“Like you might want to know my name first.”
“Then grace me with it, sexy.”
“Kallie,” she said.
“Kallie and Johnny. Kind of rhymes, if you think about it. One sex on the beach for the lovely Kallie, coming up.”
She watched his fluid movements as he tossed her drink around. He really made a show of it, and she was giggling as he threw the shaker in the air. He poured it into a glass and garnished it with fruit, then slid it her way with a twinkle in his eye.
“Why don’t people play poker in the jungle?” he asked.
“Why?”
“Too many cheetahs.”
Kallie sipped her drink and shook her head. The jokes were corny, but they had her attention. He delivered one after the other, even going so far as to pay her attention while he was fixing other people’s drinks.
“Hot bartenders must grow on trees in St. Barts,” Kallie said with a grin.
But the look Johnny gave her was a mixture of confusion and hesitancy.
One more stumble back into the world of singlehood. Johnny stopped with his corny jokes and started wiping down the bar, and Kallie was thoroughly embarrassed yet again. She sat her drink down and he quickly prepared her another, but this time not even a smile accompanied it. Had her comment really been that bad? She meant to compliment him on his good looks.
Had she insulted him in some way?
She sucked down her second drink and since she hadn’t eaten dinner, she was already feeling tipsy. She swiveled around on her barstool and left the empty drink behind, prepared to pick her bag up and go back to her villa. Ash was still surfing and the bartender had shot her down, and she was feeling lonelier than she’d ever felt in her life.
“What’s a nice girl like you doing with that frown on her face?”
The smooth tenor voice caught her ear, and she turned to look up into the face of a pretty attractive man.
He was thick. Buff. With broad arms and an expansive chest. He was brutish, with thick legs that throbbed with veins and a smile that could kill a flock of seagulls from a mile away. His brown eyes were kind and they pulled a smile across her cheeks.
“That’s better,” the man said. “It lights up your eyes.”
“You’re very kind,” Kallie said.
“No. Just honest. And my honesty toward you happens to be kind.”
“I’m Kallie.”
“Rhett. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” she said.
“Are you drinking alone?”
“I guess you could say that,” she said.
“That doesn't seem like a fun thing for a beautiful woman to do.”
“Probably not,” she said with a giggle.
“Mind if I join you?”
The moment had arrived. The moment where Kallie could jump in headfirst or head back to her villa filled with disappointment. She drew in a deep breath, calmed the shaking in her hands, and decided that if she was going to be single, she might as well make the best of it.
“I don’t mind at all,” she said.