Page 55 of Whispers and Wildfire
“Make a statement. Prove you want her more.”
I hesitated. “You’re speaking from experience, aren’t you?”
“There was a time when you tried to take my girl.”
“Come on, man, she wasn’t your girl then.”
He tipped his head. “Fair enough. She wasn’t. And I should probably thank you. Because as soon as I found out you made a move on her, I made a bigger one.”
Laughing softly, I shook my head. He was right. Before he and his wife Fiona had gotten together, I had made a move on her. Her rejection had stung at the time, but she’d hurt my ego more than my feelings. She was great—especially for Evan—but my attraction to her had been mostly superficial.
However, this wasn’t about Fiona. This was about Melanie. And Evan had the wrong idea.
“That might be good advice if I wanted her, but I don’t, so I don’t have anything to prove.”
“You just don’t want him to have her?”
My eyes flicked to them again. “No. That would make me a dick.”
“Yeah, kinda.”
They were too far away for me to hear what they were saying, but Melanie laughed. I rolled my eyes.
“What does she want with a guy like that, anyway? He’s all wrong for her.”
Evan smirked. “Oh yeah?”
“Look at him.” My eyes flicked toward their table. “Clean shave. Probably ironed that shirt. I bet he has soft hands.”
Evan nodded, but I had a feeling he was just humoring me. And what was I talking about, anyway? I didn’t want to be with her. She drove me crazy. So why did I care that she was out with some guy?
Some guy who was obviously wrong for her.
That was the problem. This wasn’t about me. It was about her. She’d just been through a divorce. For all I knew, the jackass she’d been married to was a guy like that—who shaved every day and ironed his shirts and wouldn’t know the difference between a torque wrench and a socket set.
“It’s not that I want her,” I said.
“No?”
I shook my head, confidence in my explanation growing. “She just got divorced, and I don’t want to see her get hurt again by the same kind of asshole who hurt her before. That’s all.”
“That’s very gentlemanly of you.”
“Quit with the sarcasm, you dick.”
“I’m serious.”
“Yeah, you’re not. Why am I even talking to you? If I want someone to give me crap, I’ll call Theo.”
Evan shrugged. “Fine. You don’t want your ex-girlfriend back. You’re only plotting the guy’s murder in your head because you don’t want her to get hurt again.”
“Exactly.”
From the corner of my eye, I glanced at Melanie and her date. Did she like him? Was she having a good time? I wondered if it was their first date and what he had planned after they had their milkshakes.
He didn’t think he was going home with her, did he?
“You’re glaring,” Evan said.
