’d need a crowbar for that.
“Why haven’t you been in lately? I look for you every week but it’s always the other guys.” She scrunched up her face in an exaggerated pout. “You never come see me anymore.”
“Jordan, this is Marlene.” He directed the girl toward Maya.
The girl looked as if Maya was a fly that she would love to swat down if she’d only had a swatter handy. “Nice to meet you,” the girl called Jordan said with a tone so fake it made this strange situation even more awkward. He lifted her up with little effort and placed her feet back on the floor. She pointed at him. “Come by soon.” She left with a little bitty wave of her fingers.
He turned back to Maya. “How long are you in town?”
“For the week,” Maya said, recalibrating after the explosion named Jordan. “We actually just got here today. Our friend we’re staying with was ti
ed up so we ventured out this way by ourselves.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “You better be careful doing that. You never know who you might run into. Maybe even somebody who hasn’t been tested in a while.”
Felicity would die a slow death at Maya’s hands later on for that. “You’re not going to let me live that down, are you?”
He lowered his chin and gave a discreet shake of his head. She was starting to sympathize more and more with her sister’s poor choices. “So why didn’t your friend ask about Chase? Bobby only asked me about the test.”
She hid her face in her hand at the mortifying conversation she was having. He sat silent. Finally, she slid apart her fingers and peeked at him.
“Take your time. I’ve got all night.” He kicked back on his stool, resting his elbow on the bar, taking a swig of beer.
She gulped her wine. “My friend thinks she’s being my wingman or something like that. She’s crazy. You don’t have to play along.”
“Do you want me to leave?” he asked.
The thought was utterly unpleasant. “Well, I…no?”
“That didn’t sound too convincing.”
She gave him a doublewide grin. “No, I don’t want you to leave. Please stay.”
“Well, you don’t have to beg.”
Her face flushed again, causing that stupid smile she kept getting.
“So your friend there, she wants you to have a good time tonight. Any reason for that?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you had a bad break-up or something like that? There’s some reason she’s trying to hook you up.”
“Oh, God.” The hand went to her face again. She flinched at his touch on her wrist. He placed her hand back on her leg and gave it a squeeze, causing her heartbeat to pick up speed.
“I like to look people in the eye when I talk to them. You keep covering yours.”
“Sorry,” she said.
“There isn’t anything to be sorry about, darlin’.”
His Southern-drawled term of endearment sent shivers up her spine. Every second she spent with him she became more charmed and drawn to Felicity’s suggestion of a one-night stand.
Maya was not the one-night stand sort. She was the responsible, sensible one. She kept things in order. She dated guys whose idea of living on the wild side was watching TED Talks in bed. She did not fall for ridiculously sexy strangers.
The decent prospects back home were few and far between, and dating had become a necessary chore. But for the first time in years, she was enjoying engaging with a man. Sitting and talking to this guy didn’t make her into her sister. She was just talking, not falling in love. She had entirely too much sense for that.
“No bad break-up. My girlfriend just thinks I’m too…conventional.”
“She thinks you need to loosen up?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
She turned her head at the sound of a group in the back of the bar by the pool tables laughing loud in unison about something, and then met his gaze again. “No. I mean, I know I’m on vacation, but it’s just the first day. We’ve got the whole week.”
“So it’s too early for you to do anything out of character just yet?”
“Yes, I guess so.”
“It was nice to meet you.” He stood up off his stool.
Instinctively, flirtatiously?, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back down to his seat. What had gotten into her? She’d blame it on the wine, but she hadn’t even broken into her second glass yet.
He smiled at her, sending a charge of electricity through her core. “So I’ve got no chance in hell with you tonight?” he asked.
She opened up her flirtation arsenal. “I’m still considering it.” She wasn’t, of course…was she?
“Oh, good. That changes everything.” He clapped his hands together and rubbed them, as if warming up for something.
She raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I’ve got a chance. Clearly I’ve got to step up my game.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Let’s see what I’ve learned about you so far. You’re a good girl, one who doesn’t mess around with strange guys typically. But you are on vacation, so you’re feeling a little bit…untamed.”
She tried to quell her smile, but to no avail.
“And you did your homework on me before you got me to walk across the bar to talk to you, which shows you’re as thorough in your social life as you are in your career.”
She nodded approval.
“You’ve got the body of a runner, and by the look of the muscle tone in your arms, I’d say you rarely miss a day at the gym, so you’re clearly disciplined as hell.”
Her face flushed at the idea he’d noticed her body.
“You’ve probably not been with too many rednecks in your time, if any, but you did drive over here to PCB from 30A, so you may be looking for a little adventure.”
She shrugged, still not saying a word.
“So how’d I do?”
“Pretty good. But I’m still undecided.”
“Aww, damn. All right, you know I’m clean. What else do you need to know?”
She considered him, twirling her wine glass. “How do I know they won’t be dragging the lakes around here looking for my cold, dead body tomorrow?”
He dropped his head to one side. “Now that’s just hurtful. You think I’m going to kill you?”
“A girl can never tell.”
“Here. I know what’ll make you feel better. I’ll let you talk to my sister.” He pulled a phone out of his pocket.
“Oh, no. That’s not necessary, really.”
“She lives in Franklin, Tennessee now. Moved up there a few years ago, but I’ll get her back here eventually.” He put the phone on speaker.
“Seriously, there’s no need—”
“Hey, baby brother.” A Southern accent very much like his came across the speaker.
“You busy?” he asked her.
“Nah, just hanging here at the house. You having a good birthday?”
His face turned red, and Maya smiled. “It’s your birthday?”
He shook his head quickly, but clearly it was. “I’ve got a favor to ask of you,” he said into the phone.
“Just one? Must be a slow day.”
Maya giggled, liking this girl.
“I’m here at Alligator Alley with a girl I’ve been talking to for a while.”
“Yeah.”
“And she’s thinking about going home with me.” He winked at Maya, who had hit yet another wave of mortification that evening.
“Uh huh,” his sister replied, unfazed.
“But the problem is she’s not sure if I’m a murderer or something, so I was hoping you’d set her straight about me. Let her know what kind a guy I really am and all that.”
“Uh huh. Darlin’, what’s your name?” she asked.
Maya froze for a moment. He motioned to the phone for her to speak. “Um, Ma…Marlene,” she answered, her voice coming out in a mouse-like squeak.
“Marlene?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Maya said.
“Listen to me, Marlene. Run. Run as fast as your feet will carry you. He’s a no-good, lowdown, womanizing—”
Bo punched at the phone until it disconnected. “Well, I guess that didn’t quite go as planned.”
Maya giggled. She liked his sister. The call had actually made her feel even better about him. God, was she actually considering a one-night stand? She reminded herself for the millionth time that she was not her sister. She wouldn’t take it past this night. Dammit, she did deserve a single night of crazy, heart-stopping sex with a guy that looked like this one. She could do that. She could control her feelings, unlike her sister. She could walk away with the good time in her back pocket and not need anything other than that. She was sure of it.
Felicity appeared in front of her. “Marlene, I’m so tired. Chase has off
ered to take me home. Do you mind?” She handed Maya the keys to her car.
Felicity couldn’t leave her. She was Maya’s safety net. Without Felicity here, none of this worked. “Wait. I’ll come—”
“Oh, no. You stay here and have fun. I’m going to head out. Oh, and you’ll need to drop this nice man off at his house. Chase says Bo lives just down the road. Chase lives in Seagrove, which is really close to Seacrest, so he’s going to take me home. You’ll take care of Bo, won’t you?”
Maya glared at her friend.
Felicity plowed forward. “You two enjoy your evening, okay? Here, have the next round on me.” Felicity laid a twenty-dollar bill down on the bar. “Bye now, y’all,” she said with a deliberate Southern accent and scurried away dragging the tall guy with her.
Maya turned to face Bo. He gave a closed-mouth smile and a shrug of his shoulders, and with that, she quit plotting Felicity’s slow demise.
“You ready to tab out, Bo?” the bartender asked for the fifth time.
Maya hadn’t enjoyed a man’s company this much since she could feasibly remember, maybe ever. A glance around the bar told her they were the only ones left. How had she not noticed that until now?
“I guess y’all are ready to close, huh?” Bo asked.
“For about the past thirty minutes now,” the bartender said.
Maya dug in her purse for her wallet, but Bo was already handing the guy his credit card.
“No, I was going to buy you that birthday drink,” she said.
“You did,” he said.
She smiled. “I ordered it for you. I didn’t actually pay for it.”
He shrugged. “You win some. You lose some.”
Maya lived at work and at the gym. She met friends for dinner or movies. But she never put herself in a situation where she’d meet a guy like this one. There were those vile dating apps where one could hook up, sure. But when would she ever again be presented the opportunity to have a good time with a guy who she’d gotten to know a little, really liked, didn’t seem to be a psycho, and was so absolutely sexy that she couldn’t even think straight looking at him?
Her stomach quaked at the idea, but she would not back down now. She had earned this opportunity after decades of always doing the right thing to counteract her sister, who wouldn’t have blinked an eye at going home with this guy and then, in turn, would sign over the deed to her house to him.
Seacrest Sunsets Page 2
