“That’s what I want to hear.”Bobby looked to the bartender.“I’ll take a gin and tonic.”
When Bobby had his drink, they took a seat.
It was time to negotiate.His evening was looking up.
Chapter Two
Keane Rollins was having the weirdest day.He did notfit into this glamourous world.He’d been to exactly two weddings before thisone.One had been in his mom’s backyard where she married the man who murderedher.The second was a courthouse wedding between friends who got divorced andno longer spoke to any of their circle.
He didn’t have good luck with weddings.
He was worried his luck was going to hold.
“Are you nervous?”Garrett sat across the booth from himwith the gorgeous girl in the middle.It was one of those round booths thatmade everything feel close and intimate.
It was awkward.
“A little, I suppose,” she replied.“Not because of you.Youseem nice.Bobby told me you belong to a club.”
Garrett nodded.“There’s one in…”
She held up a hand.“I don’t need to know specifics.IfBobby is satisfied, then so am I.”
It had been roughly an hour since they had been introducedto the woman they were calling Red for now.She was every bit as gorgeous upclose, and there was a sweetness to her that belied her obvious independentnature.They had each danced with her and made some small talk that meantnothing because she didn’t want names.Or real jobs.Apparently now no clubnames.
Garrett had proposed hitting the hotel bar since all eyeswere on them in the ballroom.Red had hugged Nicole and the two grooms and thenjoined him and Garrett.
Now she had a glass of Cab in her hand and looked like shewanted to be anywhere else.If he hadn’t seen the way her eyes went fromGarrett to him like she was a kid in a candy store, he would have found a wayto gracefully let her go.But it was so clear she wanted them.
So why wasn’t it easy to simply go upstairs and get thingsstarted?
“I’m going to assume you belong to a club, too.”Garrettseemed determined to completely ignore the vibe, but that was kind of how hehandled things.He was a great believer in faking it until making it.
“I do.I have for a long time.I came to the lifestylehonestly.My parents are in it.”She sighed.“I don’t seem to be good with myown rules.”
Because it wasn’t natural to avoid all real connections.Heneeded to figure out how to make it more comfortable for her.
“Do you always drink red?”Garrett asked with his usualcharm.
She smiled, though it was a tight thing.“Not at all.I likemost wines, though I tend to gravitate toward dry and not too sweet.I’m fromTexas, though, so I love margaritas.”She flushed.“Again, I wasn’t supposed tosay that.”
“Oh, the accent gives you away,” Garrett replied.“It’s apretty accent, don’t you think, Ke….?”
And there it was.It was hard to not use names at all, andit was super weird to call each other Sir since they would not be topping eachother.
“Let’s go with Master K and Master G when referring to eachother,” Keane offered.
“I don’t know that this is going to work,” she saidsuddenly.“This is not something I normally do.I’m not the crazy sex girl.Iwas feeling down tonight, and I should go to bed and hope I do better in themorning.”
“You don’t have to do that.”Garrett’s tone was stillsmooth, but Keane had been with him long enough to hear the panic underneath.“You sent your friend over for a reason.”
“I didn’t send him over at all.Bobby did that on his own.Iswear if I didn’t know better, I would think he got rid of me so he could findhis own hot guy.”She frowned and sighed.“I’m sorry.That wasn’t fair.Thatmakes it sound like I wasn’t involved.I absolutely think you’re hot and Iwondered if a fun night might make me feel better, but this isn’t going how Ithought it would.Somehow I thought it would be easier.”
The problem was they weren’t giving her what she trulywanted.
The fantasy.
Garrett didn’t know what it meant to want to be someoneelse, anyone else.But Keane did, and for whatever reason so did Red tonight.