One to Leave (One to Hold 5)

“Did you need something?”

He stretched his hands out on the bar, and I knew it was to make his muscles flex. Everything Pete did was to show off his physique to me. In the past, I’d tried to get onboard with all his flirtations. Now

they just fell flat.

“Kenny tried to make my cinnamon bun protein shake while you were gone and it tasted like ass.”

“Kenny doesn’t follow recipes.” Flipping through my notebook, I found the drink in question. “You want one now?”

“Please. And be sure to dip that little finger in it.” Frowning up at him, he winked. “To make it sweet.”

“Oh, good lord.” I shook my head, and he laughed, going back to the weight room to spot his client.

I was doing well. I was on Day Two of being back at work, and I only wanted to crawl under the counter and cry once every fifteen minutes instead of once every five. Watching Kenny and Slayde together did not help. They were so blissed out by their reunion, they hardly ever stopped touching each other. It was heart wrenching. Kenny said it should be encouraging, since none of us believed they’d ever make it back to love. I was truly happy for her, and I couldn’t look at them.

Rook was very understanding about my prolonged absence. He made some comment about that was what he got hiring overly dramatic college kids, but I noted that I was in graduate school. His response: Same difference.

Returning to the sketch in my recipe book, I used the crappy No. 2 pencil behind the bar to add some shading along Stuart’s jawline. His beautiful eyes watched me, brows lowered over them, of course, as I finished his straight nose in a perfect point. Top lip a little fuller than the bottom one, and that light shadow on his jaw. A shiver moved across my shoulders. I’d added a dark cowboy hat, even though I loved threading my fingers in his brown hair. Defying all logic, sketching him made me feel better.

“You’re blushing.”

I jumped and made a little squeal. Slayde’s ice-blue eyes narrowed at me, teasing. I slammed the book closed and pushed it under the phone book.

“What do you want?”

“Wow. I thought we were friends!”

Shaking my head, I rubbed the daydream away. “I’m sorry. You startled me. Did you want a shake?”

“I was going to ask if you’d like to have dinner with us. I’m making steaks. Kenny’s making salad. Bring your coffee pot.”

“My coffee pot?”

“I need another reading. I’m thinking about asking Rook for a raise.”

That made me laugh. “I think we’d do better slipping him a special smoothie before you meet with him.”

“You’re saying I’m not worth it?”

“I’m saying our boss is a tightwad, and he’s planning to add a nursery to keep that new Y from stealing all our young mothers.”

“Fucking YMCA.”

His tone was totally teasing, and I smiled. “It’s fun to stay there.”

That got me a rare Slayde laugh. “See you tonight.”

“Hey,” I reached for his arm. “I’m really glad you’re back. Kenny was a wreck without you.”

“Thanks. I was worse.”

* * *

Lane was on my hip twirling his baby fingers in my hair, and I was doing my best not to imagine him as Stuart’s and mine.

“Mare-Mare pretty.”

His little blue eyes blinked at me, and I kissed his nose. “Laney is my sweet boy.”