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I put my hands on my hips. “If I knew how to make people disappear, I’d show you a great one right now.”
His friends laughed and he was even a good sport about it. His grin stretched wider and two dimples appeared. They turned him from nice to gorgeous. He had golden retriever energy and I wondered why I felt nothing.
“I’ve never been so glad to watch a woman fail. Your unsuccessful career as an illusionist is my lingering chance to ask you if you’re from around here.” He nodded at the cords. “Want some help? I was a stage manager during all four years of college. I can’t do much else useful from that time, but I can roll cords with the best of them.”
I shrugged. “If you have nothing better to do than roll cords, go for it.”
One of the girls from his group looked up at me. “Do you think JAX is going to come back out here?”
I forced a smile. “I don’t know. They don’t normally.”
As if my saying that was a freaking signal for him, Jones walked out onto the stage and frowned at me. It was his go-to those days.
The girl squealed and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry! I’m just so excited right now!”
Of course, he smiled at her. The dick.
Golden Retriever joined me on the stage and smiled. He seemed to not care that the lead singer of the band he’d just watched perform was on the same stage as him. “You didn’t answer my question.”
I thought back to what he’d asked and laughed. “No. No, I’m not from here. Have I lost my accent? How else would you not know?”
He knelt in front of me to start on a cord and when his eyes moved up my legs and slowly reached mine, he had those dimples on full display again. “No, your accent is right where it should be.”
I heard female giggles and glanced over to see Jones smiling down at the girl who’d been so eager to meet him. The other guys were around him, too, but he seemed extra smiley with the girl. I glared at the side of his head and then went down on my hands and knees to start working.
“What’s your name?” Dimples looked over at me and I realized we were a lot closer than I’d meant to be. “I bet it’s something cute. Some kind of flower, maybe?”
I gasped. “What the hell?”
“I’m great at this.” He studied me and snapped his fingers. “It’s not something plain, like Daisy or Rose. I bet it’s something like…Violet or Iris.”
I grunted. “Wrong and you’ve insulted my name. Way to go.”
He groaned and sat back. “Well, I shit the bed on that one, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Fine. Your turn. Guess my name and feel free to rip into me.”
I tried to ignore the steady sound of giggling from across the stage. “Hmm… I’d guess you were named after a patriarchal figure in your family. Something nice and WASPy. John? Paul?”
He laughed and held up his hands. “Okay, this is a terrible game. I’ll just type it into your phone instead.”
I let out a belly deep laugh at the attempt and reached over to give him a friendly shoulder punch. “Nice try, John or Paul, but Daisy or Rose isn’t accepting punches on her dance card these days.”
He groaned and held the cord out to me. “Then I’m not doing manual labor anymore. I only work for dance card punches.”
Jones’ laughter drew my attention and when I looked over, he was all smiles at the girl. They were alone, somehow they’d lost the other guys from their group. She was beaming up at Jones and he seemed so nice that it made me clench my teeth. He wasn’t nice to me anymore. He never smiled in my direction. Seeing him act that way towards her made me want to dropkick him.
“You okay?”
I tore my gaze from Jones and nodded. “Yeah! Sorry. I just got lost in a thought for a second. Anyway, manual labor. Dance card punches. What kind of dance gets cord rolling?”
John or Paul dropped his cord and jumped to his feet. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. “I could tell you. Or I could show up.”
He’d just put his hands on my hips when Jones cleared his throat and took my elbow, pulling me away. “Show’s over, kid. Your girlfriend’s waiting on you.”
John or Paul looked back at where his friend was frowning at Jones. “She’s not my girlfriend. And I’m not here for the show anymore.”
