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That makes him grin a little, and my blood pressure starts to come down. I finish off the beer and wipe my mouth.
“Tell me how I’m supposed to do that, Sully,” I say at last. “If I can make it right, I will.”
Not having Callie in my life has been like missing a limb. It hurts the way it hurt after our parents died, and God knows, if there were anything I could do to make that stop back then, I’d have done it in a heartbeat. Keeping on like this sucks, and I don’t want to do it anymore. I miss my sister.
Hell, I miss Weston. Besides Sully and my friend Alex, West is the only other friend I’ve got. We’ve gone our separate ways sometimes, but this is the longest we’ve ever gone without speaking.
“Swallow your pride.” Sully leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Say you’re sorry. Explain that you’re not a bigot.”
“For fuck’s sake. I was best man at Alex’s wedding! They were there!” Alex had married his roommate and their girlfriend. That’s where Callie and West had met Raleigh, for God’s sake. A wedding that Callie would never have attended, except I forced her to. West too, for that matter. So, in a way, what Sully is getting at is this whole mess is really all my fault. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Lee thinks it might be a factor,” says Sully. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like he’s had the chance to get to know you.”
“Fuck’s sake.”
“He wouldn’t think that if you’d just talk to them.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say, waving him off. “I get it.”
Sully lets me change the subject and liberates a couple more of my beers before seeing himself out a little while later. He’s long gone before I remember he never responded to my comments about the bartender.
I’m late to meet Alex for coffee the next morning, which is a little silly because “late” means it’s almost 9 a.m. I don’t know why the man gets up so early, but apparently, it had something to do with taking his mother to work, which makes no sense because Mrs. Weaver’s been retired for… a while.
Whatever. I shove my sunglasses on and drive into the heart of the city, a familiar car in front of me the whole way. It takes me until the parking lot to realize I’ve just followed my new next-door neighbor, Nic, the whole way into town.
That car is sexy as fuck. All sleek lines and sharp edges. Bet it handles like a dream. I pull into the parking spot next to him at the Sizzle HQ building just to try to get a peek at the interior. Leather, of course. Be still my heart.
“You following me, Hale?” he asks as I climb out of my truck.
“Hardly,” I say. “You’re not my type.”
He snorts, then shocks the hell out of me by checking me out. It’s slow, thorough, and damned deliberate, and by the time his eyes make their leisurely way back up to mine, my body is tingling with awareness.
What the hell?
“Pity,” he says blithely. His lips quirk at whatever expression is on my face, gives me a bro-like up-nod, and heads inside.
I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck just happened when I realize I’m following him yet again. I stand beside him at the elevator, pretending I’m invisible. While he’s not the first man who’s ever checked me out, he’s the first one to be so obvious about it, and I… I do not know what the fuck to think about that.
“Seriously?” he says, catching me out of the corner of his eye.
“Seriously,” I say, shoving the weird thoughts away. “Do you work at Sizzle?”
He shakes his head. “My office is on the eighth floor. Do you work here?”
I laugh. “Not really my thing.”
Nic raises his eyebrows. “Working isn’t your thing?”
“I work,” I say, amused by his insinuation. Smartass. “Contract stuff. Construction. Gigs sometimes.”
“Security?” Nic asks, eyeing my shoulders, lingering on my arms.
“Sometimes.”
The elevator dings, sparing us any further awkwardness. Not that Nic looked anything but right at home in the snazzy lobby—top-of-the-line suit and shoes, briefcase to match. I have no idea what he does for a living, but he clearly does it well.
The elevator doors open and out steps my best friend, Alex. And his mother.
