The woman’s eyes wandered to where Jace had a firm grip on Bree’s hand. She looked back up at Jace and smiled, then turned and winked at Bree.
Bree cringed and tried again to pull away.
“Huh uh.” He leaned closer and whispered in her ear. “Ayla and her husband are both good friends of mine.”
Bree rolled her eyes as Jace moved so she could slide into the booth first, letting him trap her there.
Jace spoke to Ayla and pointed at the menu. “She’ll have this, and how ’bout you bring me one of these.”
“What if I didn’t want a drink?” she asked when Ayla walked away.
“You do.”
“You’re such an arrogant asshole sometimes—”
Jace stopped her from talking by covering her lips with his. “I missed you, Bree,” he breathed.
She pushed against him. “I thought you wanted to talk.”
Now that he had her this close, talking was the last thing he wanted to do, but he had to. He had a lot he needed to say.
“I’m mad at you,” he began. Probably not the best approach, but the only place he could think to start.
“You’re mad at me? Really?”
He expected to see anger in her eyes, instead he saw hurt.
“Do you want to know why I’m mad at you?”
“You’re not giving me any choice, are you?”
“I’m mad at you because you wouldn’t go to dinner that night.”
“I did go.”
“What do you mean? I was there, and you, were not.”
“Yeah, actually I was. I felt bad about saying no, so I walked over to the restaurant. When I walked in, you were at the bar, talking to someone. So I left.”
He didn’t remember talking to anyone that night, other than Ty’s wife. Oh. “You saw me talking to Nancy.”
“I don’t know who Nancy is.”
“Ty’s wife.” He stroked her cheek with his finger. “I wish I’d known you were there.”
“Here you go,” Ayla interrupted, setting their drinks on the table.
“I really don’t want to drink tonight, Jace. I—”
“No alcohol.”
“Huh?”
“There isn’t any alcohol in these drinks, is there Ayla?”
“Nope. No alcohol, buddy.” Ayla winked at Bree again before she went back to the bar.
“Are you hungry?” He started to get up from the table to order food, but stopped when Bree put her hand on his arm.