“I’m back.” His gaze never left Cara’s.
“Good for you,” she said with deliberate sarcasm.
He appeared as worn and ragged as Cara had earlier, before Alexa had forced a dance session on her friend.
Cara perched her hands on her hips. “And you thought you could wrap your arms around me and pick up where we left off?” she asked, her voice rising.
Oh, go girl! Alexa thought, stopping short of clapping, because Cara wasn’t greeting Mike with open arms. As a cop, Cara could handle herself in any situation, but as a woman, she was more fragile. Yet she wouldn’t let any man, including this one, walk all over her. Alexa was proud of her friend.
Serendipity, New York, was a small town, and Mike was the former police chief whose sudden departure had sparked many wagging tongues. Add the now loud discussion between exes and, sure enough, Cara and Mike were attracting stares from the crowd. Alexa knew they needed closure, but they didn’t have to do it in front of an audience. Time to put an end to the show, Alexa thought.
Figuring she’d buy her friend some time to handle this on her own terms, she tapped Cara on the shoulder. “Are you okay?” Alexa asked.
“Yeah.” But the hurt in Cara’s blue eyes told another story.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?” Mike asked her.
“Seriously?” Cara blinked in obvious shock. “Let’s get something straight. I don’t know why you’re here or for how long and I don’t care. But I will not be your booty call every time you come back to town.”
Alexa stifled a grin.
Behind her, she sensed her former dance partner was still there, watching the scene unfold, and Alexa spared a moment’s regret for having to ditch him this way. But he was a momentary diversion, while Cara’s friendship was forever. And no self-respecting woman abandoned a friend in need for a man.
“Cara—” Mike reached for her but she pushed him away, shoving at his shoulder.
“No.” Cara jerked out of his reach.
Alexa moved closer. “I’m going to the ladies’ room,” she said, tipping her head toward the back of the bar. The silent Do you want to join me? was implied. She wanted to give Cara options before dragging her away.
Mike whispered in Cara’s ear, something Alexa couldn’t hear, but Cara shook her head.
Alexa turned, shooting a regretful glance at the man she’d never actually meet. “Sorry. Friendship calls.” She smiled at him, wishing they’d had more time.
He nodded in surprising understanding and gestured with a sweep of his hand. “It was a pleasure,” he said, the words dancing along her nerve endings, similar to the way his touch had branded her skin.
She held his stare for a few more precious seconds before breaking eye contact and focusing on Cara, who, though torn, would thank Alexa later for stepping in.
“Let’s go,” she said to her friend, and steered them through the crowd toward the restroom, leaving her sexy dance partner behind.
* * *
Lucas Thompson watched his dance partner walk off, her hips swaying, her delectable derriere displayed to perfection in her tight black leggings. He liked what he saw. Hell, he’d liked what he’d felt even more. She wasn’t too skinny, like the NFL groupies who usually followed him around back home; her waist felt soft and generous in his hands.
He groaned and headed to the bar. A cold drink would cool him off before he went to his buddy’s house somewhere in this small upstate New York town. Luke was here for a visit but his ex-teammate Sawyer Rhodes wouldn’t show up till late tonight. He was busy getting his father settled into an assisted living facility today. Sawyer’s plan was to stick around, fix up his father’s house, and put it on the market. Since Luke was in Manhattan for meetings with his agent, he’d taken Sawyer up on his offer to stay with him instead of in some sterile hotel room in the city. As pro football players, they both had enough of that when they were on the road. He’d help Sawyer out for as long as he was in town.
Luke had pulled into the parking lot, planning to grab a beer and maybe some wings at Joe’s Bar. Dancing hadn’t been on his agenda. Then again neither was the russet-haired woman who’d captured his attention. She’d been a surprise in many ways, the most pleasant being that she hadn’t recognized him as the tight-end of the Texas Titans. Either she wasn’t a sports fan or she was more into her hometown team, the one to which Sawyer had recently been traded. Which meant her invitation to dance had been based purely on mutual attraction. Even before he’d seen her up close, and taken in those sea green eyes and the smattering of freckles on her nose, his gut told him the woman was more wholesome than any who’d crossed his path in way too long.
He’d been watching her shake those hips with undisguised interest, and when she’d crooked her finger his way, his cock had jumped in delight.
“Want to keep a running tab?” the bartender asked as he set Luke’s soda on the counter.
He shook his head. “I’ll settle now.” He’d already had a long day of meetings. Between his agent and the potential sponsors he’d lined up for Luke to meet with, then the hours’ drive up here, Luke was beat.
Before taking off, he looked around for his woman—he chuckled at the term; he hadn’t learned her name so it seemed to fit. He found her standing on the other side of the room, deep in conversation with the same guy who’d been hassling her friend earlier. Her friend, a pretty brunette, was nowhere in sight. Apparently Luke’s dance partner was mediating a dispute between the two.
Luke shrugged, tamping down the disappointment. At a glance, she didn’t strike him as a one-night-stand kind of woman, although considering the way she let him grind against her on the dance floor, who knew where the night would have ended if they hadn’t been interrupted.
Unfortunately, he’d never know.