Love Irresistibly (FBI/US Attorney #4)(35)
“Yeah, yeah. It’s soooo funny.”
“I should thank you for the advice,” he said. “Because all along I’d only been spending seventy percent of my time naked when hooking up. Sounds like I need to start bare-assing it more often around the ladies.”
Brooke gestured with a French fry. “Just so I know, how long can I expect the comedy routine to go on?” They were halfway through their lunch already and there’d been no sign that things were letting up anytime soon.
“Oh, you’ll be hearing about this until we’re old and gray.” Ford went right back to it. “Brooke Parker wants everyone to know that you should never take a bath with a man unless you’re ready to take his last name. Showers only, girls!”
“That’s clever. Take a bath, take his name. I like how you strung that all together.” Brooke spread more mustard on her club sandwich. “You know, I didn’t actually write the stupid rules.”
“No, you just recommended them to everyone and their mother.”
Yes, she was painfully aware of that. “I told you already, I hit ‘cancel.’”
“All that means is that you posted the link without leaving a comment,” he informed her, most belatedly. “But you still needed to go in and delete it if you wanted to remove it from your wall.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tech Support. I realize that now.” Last night, as soon as she’d gotten out of the elevator, she’d taken down the article. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been soon enough, and her Facebook account had been hopping all night and morning. “Do you realize that I’ve gotten two hundred and thirty-seven friend requests since last night? All from men.” Because the lascivious schmoes on her page had naturally “liked” her status, which meant that all of their other lascivious schmoe friends could see her original link and wanted in on the action. “I’ve been asked out on more dates in the last eighteen hours than I have in the last eighteen years.”
“I can’t fathom why.”
She threw Ford a look when he started laughing again. “It really isn’t funny.”
“It really is.” He smiled at her glare. “If I break out a few bare-chested pictures of Ryan Gosling on my phone, will that help take the sting off?”
Brooke thought that over. “It might.”
“That was supposed to be sarcastic.” Ford picked up his cheeseburger. “Why were you reading about the rules of casual sex, anyway?”
“I’d planned to ask you for some advice, but when you didn’t pick up your cell I decided to kill some time on the Internet before a conference call.”
“Advice on what?” Ford gave her a sly look, putting it together. “Wait a second . . . Brooke Parker, are you having sex with somebody?”
“A little louder, Ford. I’m not sure the people all the way in the back of the bar heard you.” Luckily, the place was crowded and noisy, and half of the people there were already tipsy in advance of the big game. She lowered her voice. “And no, I’m not having sex with anyone.”
“Ah. But there’s someone you want to be having sex with.”
“Let’s say that I’m entertaining the possibility.”
“Really?” Ford appeared intrigued. “Tell me more. Who’s the guy?”
“Someone I met through work,” Brooke said. “He asked me to have dinner with him tonight. I haven’t said yes. Yet.”
“But you’re going to?”
She smiled coyly at that. “Perhaps. After making him wait another”—she checked her watch—“two hours and six minutes.”
Ford looked confused. “Why two hours and six minutes? I don’t get it.”
“Sorry. Just an inside joke.”
Brooke paused in surprise as soon as the words came out. Ford raised an eyebrow. For twenty years, he had been the guy she had inside jokes with.
“Interesting,” he said.
“It’s not a big deal,” Brooke said quickly. “It’s just dinner.”
“Got it.” Ford took a sip of his Diet Coke. He set it down, giving her a knowing look.
“Really, Ford. Just dinner.” She watched as he simply nodded, still with the smug look. “I don’t like you sometimes.”
He laughed that off, having heard it for years. “I love you, too, Parker.”
* * *
“SOMEWHERE ELSE YOU need to be?”
Cade glanced over at Vaughn, who’d caught him checking his watch. “Just debating whether I want to grab another beer now or wait until the next inning.”
“Nice excuse. Except that’s the second time you’ve checked your watch since we got here.”
Huxley chimed in from the seat on Vaughn’s left. “The third time. He also checked when you were flagging down the hot-dog vendor.”
Cade grumbled under his breath. Damn FBI agents—they didn’t miss a trick. “It must be so exhausting for you two to have these amazing powers of perception that you can never turn off,” he said sarcastically.
Vaughn grinned. “Yes. But it also makes us unbelievably cool.”
“I’m okay with it, too,” Huxley agreed matter-of-factly.
More grumbling ensued.