Bar Bites: A Man of the Month Cookbook (Man of the Month 13)

"Hot date?" Cam asked, and Tiffany kicked him under the table.

"Not exactly. Pretty much everyone in my apartment complex either goes to UT or recently graduated. So there's a party tonight in the courtyard. When I mentioned it to Reece, he offered to cover for me. To be honest, I wasn't planning on going, but when your boss tells you to go to a party..." He trailed off with a shrug.

"Sounds like fun," Mina said. "Why weren't you going to go?"

He shrugged, his eyes cutting quickly to Tiffany and then back to Mina. "I've only lived in this apartment for a few months, so I don't know many of them yet. Guess I wasn't in the mood to go stag."

"So take someone," Cam said.

"Sure," Mina added. "Why don't you take Tiffany?"

"What?" Tiffany said.

"Yeah?" Eric shifted to look at her. "I'd love the company if you're up for it."

"I--" She looked helplessly at Cam and Mina, both of whom were urging her on with their eyes. "Well, yeah. That sounds fun."

Eric's wide smile lit up her heart. "All right, then," he said. "It's a date."

"Yeah," Tiffany repeated, her voice raised above the cacophony of hooting and hollering going on in her head. "A date."

Chapter Two

A few hours ago, Eric wanted to kiss Mina almost as much as Tiffany. Now, as he sipped a beer in his kitchen while he waited for Tiffany to arrive, he was thinking that he should have muzzled her. Because right now, his nerves were definitely jumping.

That was the thing about Tiffany--somehow, someway, she always knocked him off balance.

As a general rule, Eric didn't get nervous around women. Considering how much his tips improved when he flirted, a case of nerves would be pretty inconvenient. And even when there was a real attraction, he'd never felt as topsy-turvy as he did around Tiffany.

Jill, for example. They'd met in the produce section of HEB last September, flirted casually, and Jill had asked if he wanted to meet for coffee. One thing had led to another, and before he knew it, they were dating.

There'd been sparks--in bed at least--and that's probably why he let it go on so long. But even with sparks there wasn't any real heat. And every time she'd left him to go home or to work, she tended to leave his thoughts as well.

Tiffany hadn't left his thoughts--not really--for years. She always seemed to linger. That crooked smile. Her hair that fell in such lovely waves he imagined it felt like silk under his fingers. And those greenish-gray eyes the color of the sky after a thunderstorm.

He shouldn't want her; Eric knew that. It seemed disloyal to be attracted to his brother's ex-girlfriend, even if Ben was half a continent away. Eric knew how much Ben had loved her, though Ben had never used the word. Even so, Eric had been able to see it in his older brother's eyes.

Could Eric date someone his brother had loved? What if it got serious? For that matter, what if he somehow ended up hurting her? Would it end up being an issue between him and his brother as well as him and Tiffany?

"Idiot," he said, and slammed the beer bottle into his trashcan. He was seriously overthinking this. He had yet to go on a date with her, and already he was planning how to handle their possible futures, both good and bad? Honestly, he should get his head examined.

A small laugh escaped him. Maybe he should get Tiffany to do that for him. She was a psych major, after all. And if she wanted to continue the inspection more intimately... well, that would be fine by him.

He grabbed another beer from his fridge and told himself to chill. This wasn't a date; they were just going to a party together. Friends and coworkers. So there was nothing disloyal going on. And there was no reason to be nervous.

Right? Right.

He checked the clock, saw that she was ten minutes late, and wondered if she was blowing him off.

Three minutes later, he heard her knock, and he hurried to the door, knowing that he was going to come off as over-eager, but not really caring. All he wanted was to see her, and when he pulled open the door, she took his breath away.

She stood in front of him with her hair flowing loose around her face, her lips a soft, kissable pink. She wore a pale blue T-shirt dress that hit mid-thigh and blue sandals. Her toenails were blue, too, and so perfect that he fleetingly wondered if she'd had a pedicure before coming over. And if so, he wondered if it was for him.

"You look great," he said, meaning it. His cousin Sarah wore that kind of dress all the time, but they hung shapeless and uninteresting on her. With Tiffany, there was nothing dull or shapeless about the outfit. She gave it curves. Made it unique. Hell, it was practically runway ready the way she wore it.

A slow smile spread across her face, lighting her eyes with pleasure. "I'm glad you think so." She stepped inside, and he caught the scent of vanilla. It made him hungry, although not for food.

"It's a little summery," she was saying, and he forced his mind away from how good she smelled. "But the weather's so crazy lately that I think March is turning into summer."