Play It Safe(29)

Namely…Gray.

Her dark, arched eyebrows shot up and she asked, “Do you speak?” She looked to Gray. “Is she mute?”

I didn’t know if Gray intended to answer and this was because I was still looking at her when I did.

“I speak though I try not to when I don’t have anything nice to say and I’m afraid I’ve been struggling the last few seconds trying to find something nice to say.”

Her eyes shot back to me and narrowed.

For some reason beyond me, I didn’t shut up.

“I don’t know, I mean, I do, since you’ve made it clear you don’t but there are some of us girls who think a steak dinner in a family place where the money goes to charity and the waiter went to school with your Dad who’s passed away is a pretty darned nice first date. It’s too bad you don’t.” My head tilted ever so slightly toward Gray and I finished, my point very thinly veiled, “Really too bad.”

“Charming,” she hissed, not smart enough to keep Gray, not dumb enough to miss my point.

“Funny, that’s what I was thinking,” I said softly.

She clamped her teeth shut.

“Have you eaten?” I asked when she didn’t mosey on her way then didn’t wait for her answer when I went on, “If you haven’t, though you’ve been here, just FYI, the strip comes highly recommended.”

“I’ve had the strip,” she retorted.

I didn’t miss a beat. “Was it good?”

Her nose went up in the air half an inch. “I prefer the fillet.”

Her meaning was clear.

Total bitch.

“Sonny said, and it’s also my experience, there’s not much to a fillet.”

She leaned toward me slightly and said softly, “It melts in your mouth.”

I shrugged. “May be just me but I prefer to sink my teeth into something.”

At that, Gray burst out laughing, my eyes moved directly to him but not before I noted Cecily’s doing the same.

Still laughing, his dancing eyes on me, Gray forced out, “Don’t stop, darlin’, me and the rest of the VFW are enjoying the show.”

Hells bells.

I pressed my lips together.

Gray’s eyes dropped to my mouth, his waning laughter waxed and it was then I heard a number of chuckles all around.

My eyes slid to Cecily to see her face had gone red.

“Are you done welcoming me to Mustang?” I prompted and she shot daggers at me with her eyes.

“Enjoy your strip,” she replied snottily.

“I intend to,” I muttered, Gray’s laughter kept sounding as did the many chuckles.

God. Embarrassing.

Cecily, definitely shoving her nose in the air, flounced away.

I sighed deeply.

“That…was…brilliant,” the woman who had tried to tell off Sonny whispered down the table at me.

I smiled even as I bit my lip.

“Dollface, give me your hand.”

That was Gray and I looked to him to see his arm stretched across the table toward me, his big hand turned up. I took mine out of my lap, rested it in his and his fingers curled warm and tight around mine.

“Last night, I bled for you. Cecily is the female version of taking on a battalion of pissed off ass**les. Now I owe you,” he said, smiling at me.

“He’s not wrong,” the man beside me leaned in to mutter then his mutter dropped to a whisper, probably because there were kids at the table. “Thinks her shit don’t stink. Probably not a surprise but you aren’t special. She spreads that cheer all around. Gets on everyone’s nerves.”

I nodded to him.

Gray’s hand squeezed mine and I looked back at him.

“Thanks for havin’ my back.”

“You’re welcome.”

His fingers gave mine another squeeze.

It felt nice.

Sonny arrived and Gray’s hand quickly let mine go so both of our arms could vacate the table’s surface seeing as, if they did or didn’t, either way, Sonny was dumping two plates on the table.

Once this was achieved, his eyes locked on mine.

“Next time you have a verbal catfight, you call me before you engage hostilities. Yeah?” he demanded.

Well, that didn’t take long to make the rounds.

“Uh…all right,” I whispered.

“Clear your plate or you’ll break my heart,” he ordered.

“I wouldn’t wanna do that,” I muttered, looking down at my plate.

It looked sensational.

“I hope not,” Sonny whispered and his whisper was chock full of something, so much of it, even though him whispering at all would make my eyes shoot to his face, it was the emotion that made them make the journey in record time.

When he caught my gaze, his, which was burning with the emotion in his voice, didn’t let mine go.

Then he nodded his head and stomped off.

I watched him go.

I was still doing it when Gray prompted quietly, “Tuck in while it’s hot, dollface.”

I looked to him.

Then it was me who nodded.

Then I tucked in.

VFW charity dinner or not, Gray wasn’t wrong.

It wasn’t only the best steak I’d ever had, it was the best meal.