Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 207(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 207(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
“Are you Olive?” He lifted a dark eyebrow, the corner of his mouth kicking up in amusement at my clear awkwardness.
I smoothed my hand down my dress and stood. “I am. Sorry. I thought you were with that woman.”
He looked behind him, but she’d already left.
“Woman?”
How had he not seen her? She’d been drop-dead gorgeous. And here I was in my five-dollar sandals and my clearance dress that had a zipper on the side that dug into me if I slouched too much.
And I felt grossly underdressed as I stared at him. This man screamed success. I screamed unemployment and booziness on orange spiked shakes.
“Hi. I’m Pope, David’s brother.” He held out his hand, and I quickly wiped my palms on my dress again. I was nervous and sweaty and a little bit buzzed.
When I took his hand in mine, I immediately noticed how strong and soft it was, how warm and… masculine. And he smelled good, like expensive cologne that wasn’t overawing or obnoxious.
We held on to each other’s hand a little longer than what was probably necessary, and when he finally let go, I felt this tingling sensation move through my fingers.
He sat first, and I snapped out of whatever weird haze I was in and took my seat across from him. I had my freshly filled boozed-up shake in front of me and didn’t miss how his gaze dipped down to take note of that.
“I was here a bit before you came, so I figured why not,” I sputtered out and immediately wished I would have kept my mouth shut. He smiled at me, but I didn’t feel like it was condescending.
“Hey, no judgment,” he said in this deep, very masculine voice that had all my girly bits tingling, as if they were shouting out to me to just take him home right now.
God, I was so confused. It was either the alcohol, desperation, or I’d finally lost my damn mind.
The waitress was by our table in the next moment, and I could see how enamored she was by Pope’s presence.
Girl, I feel you.
He shifted slightly so he could remove his tweed jacket. He put it over the back of his chair, his button-up shirt just as crisp as I thought it would be.
“Have you ever eaten here before?” I knew the answer before he even spoke. He didn’t seem like the type to eat at a place like this, not because it was a shithole or anything, but because I envisioned him dining at some five-star, three hundred dollar a meal establishment.
His looks screamed he had money.
Pope leaned back in his chair and looked around before shaking his head a second later. “No, and I’m kicking myself in the ass for not trying this place out sooner. I’m loving the whole retro feel going on.”
Huh, this guy might have money, but I was liking his attitude, which was not stuck up at all.
He ended up ordering a beer, and after we placed our hamburger and french fries order, we were left alone. I’d sucked down half of my second shake by this point, and although I was feeling pretty buzzed, I was trying not to act like I was. I didn’t want him to think I was a lush within the first twenty minutes of us meeting.
There was a moment of this weird, heavy silence as we waited for his beer to arrive, and the entire time, he stared at me, this little smirk on his face as if he knew I was uncomfortable, as if he kind of liked me squirming under his stare. But the reason I was uncomfortable was because I certainly hadn’t expected him to be so damn attractive.
When his beer arrived, he immediately picked it up and took a long drink. The expression on his face when he set it back on the table was one of pleasure, as if he’d been waiting for that moment all day.
I idly wondered if that was the expression he had when he came.
Oh my God. My thoughts were filthy. I blamed the damn alcohol.
“Good I take it?” Why the hell I even said that was beyond me. At this point, I should have just kept my mouth shut.
“You have no idea how good that tasted.” The way he said that made chills move along my body. “I swear my entire week has been one big shit show.”
I felt this wave start to fill me after he said that. “We must be having the same type of week.” I leaned in and took a long drink from my shake, looking at him, him looking at me, a connection bouncing between us.
Before long, I realized I was nearly finished with my shake. The waitress set our food in front of us, but instead of ordering another shake, I went with a beer. I probably shouldn’t have been mixing alcohol, but I didn’t think I could take another orange freeze. The things were like a meal in itself.