she would, although frankly, she had no idea how. Maybe one just looked up handymen under the letter H in the yellow pages.
“Here.” Cassidy almost jumped out of her skin as he handed her a small card. Why was he making her so nervous? Even she could see that it was only a business card. People handed her business cards all the time.
“Uh,” she stammered, suddenly feeling the urgent need to flee and get out from his magnetic proximity. It was either that or kiss him. Where had that thought come from? She would never drink beer again. Ever.
“Take my card,” he said. Then he reached forward and uncurled her fingers. Never had a man violated her personal space like this.
But the rage at his invasion of her space didn’t come. Instead Cassidy felt heat flow through her. Underneath his touch all rational thought evaporated as he closed her fingers around the card. “Call me if you need me.”
Oh, I do, she thought, heat rising into her face. At least the words hadn’t been voiced.
Wait! What was she doing? What was she thinking? Dan. Think of Dan. That’s right. Think of nice, safe Dan who never made her quiver like this. The thought evaporated as Sara walked in the door. Relief filled Cassidy. Finally.
“Look, there’s my friend.” Cassidy jerked her hand away from his, her fingers instantly missing the heat of touching his. She shoved his card in her purse and edged her way off the bar stool. “Thanks for the drink. Enjoy your dinner.” Grabbing her beer, she tottered over to meet Sara.
With a mixture of relief and frustration Blade watched her walk away. Relief filled him because she had been one of those women and he’d actually found himself enjoying the conversation with her. Frustration filled him for just about the exact same reason. She was one of those women, and he’d been enjoying the conversation with her. Would he never learn?
Dee came over and stood for a second as they both watched the two women take a seat at a back booth.
“How was the food?” Dee asked.
“Fine,” Blade replied.
Dee’s expression, as she looked down her nose at him, said it all. “Just fine?”
“You know it was great, like always.” He shoved the empty basket toward her, his concentration still on the woman he’d just been sitting next to.
“Pretty thing,” Dee observed, following his gaze. She could take those liberties. Blade had hired her four years ago when he’d bought the place from the elderly man who owned it. Greg had wanted to retire, and Blade, flush with money, had seen the need to own something that wasn’t just concrete and steel.
“So did you get her phone number?”
“Please, Dee. I don’t even know her name.”
Dee dropped the basket on a tray beneath the bar. “You sure looked like you were getting friendly with her.”
Blade gave a short, bitter laugh. “Please,” he said, denying the attraction he’d felt, that he still felt. “She’s not my type. Heck, she doesn’t even belong here. Can you see her in the back room shooting pool?”
Dee cocked her head and watched as the other waitress, Lisa, took the women’s order. “Maybe not,” Dee replied. “But looks can be deceiving.”
He turned back around so he couldn’t see the women, especially her, anymore. “I’ve never discovered that to be true,” Blade protested, already knowing that whoever she was, she’d gotten under his skin.
At that lie, Dee simply shook her head and walked away.
“SO WHO’S THE GUY?”
Cassidy’s fork hovered over her strip steak. “You mean Dan?”
“No, not him.” Sara said. She pushed a dark hair off of her face. “The guy at the bar who keeps staring at you every few minutes. You were sitting by him when I arrived.”
“I don’t know him,” Cassidy said, spearing her cut piece of meat with such a force that Sara leaned back.
“Well for not knowing him, he sure got under your skin.”
“He did not,” Cassidy said with a vigorous shake of her head. “He’s just a guy sitting at the bar, that’s all. If you’d been on time, I wouldn’t have even been talking to him. You weren’t even your usual fashionably late self.”
“No, but my extremely late self got you next to him,” Sara said. She let her gaze rove over him, and Cassidy found herself bristling. “Man, he’s hot. I’d do him.”
“Sara!”
“What?” Sara looked taken back, as if surprised at the force of Cassidy’s reaction.
“You’re married.”
“Only until the divorce paperwork’s final,” Sara said. “Believe me, I’m allowed to look.”
Cassidy knew that. Never had she been so rattled. It had to be the beer. She stared at the empty bottle in front of her. She’d stopped at three, thank goodness.
Sara turned slightly so she’d have a better view. Cassidy watched as Sara put the end of her pinkie finger in between her teeth and gazed over toward the guy again. “I mean, he’s hot. And you know what they say, that you can tell a guy’s size by the distance between his thumb and pinkie. From the look of his hands…”
“Sara!” Cassidy put her fork down.
Sara’s brow furrowed. “Come on, Cass. Lighten up. You were never this prudish in college.”
“I wasn’t engaged then,” Cassidy said.
“Yeah, well you shouldn’t be engaged now, either.”
“Sara!” Cassidy realized she’d shouted that last one at her former roommate.
“Sorry, Cass. You know me. I call them the way I see them. All your friends are married, and now you’re settling down just because it’s the right thing to do. Believe me, I settled, and look what happened. He cheated on me right from the start.”
“I am not settling,” Cassidy protested. “I love Dan.”
“Dan is dull,” Sara said. “He’s like dishwater. You need it, but you don’t want to keep it.”
“I love Dan.”
“Yeah, as a brother,” Sara said. “I think that you’ve waited so long for Mr. Right you’re settling for Mr. Wrong. Come on, you can’t tell me that you don’t think that guy over there is to die for.”
Cassidy couldn’t get her lips to voice the lie. Instead she found another argument tack. “Yeah, but look where passion got me last time. Jeff the jerk.”
Sara nodded, but didn’t concede. “I’d forgotten about good old J.J. No offense but he was a loser.”
“Yeah, but passionate. He swept me off my feet and burned
