Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

JAX: You know your bikes. Yes, I picked it up in Italy and I’m impressed with Brutales. Why don’t you come over and chat with me until the plane loads?

UNKNOWN: No, but thanks for asking. Tell me, do you always carry toys in your pockets? What else have you got in there?

He laughed at her toy innuendo, but puzzled over her refusal to meet him. Curious. Without moving his head, he simply lifted his eyes to watch the lobby for busy fingers and noticed several women using their phones, but it was nearly impossible to figure out who was doing what. Unfortunately—or not—the woman from Hudson News had a sketchbook out and a pencil in her hand moving lightly over the page. On the upside, all the women in the area appeared relatively attractive. A couple of them were quite pretty. And whoever it was had to be close enough to have witnessed the incident with Kevin.

He refocused on his phone.

JAX: You’ll have to come over to find out.

UNKNOWN: Are you flying to New York on business or pleasure?

Dammit. She didn’t take the bait.

JAX: Business. You?

UNKNOWN: Business. What do you do?

JAX: What’s your guess?

UNKNOWN: Construction.

JAX: Good guess, but no.

UNKNOWN: Model.

JAX: Excuse me while I choke on my coffee.

UNKNOWN: Give me a break. Totally possible. Escort?

Jax chuckled.

JAX: Now that has potential. Are you looking?

UNKNOWN: That is a complex question.

JAX: We’ll come back to it. What do you do?

UNKNOWN: Dress designer.

Jax muttered a curse. She couldn’t have done something he could talk intelligently about, for Christ’s sake?

JAX: And how does a dress designer know about hacking phones?

UNKNOWN: I didn’t say *I* hacked your phone.

JAX: Sneaky. Okay, I’ll let it go for now. But I don’t think I’ll be able to speak on the topic of dress design.

UNKNOWN: Good. It’s the last thing I want to talk about. You haven’t told me what you do.

A woman who didn’t want to talk about herself? Now that was definitely different for Jax. And a welcome change.

JAX: I was working the escort angle. But I’d like to know a little more about you before I say yes.

UNKNOWN: You must be a salesman.

JAX: Another good guess. I have been known to sell an Otter Pop or ten to Eskimos. But back to us, my problem is that I could be chatting up an eighty-year-old transvestite. We should probably get a few things straight if we’re going to continue this flirtation.

UNKNOWN: There is no us…yet. And we’re just chatting.