Pietro pulls two menus from the shelf. “Wyatt, one just opened up. Why don’t you take it?”
As Diana’s mediocre date passes me, I raise my voice. “Sure, I’m starving. Let’s eat.”
Nate chuckles and follows me as Diana makes a shocked sound.
The restaurant is funky memorabilia, old license plates, motorcycle hanging from the ceiling — A real one, not plastic. There’s a shark whose origin I’m not so sure about. Never thought to ask if it was authentic.
Nathan and I sit at one of the wood tables that haven’t been replaced since we were born. The tops are carved into by people who desired a degree of infamy in perpetuity. The napkins are paper. Condiments are in a tray, choices almost endless. Don’t have what you want here they have it in the back.
All I know is that there is a mushroom burger with my name on it. And a woman over there who will call out my name.
Misty walks by.
“Hey, can you put that couple somewhere near us?”
She follows my point. “The one you were just talking to? Sure, I can try. No guarantees.”
“Thanks. Do your best.”
“Tell Zoe I’m still madly in love with her.”
Nathan watches Misty sachet away, all curves and unavailability. “Hot.”
“I don’t want to think about it with my sister, when she says stuff like that.”
“Our sister. And I didn’t mean her and Zoe. I meant just her. Bummer she’s not into guys.”
“I’m older than you. Everything is mine first.”
“Who decides?”
“Not you,” I smirk to the menu despite having it memorized. “Oh hell yes. I forgot they have plantains. Here I thought it was useless looking at this thing. Happy day.” I lay it down, gaze drifting back to Diana. Our eyes lock and she looks away quickly, mid sentence.
She was watching me.
First.
Nice.
Nathan closes his menu and leans back in the wooden chair, pulling out his lighter and flicking it while he surveys our surroundings. “So your girl was flirting with you back there. I don't think her date has her interest. But you have.”
“I noticed that.” Misty is walking over to get them and I glance over to discover a busboy clearing the table to our diagonal left.
“Wy, I needed this.”
My gaze switches to him. “Rough day?”
“I didn’t have the fun you apparently had.” Our waiter walks up. “Hey Ronnie, can I get a Sweetwater, and just a regular cheeseburger?”
She smiles, “Creature of habit, Nate.”
His gaze has weight as he answers, “Rituals ground me.”
“And you Wyatt?” She doesn’t need a pad of paper, because Ronnie has been here for six years. She’s got two kids at home and likes the flexible shifts, the quick money, and not having to ever look at her watch as time quickly ticks. I know this because we had a brief fling a few months back. She confided in me all the reasons why working in a restaurant meets her needs perfectly. I understood, since our parents owned two. They sold the final one when Nate went to college. Now they travel and do whatever the hell they want to do. They earned it.
“Hey Ronnie, looking good.”
“You too, Wy,” she smiles.
“I’ll have a mushroom burger, double fries. Give me a shake and a beer. Your pick on both. But make sure they come together, will ya? Bottle, not draft.”
“And before your meal,” she winks since she knows this is my normal M.O, and heads off saying, “I got you.”
Nate waits until the crowd devours her before asking, “You think Ronnie is going to mind your flirting with Diana while she’s on a date with some dude?” He relaxes back more like I’m the best show in town, legs spread, real comfortable.
I match his posture and kick his boot. “Ronnie is banging one of the cooks. So no.”
“You’re underestimating Ronnie. The girl is fierce.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. Or what I’m entertained by. Time will tell which wins.”
Chapter 18
Diana
Our server is very sexy, covered in tattoos, eyeliner Cleopatra-Inspired, and there are more rings on her fingers than I own. “What can I get for you two?”
Eddie says with confidence, “She’ll have the mushroom burger. Crispy French fries. Not burnt, crispy.”
I smile and flick a self-conscious glance to Wyatt because he is staring at me. At us.
My ex is oblivious as he motions to the bar. “Do you have Don Julio?”
“Pretty sure we didn’t run out since last night, but I’ll let you know,” she nods, her eyes in the past and future at the same time.
He notices. “Was it busy?”
“New play opened so we were slammed. It was insane. A fight even broke out because there were no tables. Why can’t people control their tempers?” She pushes a ring into place on her forefinger, twisting it with her thumb until the head of a lion is centered. “I don’t remember if it was a tequila crowd. That doesn’t stick out so you’re probably good. Rocks or frozen?”
He and I both say, “Frozen,” at the same time, but my smile is smaller than his.
Is Wyatt is still watching us?
He is.
But being cool about it.
I never found out who he was with. Has to be a relative. Brother? A cousin, maybe?
“And I want a jalapeño burger, medium rare. And you know what? Throw some fried onions on it. I’ll have an Orpheus.”
“Draft or bottle?”
“Draft.”
Wyatt got a bottle and is sucking it right now. Don’t know why that’s so sexy, but it is.
Our server points a purple nail at their table and asks me, “Do you know the Cocker Brothers?”
So that’s his brother. My eyelashes flutter to her. “Not really.”
“Because you keep looking over.”
Why does she have to call it out right in front of my date? Rude. “I wasn’t looking over.”
She cocks her head. “I’ll get your drinks.”
Eddie is curious now, but Wyatt and his brother aren’t looking over anymore. Without the need to hide his curiosity he keeps staring at them and frowns, “Cocker Brothers? Like related to the quarterback? Huh. I guess I can see it.” Turning back to me he asks, “Do you know them?”
“No. Don’t you? Haven’t you met any of them at golf?”
He laughs, “Top Golf, maybe.”
That’s a nightclub bar where you can hit balls into the ozone layer and somebody else picks them up for you. It’s got a four-hour wait on the weekends.
I hate snobbery.
It’s so unattractive.
“Why would you say that, Eddie?”
He moves the menus over because, for some reason, she didn’t take them with her. “It’s a gentlemen’s sport. I can’t picture those meat-heads playing anything but beer pong,” he snorts.
“You just said they’re related to one of the best quarterbacks we’ve ever had.”
Eddie shrugs the entire subject off. “Proving my point.”
I’m really irritated now. It’s been stewing since he picked me up. No, before that. This aggravation about Eddie’s snobby belief system used to bother me back when we were together. “Are you saying that quarterbacks can’t be gentlemen?”
“Diana,” he begins as if he’s talking down to a child who couldn’t possibly understand. “Football players are jocks. How many of them are smoking a pipe with the city’s elite after a game?”
“Smoking a pipe doesn’t make you a gentleman. It just makes you a smoker.”
He squints, anger finally rearing up. “If you’re going to compare golf to football, I hate to tell you but this conversation isn’t going to end well.”
I sit back in my chair as our server returns with our drinks. She sees the tension, notes it, and places his frosty mug down before I’m given my margarita. He doesn’t notice that it’s usually customary to serve the woman f
irst. And I’m not a stickler except for this instinctive feeling I can’t shake that she purposefully slighted me.
Maybe I’m being too sensitive because of our argument. That could be it.
I wait for my drink, and frown as some splashes over the salted rim and onto my lap. Our eyes lock and hers are filled with a challenge.
I slowly say, “Um…thanks?” Why is she staring at me. “We’re in the middle of an argument and Eddie won’t argue in front of you, so if you could just…”
Her eyebrow arches and I’m not sure if she’s going to leave. But she does. Eddie glances behind him to see if she’s gone. “Why did you have to tell her that?”
“I’m irritated. Don’t talk to me like I’m five. I am not beneath you.” I point to the brothers. “They are not beneath you. They are not playing beer pong! One of them is a police officer who probably sees terrible things every single day just so you can walk the streets and feel safe at night! And they are related to our Senator, and one of our former Senators, and probably a million politicians before that who probably played golf and smoked pipes with presidents! So why don’t you take that draft beer and put your pipe in that?! Or do they not have martinis here??!”
The restaurant has gone silent. Not just around us, but the entire restaurant.
I may have been yelling.
Yes, apparently I was.
Not the shrill kind, more the I-remember-why-we-broke-up kind of shouting without any self-awareness what-so-ever.
Eddie’s jaw could cut glass.
I glance around the place, see varying shades of interest, curiosity, amusement, and thirst for more drama. I don’t want to look at Wyatt. But I have to sneak a peek. His eyebrows are pushed together but there’s laughter in his eyes.
I can’t look at his brother.
Their server is my server, our server, and she is holding their plates. At first I think one is mine because I recognize the mushroom burger. But the other isn’t what Eddie ordered.
She walks them to Wyatt, and her tattoos turn upside down as the plates flip over, dropping all of their contents onto his head and spread all the way down to his lap. He closes his eyes, handsome face covered in dark-brown mushroom sauce, french fries, lettuce, tomatoes, the works. Burger patties, one on his lap, the other flopping onto hit boot.
His brother starts laughing.
The server growls, “You didn’t fuck her, Wyatt?! Want to try again? Huh?!”
Everybody is staring.
Including Eddie.
Including me.
Wyatt licks his lips. “You guys have the best sauce. Can I get another helping?”
She turns on her heel, “Sure, I’ll be right back.” Her voice was eerily calm so the brothers rise up, take money out of their wallets and throw cash onto the table for her trouble. Although, I think it’s really their trouble, isn’t it?
I twist in my seat as they leave. Wyatt grabbed a napkin as he got up from the table, now wiping his face as he laughs. He gives me a wink, and vanishes.
I face forward, mind racing to put together everything that just happened and what Eddie must be thinking right now. He stands so quickly the chair topples over. I react, jumping a little in my skin. “Eddie, I…”
“Is that why you called me? You hooked up with that guy and then he left, so you’re coming back to me, someone stable, someone safe? Why’d you suggest this place, Diana? Did you know he’d be here? Is this his usual hangout on Thursdays?”
“No! That’s not—”
He storms out of the restaurant, leaving me sitting here, overwhelmed, disturbed even, until it suddenly occurs to me that he didn’t pay the bill. Fire races up my spine, pulling me from my chair and money from my wallet. I throw it on the table and chase after him, my limp pronounced. “You having a good time?” I ask the looky-loos.
A few comedians start clapping, and instantly everybody joins in.
Astonishment turns me around. I see our server coming out of the kitchen so I shout, because what do I have to lose, “I didn’t sleep with him. I just met him today!”
“Then I just saved you.” Motioning from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet with one quick dismissal she adds, “You’re not as strong as I am. You would fall.”
With a sardonic laugh I demand, “And you didn’t? Mop? Somebody have a mop?”
You’re not the only one who can arch an eyebrow, lady. Watch me go.
Chapter 19
Wyatt
“Your face was priceless,” Nate laughs as we cross to my Jeep.
Pulling wet food from my hair, I chuckle, “Happy you were right? Worst part? I’m hungry.”
“Think all the delivery girls in town have a grudge against you, too?”
“Let’s make sure whoever we call sends a guy, just in case.”
“Wy, look who’s coming out of the Vortex.”
I look over my shoulder, expecting a tomato thrown at my head — a whole one, that isn’t ripe. But it’s Diana’s date.
And she isn’t with him.
Nate and I come to stand side-by-side as we watch khaki pants fuming. He flips around, presumably to go back to her, but then changes his mind and spins one more time.
A few seconds later Diana appears. “Eddie!” He doesn’t turn. She shouts again, really throwing her back into it. He snarls, spins, and they meet in the middle, people leaving the sidewalk to avoid their argument.
Nate says, “This can’t be a first date.”
“It felt like one.” I glance over and he nods agreement. There was nothing about the couple that evoked familiarity.
I appreciate that she doesn’t lower her voice because I want to hear every word she’s saying right now.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that! Especially in front of a crowd. And you call yourself a gentleman? You didn’t even leave money for the tab!”
He gets in her face, “You get to pay for your own dinner if you’re going to use me!”
I’m out in the road so fast I nearly get hit by a car, which would be the second accident in my life today. “Hey! Back off. Don’t get so close to her!”
Nate is right behind me. He shouts to the car, “We’re walking here! Don’t you see the pedestrians?”
“I see jaywalkers! Fifty points!”
I flip the guy off and keep on my path.
Eddie, because that’s what she called him, isn’t happy, but I gave him pause and he did back off. “Your boyfriend is coming to save you. With his knuckles on the ground.”
I start to bring my knuckles to his face, but Diana screams like something out of a horror film. I think my ears are bleeding. So are everyone’s within a four block radius.
“Wyatt, he doesn’t understand. He can’t understand. So just don’t…” She squeezes her eyes shut while her hands flail about like she can’t get a hold on the emotions slamming through her body.
Eddie is pissed, but not the type to get into a fight easily. Despite his mouth. I bet a lot of guys want to punch that. I heard everything Diana said inside The Vortex. Everyone did. And if that’s what this vanilla motherfucker thinks about me and my brother based on our looks, then he is one judgmental jackoff.
“Like I just told that waitress, I just met Wyatt today. He is not our problem. You never understood me or saw me at all! And if I have to be honest, that’s not your fault. We just weren’t made for each other and who can blame you or me, for that? Nobody. What is my fault is that I listened to someone’s advice…” Diana glances to me, troubled eyes flickering like she doesn’t remember what she was going to say or doesn’t want to say it. Maybe it was too personal. “I should’ve listened to myself. Because I knew last year. Which is why we broke up in the first place.”
Eddie is frowning, his anger diminished. “You just met this guy today?”
“Yes!”
He glances to me, wary, but apology fills his eyes as he turns to her. “I’m sorry for what I said in there.” He rubs his eyebrows, gathering his mental faculti
es now that his blood has stopped racing. “I was really looking forward to tonight, Diana. I thought maybe we had something. This whole year that we’ve been apart I was holding onto you. But you’re right. We’re not it. It’s good you called me. I can finally let this go.” He scrapes a glare over me and my brother, wishing we didn’t hear his vulnerable moment if that’s what you can call it. “Bye-bye Diana,” he mutters, turning on his heel and leaving us watching him.
I step closer to Diana to make room for my brother. Under my breath, I ask, “Bye-bye? Did he just say bye-bye?”
“We should bring that back. From our pre-tweens. I’m Nathan by the way. Very nice to meet you. I was telling Wyatt that I needed some entertainment tonight and you more than delivered.”
She smiles and quickly shakes his hand, pretty eyes confused and carrying the weight of everything that just went down. “Your choice of entertainment is not mine.”
He heads for my Jeep, leaving us alone.
Diana is staring at me as I touch her chin, look at her lips and lean in.
“What are you doing?” She whispers.
“This.” I give her a kiss that I wasn’t planning, and she certainly wasn’t expecting. She responds, yielding to me, and tasting like heaven.
She pulls back, glancing to see if her ex witnessed that, and returning to search my eyes. “What if he saw you?”
“I don’t care.”
“Why did you do that?”
“You defended my family. Thank you.”
A blush darkens her skin. “You…probably need to shower.”
“This is how I like to go out. Am I alone? Maybe I can start a trend.”
Nathan calls over. “I’m starving. Let’s all go eat. We can leave my car here.”
Turning to Diana I ask, “You want to come with us? You didn’t get a chance to eat, either. We’ll stop at my place so I can shower. You’re welcome to join.”
Her eyelashes flutter as she frowns. “In the shower?”
Cocky Cop: Cocker Brothers - Book 23 Page 9