Blind Date (A Why Choose Romance)

How could I own a watch that cost more than a car?

Nevertheless, it was a fun experience to go shopping with the guys. They were perfectly comfortable handling these expensive luxury items. I’d never have the nerve to ask Mr. Goldman to uncase his jewelry and let me handle it if I wasn’t prepared to buy it.

And after all that, the boys didn’t buy anything in the jewelry store, but they did pick up a few items in the Hugo Boss fashion store. Lewis paraded outside the fitting room like a catwalk model in the shirt and jeans he tried on. They fit him perfectly.

“But the question is, how do they go with the watch?”

I nodded. “Looks good.” Good was an understatement. And who’d notice the watch when he had that ass from behind? The bright orange band did draw my attention to another glorious physical feature of his.

The short-sleeved shirt perfectly showed off his slightly hairy, veined forearms. I’m a sucker for manly forearms.

While I’d been attentive to Lewis’s fashion show, Jake had wandered off with a sales assistant, and when he returned to my side, he held two dresses out to me.

“Just humor us, Kay. Lewis tried on those jeans, and we’d like to see you in these dresses.”

“How do you know they’re my size?”

“I don’t. I had expert help.” He jerked his head in the direction of the sales assistant.

Intrigued to see what he’d chosen for me, I went into the private fitting room to take a proper look.

The dresses were subtle and elegant, one steel gray and one in a blend of blues. I gulped at the combined price tags of over $1,000. When I tried them on, they fit perfectly and hung in a way that none of my clothes did. The way they made me look fantastic made the clothes worth the money, but I wasn’t about to get my credit card out. I did go and show off my new look to the boys, and just seeing their faces light up with approval was fun enough.

I couldn’t help worrying about wasting the staff’s time when I had no intention of buying, but Lewis bought his clothes, so as a group, we were entitled to try on a few more things.

“Hey, Kay, are you hungry?” Jake asked while we waited outside the Hugo Boss store for Lewis to complete his purchases.

“Yes, I am a bit.”

“Do you want to grab a bite some place around here?”

And that was how I found myself going into Brown’s Bistro for dinner with the Rollins Bruisers.

It turned out they weren’t exactly the stereotypical guys. They ordered sensibly from the menu and didn’t even consider dessert or alcohol.

“We had a few beers at lunch, but we can’t keep drinking like that. We have work tomorrow.”

“It’s not just that, either. We have to treat our bodies with respect because they pay the checks.”

I giggled. “You make it sound like you two are models, but I guess you could be. Have you considered modeling as your second career?” From the brief time I’d spent with Ethan and Tyler, I’d learned these football players all had other options lined up.

“It’s a possibility,” Jake replied.

“But not one that I’m seriously considering,” Lewis continued as if it was one continuous flow of information from the two men. “I read a lot, and if I had to start over in a completely different field. It would be something to do with books. You know, run a bookshop, work in a library, be a literature teacher, that sort of thing.”

“Oh. If your football career ended tomorrow, how easy would it be to get into something like that?” I asked.

“I’d have to do some courses, but I think I’d enjoy it.”

“Yeah, he would,” Jake agreed. “And you’d be unbearable to live with.”

“Do you guys live together,” I asked? “I mean, I know that would generally be a strange question to any random couple of guys, but you are brothers.”

Jake chuckled. “We do live together, actually. Most brothers don’t, of course. Most brothers we know don’t seem to get on as well as we do.”

“We are complete opposites.”

“True, but we get along fine.”

“Yeah, I think the fact that we are completely different is one of the things that helps our friendship work. Cos that’s what we are—buddies from the same family.”

I could see that. They were completely different in the way they spoke. Their different personalities shone out. They were both outgoing and friendly but in different ways that were hard to explain.

“So what about you, Kay? Do you live alone?”

“Yes.”

“No boyfriend on the horizon?”

“No.” I bit my lip when I answered. There was both Ethan and Tyler on the very near horizon. But they were both one-offs. They weren’t potential boyfriends.

“Seriously? You don’t seem so sure?”

“No, seriously. No boyfriend. Not for a long time.”