Page 76 of Score Her Heart

BENNY: Nah. it’s all good. I’ll see if TJ wants to hang. He’s always down to drink.

ME: Truth. Don’t let him drink you under the table - you’re a lightweight.

BENNY: DICK!

I laughed at him and locked my phone screen again. Nothing had come through from Fi, so I knew she was in the zone, and I really didn’t want to bother her. I was finishing up with weight training when she finally texted me.

FI: Did you get lost?

ME: Nope, still at the gym.

FI: why, tho?

ME: These muscles you love so much didn’t appear out of nowhere.

FI: K!

ME: Don’t K me woman! I’m almost done.

FI: What do you want for dinner?

ME: Not your cooking. Let’s go out.

I wiped down the free weights and headed back home. I had made a reservation this morning already because I had no idea how long Fi wanted to spend at the bookstore. The door to the office was still closed when I got home, so I hopped in the shower, not wanting to disturb Fi. I knew how she got when she was in the middle of her writing. I definitely knew that I shouldn’t piss her off.

She was surveying the closet when I got out of the shower and started getting dressed. She smiled up at me and gave me a quick kiss. “Good workout?” she asked.

“Mmmhmm,” I answered noncommittally and rubbed my shoulder.

She eyed me cautiously. “Aaron…”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“Are you hurt?”

Of course she would notice that I was favoring one side and kept rubbing my shoulder. “Yeah, I’m hurt. Not injured, though,” I assured her. “I got slammed into the boards hard last night. I’ll live.”

She didn’t seem convinced, but she didn’t push the topic and went to go get her own shower. I was cleaning up in the kitchen when she walked out in that sexy black dress she had worn to dinner in Vegas and black stiletto heels that I didn’t even know she owned. I gulped and adjusted myself below the belt. Her red hair fell down her back, all silky and smooth, and I couldn’t wait to run my fingers through it. That dress did wonders for her lean figure, and I didn’t quite remember it having such a plunging neckline before. It was seriously making me consider skipping dinner altogether.

“You ready?” she asked.

I wiped my hands on a hand towel. “Yeah, let’s go.”

I grabbed my keys at the front door, and we left hand-in-hand. The restaurant was luckily walking distance from our condo, but I was wondering about the shoes she was wearing. She must have noticed the look I was giving her because she laughed and shook her head at me. “It’s fine. Where are we going?”

“Sushi.”

The smile lit up her whole face like I knew it would. “Ooh, my favorite!”

I squeezed her hand. “I know; that’s why I picked it.”

Her other hand, the one not interlaced with my hand, squeezed my bicep. “You really do know me so well.”

“Well, we have been best friends since...well, birth.”

She giggled but stopped when we arrived at the restaurant and saw her ex Eric and some leggy blonde walking out the door. Her grip on my arm tightened, and I squeezed her other hand reassuringly. I was hoping maybe the dumbass would not notice us and walk away so we could pretend we didn’t see him either. The hockey gods weren’t on my side because he glanced up and looked at her in surprise.

“Oh…” Eric trailed off when he saw the two of us. He pointedly looked at our interlaced hands. His date looked confused.