Ladies Man (Manwhore #4)(26)
“Awwwwww!” Wynn says.
I laugh happily, feel warm even though I’m still at the shocked stage myself.
Even when Rachel goes to check up on the snacks, Wynn continues to talk to me about babies.
“You know, after that pregnancy scare at Rachel and Saint’s wedding, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of babies. I see them everywhere. I have never seen so many babies in my life. They’re in the soup, I tell you. I keep wondering if Emmet is the kind of father I want for my kids. Am I the kind of mother I want for my kids…”
“Wynn,” I say drolly, “you have no other choice on that one.”
“I have a choice in self-improvement, though,” she counters. “Obviously for change to work you need to be aware of the problem, accept that it needs fixing, and then, actively try to fix it. Like I’m disorganized, but now that I’ve moved in with Emmet, I’m trying not to be so messy—though it’s nice for my flaws not to matter that much to him, I guess.”
“Oh noooo.” I laughingly shake my head. “I’ll be dead before I’m seen without makeup. I sleep with it on if a guy stays over. I set the alarm and put on makeup before Trent wakes, that’s how much it needs to be on my face.”
“Speaking of, I like that Cleopatra look.”
“Thank you. I worked hours on it.” I grin and wink as I edge closer to her. “Do you think the eyeliner was too much?”
“Why is it so important?”
Tahoe Roth steps off the elevator, and it’s hard not to notice the wow look on Wynn’s face when she sees him in his casual jeans and comfy sweater.
“I do this for a living. It’s my presentation card,” I tell her. “Nobody wants a fat dietician or a clown-faced makeup artist.”
“There’s your buddy Tahoe.” She points, wiggling her eyebrows.
I ignore her (and him) but I shiver when I hear his voice, greeting Rachel’s husband and congratulating him.
Their laughs fill the room. Tahoe has this easy laugh, it’s almost contagious. It sounds delicious and it makes you want to have such a delicious time. I find myself smiling because of it when he heads over and greets Wynn, then he looks at me.
“Hey. What’s up with you?” He drops down beside me.
“Nothing’s up. What’s up with you?” I counter.
He looks really cozy in a draping, heavy-knitted ivory sweater, warm and inviting. That familiar irresistible grin lights his face as he looks at me. He leans back and folds his arms behind his head. “A whole lot of nothing.” He leans closer to me. “Why didn’t you come to my game?”
“Why you assume I’ll ever want to is amusing. That beard is getting long, by the way.”
“We’re in a bad streak.”
“Right. You loser.”
He laughs and caresses his jaw, smiling ruefully, the dimple showing. “I used to be luckier. I’ve still got what it takes though. If you’d only come watch, I’d be happy to show you.”
“I don’t cheer for losers.” I stick my tongue out at him.
“Tsk, Regina,” he drawls, “I would no longer be a loser if you came to cheer for me.”
He’s teasing, and we both laugh, but when our eyes connect again, a shock runs through my system.
Did you like that kiss even a fraction of how much I liked it?
I shake the thought aside and look at my martini on the coffee table. He’s a womanizer, he seduces women, this is what they see in him—confidence, a bit of an alpha nature, those wicked teasing words of his, that rebel streak, the laugh, the good times, the money he spends so easily, the lips, the body, I’m not even going to think about the rest but I can tell by the wear of his jeans that he’s as well-endowed there as everywhere else.
Don’t they say everything is bigger in Texas? Well, he was born there. Enough said.
The drawl is not always noticeable. I wonder what it is that makes it come out, like now?
Wynn heads over to hang with Rachel and Emmett, and we’re alone now and silent as we watch them.
“Babies, huh,” Tahoe says softly.
“Babies.”
He lifts my martini, sips from it then hands it over so I can take a sip as well.
We’re both thoughtful and puzzled. Stunned. We’re both at the moment you realize your closest friends are growing, leaping forward, charging ahead, and you’re still the same, you still aren’t really sure where to go from here and if you’re happy where you are at all. I can’t assume Tahoe is really happy, or why would he want to hang out with me?
“While the Saints play house and your friend Wynn over there maneuvers to get an engagement ring on her finger, you’re probably going to be stuck with me,” he says sardonically as he watches me set down my near-empty martini glass.
A smile appears on my lips and I guess it appeared quickly enough to amuse him, because his eyes start twinkling as he smiles at me too.
BURNING
A blizzard hits the city two weeks later, and I have to reschedule some of my house calls. I spend a lot of time in my apartment whenever I’m off work, watching movies with Trent.
By the time the blizzard stops a few days later, I’ve had a lot of things to mull through. I stare around my apartment when I arrive after a particularly exhausting day at work. My lonely apartment. Which I can no longer afford.