“I came up here to see if I had any food.” He might as well go with his cousin now that he knew Adriana wasn’t going to be talking to him.
“You never have food up here. What’s wrong with you?”
He wondered if he should say something to Sam. “Nothing.”
“Doesn’t look it to me. Still smarting over striking out with the cute nurse?” Sam asked.
“I didn’t strike out,” he argued, then wished he didn’t when Sam laughed.
“Oh, that’s right. You didn’t really ask her out on a date. You just wanted to show her around.”
“And I did this weekend. Well, we went hiking and then played racquetball.”
“Really? Okay, guess I was wrong then,” Sam admitted when they were walking out of the offices.
“About what?”
“You don’t do activities with women like that normally. So either you aren’t attracted to her or you just were doing your mother a favor.”
“I was doing my mother a favor,” he said, then lowered his voice. “But I’d be blind and stupid to not be attracted to her.”
Sam laughed this time. “So you are trying to win her over with outdoor activities. Couldn’t have been Saturday. We flew back and it was pouring. What a nasty landing that was.”
“Oh, we were hiking in it Saturday. It wasn’t fun. I take that back. She didn’t get all pissy about being wet. We kind of laughed over it.”
“Oh my God. Is it possible that you’re interested in someone that isn’t superficial?”
He did tend to go toward women like that. Not on purpose as much as those were the ones he attracted. Figured the one he really wanted to get to know better didn’t want much to do with him other than a partner in some hobbies.
“Ass,” he said back.
“You’ll have to keep me posted on how this works out for you,” Sam said, smirking.
“Or not,” he said back, knowing that anything could happen on their phone call tonight. “Just friends in her eyes.”
“But not in yours and that is what makes this fun.”
15
Always Talk
At six thirty, Adriana finally worked it out in her head what she was going to say to Wyatt. She sent him a text first to see if he was home and could talk. No use calling and going to voicemail. She hated leaving messages.
He replied back rather fast, so she called.
“So what did I do?” he asked right away.
She laughed. “Nothing.”
“Your text sounded serious. Normally when someone says they need to talk there is a lecture or a fight on the horizon.”
She thought back to the times she’d told that to men in the past and realized he was right. “Do women say that to you often?”
“No. My mother more than anyone. Usually it’s telling me I’ve gone too far with a joke or prank and am going to piss someone off or have regrets.”
“I bet you’re the one that does the ‘we’ve got to talk’ speech.” Men like him were heartbreakers, she knew. Women probably wouldn’t put up with his crap just like he said his mother lectured him.
“Not really. I’ve done it a time or two, but normally when I’m dating someone they know right away it’s just for fun. It’s not that I haven’t had any relationships over the years but nothing I’d call forever after material.”
“That’s kind of sad.”
“So, how many times have you said it to men? You moved here because of a man, right?”
There was no use denying it. “Yes. Bad breakup, you know that. And I’ve said it to a few men, but that didn’t normally mean it led to a breakup.”
“Except this last time?” he asked.
“Oh, there wasn’t a lot of talking going on with that one. A lot of emotion and yelling though,” she said. No reason to say more. She didn’t even want to say as much as she had, but her guard cracked enough that it slipped out without her knowing.
“So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked.
She was happy he wasn’t pushing it with her. She’d give him points for that. “You were right.”
“Really? Every man wants to hear that. What was I right about?”
Cocky, there was no doubt, but she could tell he was joking too. “Are you always trying to make people laugh?”
“I’m the prankster of the family so that would be a yes.”
“Interesting. What things did you do?”
“You’re getting off track. I want to know what I was right about first. I’m not often told that by people.”
“Sorry. Guess there were some people or one person, not sure, that saw me leave your office twice.”
“I told you.”
“You did.”
“What happened? What did someone say to you?” he asked.
“Not much. I was stopped today when I was walking the grounds on my lunch break. She said she’d heard rumors and wanted to know if it was true that I shot you down and then was in your office twice.”
“Well, those are facts, not rumors.”
“Don’t be cute,” she said back.
“I can’t help it. My mother tells me I’m cute all the time. If you can’t believe your mother who can you believe?”
She snorted. “I don’t have that kind of relationship with my mother. But that is neither here nor there. I told her that we had a family connection. That you asked to show me around and I’d said no. You didn’t ask me on a date. I felt I was rude and went to your office to apologize.”
“Close enough,” he said.
“What’s not close?” she asked, glad he couldn’t see her frown.
“You had your nose out of joint. You thought I was hitting on you and you wanted to give me hell. It wasn’t until I explained it to you that you apologized. So you didn’t come to my office to apologize. You came to beat me over the head with a lecture.”
“I tend to have a temper. And you’re right
