Deal Takers (Dealing with Love 2)

I wink when Drew’s sister joins us. “Hi, Devyn.”

“Hi, Brody. What a crazy coincidence, huh?” She smirks before turning to Rainey. “Lorraine, I need to borrow my brother for a second. We’ll be back in a bit.”

“Uh huh,” Rainey mutters as Devyn and Drew make themselves scarce.

“So...it appears as if we’ve been set up.”

Rainey narrows her eyes at me. “Are you telling me that you had nothing to do with this?”

I shake my head. “Not even a little—I’m just as surprised as you are. But I’m very fucking thankful.”

Her expression softens. “How’ve you been?”

“Shitty,” I answer honestly.

She looks down toward her fuck-me-heels and says, “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

Oh, what the hell, I’m going for it. It’s not like things could get any worse.

“Do you want to go somewhere quieter?” She doesn’t reply so I add, “To catch up? According to Drew, there’s a wine bar downstairs.”

Her gorgeous eyes snap to mine. “Yeah...sure.”

I try not to get too hopeful as I lead her down to the lower level. I’m relieved to find that the wine bar is much quieter—they must have noise reduction materials between each floor. Soft jazz flows through the small space, giving it a much more intimate vibe down here. It’s fairly crowded, but there are a few standing pub tables toward the back that would afford us some privacy.

As we make our way across the room, I nod toward the bar on the left wall. “Can I get you a glass of something?”

“Sure. A Moscato would be great. I’ll...uh...grab us a table.”

I watch her fidget as the bartender fills our order. I hate that this is so awkward but the fact that she didn’t bolt the moment she saw me is a good sign. So is the pink stain on her cheeks as I approach the table.

Rainey takes a long gulp of wine as soon as I place it in front of her. “So...”

“So...” I repeat. “That’s some dress you have on there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in anything like it before.”

Her blush deepens. “It’s new. Devyn strongly suggested I buy it when we were at the mall last weekend.”

“Remind me to thank her later.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that...after I throat punch her. I suspect she wasn’t quite being honest with me on why she wanted me to get the dress. ”

“Oh, yeah? What did she tell you?”

“Well, she claimed that this would be my...uh, getting back on the horse dress.” She bites down on the pad of her thumb—it’s her go-to move whenever she’s uncomfortable with something.

“?

??Getting back on the horse’...what does that mean?”

I totally know what it means but I want to hear her say it.

She looks away. “You know...move on. Meet someone new. This is the first time I’ve been out since...well, you know. She said moping wasn’t accomplishing anything and if I didn’t at least try to be happy again, it was never going to happen.”

I love Devyn like a sister, but I sort of hate her right now, too. Unless she and Drew had planned this setup before their shopping trip. If that’s the case, I might love Devyn more than my actual sister. The only way Rainey could possibly be hotter right now is if she took the dress off. It still doesn’t change the fact that she agreed to wear it to a meat market like this though.

“Not to be a dick, but this isn’t the kind of place where you go looking for a relationship,” I say, a little more caustically than I intended to. “Coming here, in that dress, says you’re looking for a quick fuck.”

Christ, the thought of any man getting his hands on her body makes me want to Hulk out.