hand stayed on her hip. “Me, too.” He waited one heartbeat, then two, giving her a chance to invite him in.
She couldn’t do it. Not tonight, with the thought of Jamie so close at hand. There was no doubt how it would turn out. She’d be thinking the whole time, comparing him to Jamie, comparing herself to who she’d been that night six months ago.
She had to find that again, but it wasn’t going to happen tonight. Not with Davis. “Thanks,” she said again.
His hand finally slid away and Davis stepped back, looking only slightly disappointed. “I’ll call you. Maybe we’ll dare more next time. Dinner?”
“Maybe,” she said coyly, offering a quick kiss on his cheek before she escaped into her apartment.
Beth set her purse on the table, then hung up her coat in the hall closet. Her apartment was so quiet and so palpably solitary, that she was already regretting sending Davis away as she walked to the kitchen to pour a glass of wine. She’d lied to him about that. One glass of beer hadn’t been enough. She should have had three, and then maybe she would have been brave enough to let him in. She could’ve tried to lose herself. It wasn’t impossible.
It was in her somewhere, and it couldn’t just be about one man. Beth wouldn’t let it be.
BY THE NEXT DAY, BETH WAS thoroughly pissed at herself. One minute with him, one glimpse, one touch, and she couldn’t get the man out of her mind. And the worst part was, it was becoming more and more obvious to her that he’d been desperate to get her out of there. First, he’d edged her farther down the hall, then he’d jumped at the chance to say goodbye as quickly as possible.
He was in a relationship. Which was fine. But what if he was married? What if he’d been married then?
Her heart thumped so hard at the thought that she had to press her palm to her chest. That would explain everything, wouldn’t it?
She tried to put it from her mind as she walked into the shop and waved to Cairo. She tried not to think about it as she unboxed the newest toys and put them on display. But as she unboxed the high-tech vibrator and showed Cairo how it plugged into an MP3 player to thump in time to one’s favorite music, Beth couldn’t stop the thoughts swarming through her head.
“Cairo?”
Cairo was busy scrolling through songs on her phone, trying to find something with just the right beat. “Yeah?”
“I was at Donovan Brothers last night and—”
“Oh!” Cairo looked up with a big smile on her face. “I forgot to ask how your date went.”
“My date?”
“With Davis!”
“Oh. Great!” Beth nodded with too much enthusiasm. “Yeah, it was wonderful!”
Cairo’s brown eyes lit up. “Wonderful? Oh, yeah? Do I detect a little dirty morning-after tone to those words?”
“You do not. But Davis was really nice.”
“And hot, right?” Cairo pressed, smiling as if Beth was hiding something. “How’d you like that dragon tattoo on his stomach?”
Beth raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t see his stomach, Cairo.”
The girl laughed, her glossy black bob swinging forward to frame her pretty face. “I know. I already talked to him this morning.”
“He called you?”
“No, I saw him at yoga. Which is how I know about the dragon tattoo, and why I fixed you two up in the first place. If I didn’t have two men already, I’d hit that so hard he’d never recover.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “It was a nice date. Though I’m not sure about a man who’d tell you whether he spent the night or not.”
“He didn’t say anything about that, but I figured a guy wouldn’t need to show up for an 8:00 a.m. yoga class if he’d spent the night in your bed. Good sex is way more relaxing.”
Well, that would be an interesting test of Beth’s abilities. Let Davis spend the night, then see if he went to yoga the next day.
“By the way…” Cairo said with a familiar twinkle in her eye. “You really, really want to see that tattoo. It’s done by the best artist in Colorado. And it follows the muscles in his abdomen all the way past his waistband. His very low waistband. I’m pretty sure he waxes. Everything.”
Beth must have winced.
“What?” Cairo said. “Don’t tell me you’ve never been with a man who’s waxed?”
She tried to keep her face neutral. She really, really did. But she obviously couldn’t hide her horror.
“Oh, Beth!” Cairo gushed. “I swear, it’s the best. All that smooth flesh. Nothing between your mouth and his skin…. And with a guy like Davis, you want to get as close as possible, don’t you?”
“I…I…” She couldn’t imagine the process. Did he have to put his feet in stirrups for the waxer? “I’m sure it’s lovely.”
“Well, maybe you’ll find out for yourself.”
“So…” Beth tried to set the image away and couldn’t. “Harrison and Rex are waxed?” She’d met both of Cairo’s boyfriends on many occasions.
“Oh, Harrison has always kept it nice and smooth. Rex wasn’t interested, but he got jealous of all the attention I was giving Harrison, so, yeah…” Cairo’s smile seemed to stretch all the way from one ear to the other. “Now they’re both clean as a whistle.”
Oh, God. She shouldn’t have asked. She was going to faint from all the blushing she would do the next time Harrison or Rex came into the store. But that wasn’t the correct reaction for a sophisticated professional in this business, so Beth tried her best not to cover her face in embarrassment. “You’re a lucky woman,” she said instead. “And if I had a dollar for every time I said those words to you…”
“We’ll talk about it later, if you keep seeing Davis.” She hit Play on the phone and they both looked down at the pulsing head of the vibrator. LED lights blinked and twinkled. Cairo bumped her shoulder into Beth’s. “Are you going to keep seeing Davis?”
“We’ll see.” She stared at the dancing lights and tried not to picture Davis without body hair.
“You’re off at seven, right?” Cairo asked. “If you want to leave now, I’ll cover for you. Maybe you should give him a call.” Cairo was Beth’s best employee, always friendly, cheerful and just as busy as Beth. In fact, Beth had just made her assistant manager. “I’m good, but thanks.”
“So, what were you going to say about Donovan Brothers?”
“What?” Beth asked a little too loudly.
