Fate Interrupted (9 page)

“IPA
on tap?”

A grin sliced
across her youthful face, clearly pleased to be making a return trip. “I’ll be
right back.” She turned for the door without asking Shaun or Jon if they needed
anything and cut through the spattering of tables and chairs.

Shaun watched
her go, munching on a maple-honey-hot wing. A brownish red sauce lined his
lips, making them look bigger than normal. “How do you do it?”

Dean glanced
over his shoulder, catching a parting shot of the girl’s tight little butt.
“It’s a gift.”

“God, I’d like
to hit that,” Shaun whispered, taking a sip of his beer. “If I had a
get-out-of-jail-free card I’d use it on her in a heartbeat.”

“I’m recording
this entire conversation,” Dean said.

“No you’re not.”

“
Gonna
play it back for Carrie later tonight.”

“No you’re not.”

“Nice!” Jon
said, pumping a fist while focusing on one of the three flat-screens hanging
beneath the striped awning. “Brewers are going all the way this year,
fellas
! Hear me now, believe me later.”

Shaun paid the
game no attention, keeping his eyes glued to Dean. “So, how’d it go with you
last night? I heard
ya
ghosted Jon at the club.”

“Yeah, what’s up
with that?” Jon said, not taking his eyes from the TV. “Never leave your
wingman,
yo
!”

Shaun slowly shook
his head in disgust. “Never leave your wingman,
yo
.”

“Sorry, but
Becky showed up and scared off Evy,” Dean said, stealing a drink from Jon’s
beer while he wasn’t looking. “It wasn’t pretty.”

Jon’s Brewers
t-shirt bounced on his shoulders when he shrugged. “It’s all good. I ended up
pulling both of those
hotties
I was dancing with
anyway.”

Dean scrunched
his face up.
“Seriously?”

Jon finally
turned to him with a shit-eating grin. “You’re not the only playa in town, dude.”

“What about
you?” Shaun asked, biting into another wing and looking at Dean. “Did you
pull?”

“I did not.”

A heavy frown
stole across Jon’s face. “What? Are you getting sick or something?”

“Holy shit, he
must be in love!
Deano
never lets
em
get away.”

Jon fanned a
hand through the air and turned back to the TV. “He’s not in love.”

 
“I don’t know
man,
you
shoulda
seen the way he was drooling all over this
girl last weekend at
Panera
.”

Dean leaned back
in his chair and massaged his face with both hands, unable to even respond to
something so ridiculous.

Shaun swallowed.
“You
wanna
talk about it, big
baller
?”

Dean pulled his
face from his hands and found Shaun’s expectant eyes. “Talk about what?”

“What you’re
feeling.”

Dean laughed out
loud, his face flushing with nowhere to hide.

“Don’t do it,
Deano
,” Jon said, locking his fingers behind his head and
stretching out in his chair. “I’ll pay
ya
not to talk
about your feelings.”

“I’m not talking
about my feelings.”

Shaun’s face
wrinkled.
“Why not?
Carrie took the girls to the mall.
I got all afternoon!” He cleared his throat and took a drink of his beer. “So what
happened after you guys left Jon hanging?”

Dean leaned his
elbows on the table and rubbed his hands together, still feeling her skin on
his. “We kissed.”

Shaun leaned
back and whistled loudly. “Now, we’re getting somewhere. Did you see
explosions?”

“He didn’t even
see boobs!” Jon laughed, nudging Dean’s shoe and nodding behind him.
“How about that hostess?
She’s pretty hot, man.”

Dean hesitated
before twisting in his seat. The brown haired girl smiled at him, coming closer
with a tall glass of dark beer in her hand. Dean turned back around and started
checking his phone.

“Look at him!” Shaun
laughed. “He doesn’t even care. Evy has him whipped already.”

Dean looked up
from his phone with a frown. “No, she doesn’t.”

Shaun coughed
into his hand. “I think she does.”

“Here
ya
go,” the hostess said warmly, setting a coaster down in
front of Dean and then the beer on top of it. “Anything else I can get for you?”

Dean sat up
straighter and cleared his throat.
“How
bout
your number?”

A bashful smile
slid across her smooth complexion. She scrawled something down on a napkin, her
face blushing, and set it next to his beer.

Dean raised his
glass to her and smiled. “Thanks for the beer. Put it on their tab,” he said,
taking a quick sip.

She laughed
lightly and floated back across the patio as Dean waved the napkin in Shaun’s
face.

Shaun watched
her disappear back inside, shaking his head. “Man, you could have any girl you
wanted.”

“Exactly!”
Jon said,
tipping his Corona back and swallowing with a loud sigh. “You have a gift,
Deano
, and so much more left to do. You cannot waste that
gift on just one woman. That’s not fair to anyone.”

Shaun snorted.
“Yeah, especially you, because once
Deano
is out of the game it’s all over but the
cryin
.”

“What are you
talking about? Did you just miss my nice little threesome story?”

Shaun dug into
another wing. “Dreams don’t count.”

“Did that really
happen?” Dean asked.

Jon nodded proudly
and tipped the bottle back, sending a lime wedge tumbling through the golden
liquid in slow motion. He swallowed and wiped his upper lip. “Shit got crazy,
too.”

Shaun stopped
chewing. “You roll tape on that?”

“Had
my hands full, dude.”

Shaun pursed his
stained lips and added another napkin to the pile. “One of you guys has got to
start rolling video! I see the same woman naked day in and day out. The least
you could do is
help
a brother out.”

Jon jerked a
thumb at Shaun while staring glumly at Dean. “See what you have to look forward
to when you squander your gift?”

Shaun belched
into his fist and ignored him. “Dean, I’m
tellin
you,
you can’t let this one get away without giving it a decent shot.
Trust your feelings
,” he said, doing his
best impersonation of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Dean watched beads
of sweat trickle down his pint glass, Evy’s smile running through his mind. He
was way ahead of Shaun but didn’t want to let on. He and Jon would never let
him hear the end of it.

A burst of warm
air ruffled Jon’s lips. “Whatever, man,” he muttered, as if reading Dean’s
mind. “It’s your funeral.”

“When are you
going to see her again?”

Dean shrugged.
“Not sure.”

Shaun folded his
arms across his pink button down and stared off into space, thrilled to be talking
about something that didn’t involve dance recitals or yard work. “Here’s what
you do…stop into her bakery tomorrow morning and get a dozen muffins for some
meeting you have.”

Dean’s eyes
narrowed.

“Ask her out for
that night and take her somewhere nice, like PF Chang’s.”

Jon’s face twisted.
“PF Chang’s?
Man, you’ve been out of the game way too
long.”

“Trust me,
Deano
,
girls hate it when you leave
em
hangin
.
You
gotta
get in there and make it happen.”

Dean leaned back,
his chest rising beneath the white v-neck throttling his biceps as he inhaled a
thoughtful breath. He stroked the two-day-old stubble his face wore like a coat.
Tomorrow morning was too far away. He wanted to call her right now, but that
went against everything he had ever known. He was dying to know if she had even
given him the right number. Deep down, however, he already knew the answer. Had
seen it in her eyes, felt it in her lips, heard it in her voice. Dean knocked
back a slog of beer with Shaun watching him like a hawk.

Shaun lifted his
eyebrows. “In the meantime, who’s up for hitting a strip club? I need to see
some boobs that haven’t been manhandled by two kids yet.”

“I’m in,” Jon
responded automatically, sticking a finger into the gray sky.

Chapter
Six

Dean rested a
hand on the long door handle and hesitated, knowing it was too late to bail out
now. Evy had probably already seen him through the glass. His heart was beating
so fast he could barely breathe. He took a deep breath, wondering what his
problem was, and pushed. Soft music drifted over him from above as he stepped
inside, the smell of coffee and apple cinnamon permeating the air. The tables were
mostly empty, which wasn’t surprising at nine o’clock on a Monday morning. Brooke
grabbed a blueberry muffin from the glass case and started for the register.
She saw Dean and froze. Evy bumped into her from behind, knocking an iced mocha
from her hands. They jumped back, dodging the spill as it exploded across the
tiled floor. Evy slowly looked up from the mess to her sister, who stood gawking
at Dean as he quietly approached the counter. Evy followed Brooke’s stoic gaze
and her eyes widened.

When those green
eyes fell upon him, everything else faded down a long tunnel that stretched for
miles. His blood pounded thickly in his temples, driving the music from his
ears and replacing it with a pulsating thud. He crossed the black and white
checkered floor on rubbery legs. It was all he could do to keep from tripping
over his own two feet. He tried to focus but Evy’s hair spilled over her
shoulders like chocolate waterfalls and the need to run his fingers through it
consumed him.

“Hi,” she said, a
tentative smile pulling at her lips.

He finally reached
the counter and rested against it, struggling for breath after the long walk
through quicksand. “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s all thumbs around
here,” he said, observing the chocolate colored mess on the floor.

She smiled in
embarrassment. “Her fault,” she said, jerking a thumb at Brooke. “She stopped
short.”

A black lady in
a pretty dress that masked her weight let out an irritable sigh, her long purple
nails drumming against the counter.

Evy apologized
and turned her mesmerizing gaze back to Dean. “Give me one second.”

“Take your time,”
he replied, watching her make a new drink and falling in love with the back
pockets on her tight fitting jeans. It seemed like months since he had last
seen her and he craved more.

“You look nice.”

His eyes snapped
over to Brooke and slowly lowered to his black sports coat and jeans. “
Thanks,
got a big meeting today so I figured I’d grab a box
of muffins on my way in.”

“I bet you did,”
she said coyly, setting the blueberry muffin on the counter in front of the
black lady.
“No tie, huh?”

He smoothed his
button down and shook his head.
“Trying to quit.”

“I like your
style,” she grinned, letting her gaze wander to his crotch for a moment. “You
married?”

His eyebrows
pulled together. “No.”

“Kids?”

“Brooke,” Evy softly
warned, drizzling chocolate syrup over whip cream.

“I’m just trying
to figure out what’s wrong with him.”

“No kids.”

The lady by the
register sized Dean up from head to toe, her nails clicking against the counter.
“He’s obviously gay. No way a man
that good looking is
straight. Trust me!”

Brooke burst
into laughter while Dean flushed with heat. “I’m not gay either. Not that’s
there’s anything wrong with that.”

“
Mmm
-hmmm,” the woman moaned through her nose, taking the
new drink from Evy and handing her a ten. “If that’s true, I’d handcuff his ass
to your wrist before he gets away,” she whispered to Evy, loud enough for
everyone to hear.

Brooke laughed
again and then grew somber, staring at Dean through wondering eyes. “Take off
your shirt.”

“Brooke!” Evy
shrieked, handing the lady’s change back. “What is wrong with you?”

The lady took
the change and checked her watch. “I’ve got time.”

Dean tugged on
his collar. “Is it getting hot in here?”

“It’s about to,
sugar!” the lady said, bellowing with laughter.