Awakened (Steel Brothers Saga 16)

I turn away. Now to find Dale. I actually have a good reason. I want to find out what time we’ll be finished for the day so I can contact Levi about our dinner date.

Except it’s not really a dinner date. It’s a dinner…meeting? Sure, why not? I’ll call it that. Everyone seems to be taken care of by employees, so I leave the tasting room and walk through the building outside to the parking lot.

Dale is loading Katie’s wine into her small red car. Now how did I know she’d have a red car? Not that I have anything against red cars. I love the color red. Especially the deep red of wine. Of Syrah.

Of Dale Steel’s voice.

I walk toward them. After all, I have a legitimate question. I need to know what time I’ll be done this evening. “Excuse me, Dale?”

He lowers Ashley’s trunk cover and turns to me. Not smiling, of course. “Yeah?”

“What time will we be done this evening?” I ask.

“You got somewhere to be?”

“Well… Yeah, I do.”

“I see.”

“One of the tasters wants to talk to me about his wine list. He wants to take me to some steakhouse in Grand Junction.”

Dale’s cheeks redden. “I…uh…”

Katie claps her hands together. “Does that mean you’ll be breaking your date with Dale?”

My date with Dale? I keep my jaw from dropping. “Yeah, Dale… Sorry… But you know… It’s business and all.”

“Perfect,” she exclaims. “Then you must have dinner with Lynette and me.”

Dale’s green eyes glare at me, almost as if they’re independent from his body.

He’s angry? He uses a fake date with me to get out of going to dinner with Katie, and he’s angry with me?

Such bullshit.

How long is Levi in town? Maybe I could meet with him tomorrow night. It would serve Dale right. I ought to make him keep his fake date with me. I sure as hell don’t want him going off with Katie and her friend. Of course, there’s safety in numbers. He can’t do much with Katie if her friend is along—

Except that he can.

I’ve had a few threesomes in my day, but Dale Steel? Already, I know he won’t go for that. Yeah, he has a Y chromosome, and yeah, he’s the hottest thing walking, but no. Oh, he’ll think about it. Every straight man in the world—and probably quite a few gay men—has thought about it at one time or another.

Are Katie and Lynette into threesomes?

I honestly don’t want to know.

My heart softens. Levi might be able to give me some good business contacts, but right now, I have the chance to corral Dale into taking me to dinner.

“You know,” I say, “I can easily rearrange my business meeting tonight. I really don’t want to miss our dinner date.” I paste on my fakest smile and even bat my eyes twice.

Dale grabs my hand, fumbling. First he grasps my palm, and then he tries to entwine our fingers together but gives up, just fisting his own hand around my small one. “That’s great, Ashley. Sorry, Katie. I’m booked for tonight.”

A few other tasters emerge from the building, Lynette among them. She walks toward us to Ashley’s car.

“Did you find a good place to go to dinner?” she asks Katie.

“Not exactly.” She heads to the driver side door. “We’re on our own. We’ll find something.” She gets into the car, as does Lynette.

Once they’re on their way, Dale turns to me. “Thanks for the save.”

“What save?”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“All I know, Dale, is that you and I have a date for dinner tonight. Where are we going?”

“Ashley…”

“I don’t let men use me,” I say. “Ever.”

“You have plans. You said you wanted to know when we were done this evening so that you could go to some business thing.”

“True. Which I will now cancel.”

“What kind of business thing could you possibly have anyway? You just moved here.”

“Levi Jones—that’s the guy who likes Syrah—invited me to dinner in Grand Junction.”

Dale’s jawline tenses, and he squeezes his fist around my hand.

“Are you trying to crush my bones?”

He lets go of my hand and drops it quickly. “Sorry.”

“So where are we going?” I ask again.

“Ashley…”

“What?”

“I don’t…date.”

My heart drops a little, but his attitude is not entirely unexpected. “Okay. You do eat, though.”

He sighs, shaking his head.

“I’ll take that as a yes. So the only question is, where will we be dining this evening?”

“I guess we could…go into Snow Creek— No. Where was that wine guy going to take you?”

“I don’t know. He said it was a new steakhouse in Grand Junction, and he wanted to check out the wine list.”

“Fine. Get the name of it from him, and that’s where we’ll go.”

“Wait. Are you suggesting that I ask him where we’re going and then break the date?”

“Breaking the date was your idea, Ashley.”

“Au contraire, it was your idea. Right after you decided to use a fake date with me to get out of going out with Katie and her friend.”