Page 28 of Praised
“He’s not on the market,” I said. And while it wasn’t the truth, it wasn’t a lie. Rose didn’t think he was on the table for me, but the longer I thought about his smug little declaration at the end of our time together, the more I knew how wrong he was. He deserved a man just like me, and I only had to figure out how to show him as much. But I wasn’t going to let on to my friends that I’d been shot down. Not a chance in hell. “We had some fun, that’s that.”
“Riiiight,” Dalton drawled.
“I don’t want to talk about him anymore,” I said.
“At least tell me his name.”
“Rose.”
Archie chuckled and clinked his glass against Dalton’s. “Cute.”
My phone and the text I’d sent to Rose earlier in the day burned a hole in my pocket, and even though I knew he hadn’t replied—and probably wouldn’t—I wanted to check just the same. I had some more choice words for him, and it was time for him to hear them.
“This is cute.” Dalton reached over and pinched the outside of my arm. “I’ve known you for almost ten years and I’ve never seen you like this.”
“I’m not like anything.”
“You want to see him again.”
“I see lots of people again,” I said, lips twisting down into a frown. “I’ve almost seen Val as many times as you and Barclay have.”
“But you want to seehim,” Archie teased.
I shook my head, bottom lip pushing out into a pout.
I didn’t justwantto see him.
I needed to.
CHAPTER10
ROSE
Two in themorning couldn’t come soon enough.
My shift had been long and hard, and not in any of the fun ways. My feet were killing me and I could barely keep my eyes open. After I tipped out the kitchen, I clocked out and stumbled into the alley, already half asleep. If I’d been more aware or if it had been any other night, I might have noticed the man leaning against the brick wall near the hood of my car. But it wasn’t, and I didn’t, and I already had my hand on the door handle when he cleared his throat to call my attention.
I startled in a very tired and undignified way, dropping my keys and my cellphone onto the black asphalt. I heard the screen of my phone shatter, and I glared down at it like it should have done anything differently to have avoided its fate.
“I’ll replace it,” Flynn said, pushing off the wall and taking a step toward me.
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“I caught you off-guard,” he said, coming closer until he was near enough to bend over and collect my things from the ground. “It’s my fault. You deserve a replacement.”
I sighed. “Are we here to talk about what I deserve?”
“No. We’re here to talk about whatIdeserve.” Flynn handed me back my things, the screen of my phone spider-webbed out from one corner down almost the entire length of the device.
“First we need to talk about how you’re here,” I muttered, cracking open my car door and tossing my phone and keys onto the driver’s seat. Flynn was so close I could smell him again, subtle as a memory.
“I drove.” He pointed at the car parked beside mine, a ridiculously shiny sedan that was all black, even the windows.
“You know what I meant.”
I wanted to know how he knew where I worked. How he knewwhenI worked. And I wanted to ask what he wanted, even though the tightening in my chest should have been confirmation enough that I already knew. With Cody’s reappearance still fresh in my mind, Flynn’s arrival was more welcome than I wanted him to know. But I’d given in to him terribly easy last weekend when I’d been on a quest to get over Cody and his betrayal. I found myself now in a comparable situation, but there was a shared history between us already that was impossible to ignore.
Or at least unadvisable.
