“I’m not trying to get into an argument with you here,” he said, his ire dismissed as quickly as it appeared and replaced with congeniality, completely unaware that anything was amiss. As if he didn’t know he was mentally paddling her to tears, the bastard. “I’m just saying that I’ve been at this a lot longer than you. I’ve honed the skills. If I don’t know how to handle the likes of you, I need to hang it up.”
“The likes of me?” Amanda asked, equal parts intrigued and annoyed. She tried to make the shifting in her seat to face him look like she was becoming fully engaged, but she was really trying to alleviate the inferno raging on her behind, which was slowly driving her mad. Surely he was some evil wizard disguised in adorable man/boy packaging. “That almost sounds like a challenge,” she snapped.
“Baby, if issuing me a challenge makes you happy, I’ll do my best to rise to it. You don’t need to get so worked up. You’re getting all flushed.”
He was confident to the point of sounding condescending; self-assured to the point of being smug. She resumed the crossed-arm battle stance in her seat, fighting back tears of frustration at the whole exchange and his ability to roast her derriere without laying a hand on her. And then she caught sight of it, in the far right corner on the digital display in the center of the dashboard. A tiny icon of a car seat appearing, then disappearing, intermittently flashing, and underneath it read, 86 . . . then 87 . . . and then 88. As soon as it fully registered, Amanda dug her feet into the floor mat, heels and all, and arched her body off the seat as best she could.
“What’s the big idea!” she shrieked.
“Just a little reminder, angel.” He chuckled, depressing the button on his steering wheel with his thumb to shut off her seat warmer. Watching her subdued squirming reach its crescendo was easily the best thing he’d see all day, at least until he picked her up after his game when all her seat warming would be courtesy of his right hand. “You really hung in there. I was beginning to worry the leather would start smoking.”
“You’re not funny, Chase,” she said, unable to keep from laughing at her own stupidity for thinking he had that sort of mental hold over her. At the same time, she was also relieved.
“Sorry, baby,” he said, smiling out his window, completely unrepentant.
She gingerly settled back down, satisfied the seat had cooled. And then she thought about how he could use a little reminding of his own. They drove the rest of the way to the Cold Creek in silence. He was thinking about how endearing all her wiggling was. She was thinking about how to up the ante. When he pulled up to the curb, he grabbed her hand to pull her in for a sound kiss. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said after grudgingly unlocking their lips. “Stay off the Internet. It gives you bad ideas.”
“Have a great game,” she told him lovingly, pulling away and reaching for her door handle. Once safely outside the car but before closing the door, she leaned back in and added, “This means war, you know.”
“I would expect nothing less from you,” he replied happily. “You have my debit card if it can be of assistance. Give it your best shot.”
She closed the door and he watched her walk away, his view from the passenger-side window a perfectly framed picture of her behind provocatively swishing within the confines of a respectable Ralph Lauren dress. He smiled; the game was already afoot. He watched her until she disappeared into the restaurant, thinking she should be glad he didn’t believe in topping from the bottom since it was becoming apparent she had a real knack for it.
“Bring it on, baby,” he said out loud to himself, pulling away from the curb and back into traffic, admitting he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Amanda walked into work and found Eric on his side of the bar. Sitting across from him was a tearful Nicki. They were holding hands. It was drama of a different kind, and she approached the pair cautiously.
“You found a roommate?” Amanda asked.
They both turned to her with bittersweet smiles.
“Sort of,” Eric said, squeezing Nicki’s hand again. “I’m moving to California.”
Amanda smiled, spreading the bittersweet around. “Now I also have to find a bartender?” She thought on the matter logically. It could be Liam’s first real test. It was all so serendipitous. Liam had shown up with all his zeal at precisely the same time she began to feel left behind when Chase had to travel. Even more cosmic timing, Eric and Nicki had been with her since she opened. They had helped her with their own blood, sweat, and tears for a lot of sixty-hour weeks.
“Afraid so,” Eric said, biting his lip and looking Nicki up and down. “They have some great waves in California. And curves, lots of great curves.”
Nicki returned his look with a little lip-biting of her own, and it was easy to see that she and Eric had left the friends-with-benefits zone.
“Was I the only one who didn’t see this coming?” Amanda exclaimed.
“You’re busy being swept off your feet,” Nicki told her. “Whether you want to admit it or not, your luck’s about to change.”
It wasn’t said with malice. It was a complete revelation. One that Amanda’s friends had come to before she did.
“Yeah, don’t blow this,” Eric agreed. “You just won the love-story lottery.”
“And it’s funny,” Nicki continued. “Watching the whole thing go down is what really gave me the push to make the move. It’s like watching your dream come true made me really want to go for mine.”
Amanda nodded, saying nothing. She wasn’t sure when she gave anyone the impression that being the trophy of a well-known sports figure was her dream, but apparently she had. Or was she just having other’s dreams projected onto her? Either way, whatever it took to give someone a rush of perseverance was a good thing, and she was glad she could help.
Eric cast another affectionate look at Nicki before adding, “And watching you make excuses to try to fight off the man who adores you made me realize that the person I loved was right in front of me. I just had to get over thinking it was too much to compromise. As soon as I opened up to the possibilities, it dawned on me, I can tend bar anywhere.”
“What about your lease?” Amanda queried.
Nicki smiled smugly and shot Eric a look before informing Amanda, “Well, see, that’s the thing. I called the landlord asking if he could be of any help, to see if maybe knew of someone looking for a place. He thought I was being awfully nice about it, that trying to find Eric a roommate was really going the extra mile. Turns out we’ve been month to month on our lease since our renewal back in March.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” Eric remarked, stone-cold busted. “I only did it because she sounded like she didn’t want me to tag along.”
“Maybe you should let a girl know you’re interested.” Nicki reiterated something that sounded suspiciously like it had been previously discussed. “I didn’t invite you because I think your exact words were you would never move there. You didn’t need to board the crazy train at the first stop.”
“I’m really going to miss you guys,” Amanda said.
“We’re only going to be a private jet ride away,” Eric replied.
Eric and Nicki set their definite date of departure for two months. And Amanda felt a very real shift in what she thought was important. Like the intelligent, handsome wise guy who thought he couldn’t be outsmarted.
CHAPTER 10
HER CHANCE TO get even with Chase came less than two weeks later, when, on his day off, Amanda told him she had a surprise for him. The word surprise tipped off the other to be alert. They drove away from the city and closer to her hometown to a local spa named Vita, located on a golf course and in a country club that her father was a member of. After leaving the car with the valet and entering the spa, Amanda took Chase to the front desk, where a flustered receptionist, blushing profusely, asked him his shoe size and if he would mind taking a picture with her. After Amanda snapped the shot with the girl’s iPhone, they were handed pairs of spa sandals and directed to their respective changing rooms, where plush robes awaited them.