Grace blinked in surprise, torn between flattery and disgust. “Wow. Wow. That is some line.”
He grinned, and suddenly the perfect white teeth looked a little … predatory.
“Too much?” he asked, looking slightly sheepish.
Grace lifted a shoulder as she lowered herself into the cab. “A little obvious. Maybe go back to the drawing board on that one.”
She tilted her head up to give the guy one last thank-you only to realize that he was no longer standing beside the cab. He was getting into the cab.
“What are you—what the—hey!” she said as he gently tapped the backs of his fingers against her hip in a universal move-over gesture, before crowding her to the other side of the taxi.
“Where to?” he asked as he shut the door. The admirably patient cab driver started the meter and turned around. Both men looked at her expectantly.
Pride demanded that she exit the cab, but practicality … she glanced at her watch. Crap. Fine. She’d share a cab with this cretin.
“Fifty-eighth and Eighth,” she said.
The cab-crasher paused in the process of pulling his phone out of his pocket, looking startled.
“What?” she snapped.
“That’s all the way uptown.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said sweetly. “Did I forget to mention that when I begged you to share a cab with me?”
He shrugged and turned back to his phone. “Doesn’t bother me. Tribeca’s just an interesting neighborhood choice for someone who works in the Central Park West area.”
Grace straightened her shoulders and looked primly out the window. “I like Tribeca.”
Actually, Grace wouldn’t have minded escaping the land of yoga moms and upscale day cares to try a new part of town. But after she’d packed up and moved out of the apartment she’d shared with Greg, she hadn’t been about to tuck her tail between her legs and slink off to the furthest possible neighborhood from him.
Instead she’d picked one of the newer buildings just a few blocks from her old place. Far enough to have a different Starbucks, but not so far that anyone could mistake her as running away.
If he wanted to put more distance between them, then he could pack his shit and move uptown, crosstown, out of town, off the planet …
She felt the stranger studying her, but she didn’t turn to meet his eyes.
“Got a husband?” he asked.
Grace stiffened. “No.”
“Fiancé?”
“No.” Although I thought I was on the verge.
“Kid?”
“No!” she exploded, finally whipping her head around to glare at him. “A little personal, don’t you think?”
“Sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry at all. “Tribeca is just very family-friendly. I thought maybe that’s why you picked it.”
“Do you have a wife, kid, or dog?”
“No way,” he said as he began typing something on his phone.
Of course not. This man practically reeked of bachelor.
“Then why do you live here?”