8 Brand-New Romance Authors. Avril Tremayne
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like a refill on my drink, please.” Micah’s snappy tone caused him to turn in her direction. She sat diagonally from him in the booth, for which he was grateful. If she were any closer, he would be coming up with lame excuses to touch her.
Micah gave the blonde waitress a once-over, clearly not liking what she saw. He had to stifle a laugh. The waitress returned with her refill and sent a big pageant grin his way before walking away again.
“Don’t. Even. Think. About. It.” Hanna poked him in the arm, accentuating each word. His four friends exchanged looks with each other.
“What?” He knew all about the impending lecture that he was about to endure, but feigned innocence, anyway.
“You know exactly what we are talking about.” Jamie leaned back in the booth, both arms up and clasped behind his head. “You do it every time.”
“Do what?” He couldn’t stop the smile that broke out on his face.
“Lose the innocent act.” Hanna jabbed an accusing finger in his direction.
“You know full well what you are guilty of, Joshua Taylor. We like this place and we won’t let you ruin another one for us.” They easily saw through Sabina. She didn’t care about the place. She just hated when the attention wasn’t focused on her. She preferred being the center of attention, and he loved messing with that. It had always been a source of contention between them, but neither of them would ever fess up to it.
“I do not ruin it for you.” He took another long draw from his beer.
“Yes, you do!” Sabina sat forward in her seat.
“We like this place,” Hanna pointed out.
“Well, other than that waitress.” Josh’s attention was immediately focused on Micah the moment the words slipped from her mouth. She’s jealous. He could sense her irritation and had to bite back the grin that revealed way too much concerning just how that made him feel.
“You know...” Hanna said, bringing Josh back into the conversation. “If you go out with that waitress, it won’t last. But her job here will and then we’ll be forced to cross this place off our list, too.”
He shook his head at the nonsense his four friends were spouting. They were too much.
“First of all, I’m not going to ask her out. And secondly, you guys act like this is a common occurrence. It’s only happened a couple of times.”
“A couple of times? Why are you suddenly being so modest?”
No one had ever accused him of being modest.
His friends all laughed in unison. So there was some truth to it. So what? He couldn’t help the fact that wherever they went, bartenders, waitresses, hostesses would hit on him. On occasion he asked them out. What was the harm in that? He couldn’t be blamed if they all turned out a little crazy.
“She’s not even that cute.” Jamie leaned back in his seat.
“Yeah, she’s not worth it, Josh.” Sabina said. “Fight the temptation and just say no.”
“C’mon. Drop it already. I’m trying to watch a game here. I won’t be asking her out. Rest assured. Your pub is safe.”
“Yay! Thanks, Josh!”
They all laughed again.
* * *
After the game, Micah mentally kicked herself for leaving her stuff at Josh’s apartment, including her car. When everyone else left from the pub, she was forced to head back to Josh’s place. Alone. With him.
The tension in the air was palpable.
Well, to her it was. He was acting completely normal as he threw his keys on the counter and went in search of a trash bag from the kitchen.
Chips dropped by a three-year-old—and Jamie—still littered the floor near the couches. Half-empty drinks covered the coffee table. They had left in a hurry and hadn’t bothered to clean any of it up.
She might as well help while she was here. It wouldn’t be nice to just leave it for him to do alone. She sat her bag back down and grabbed a couple of empty cups and reached for the trash bag.
“You don’t have to do this, Mike.”
Why didn’t it ever bother her when he called her that? She had snapped at Jamie for it earlier, and was constantly on Sabina’s case about it, but every time the name slipped from his lips it sounded more like an endearment than a tease.
“I know, but let me.”
“Fine. I’m not about to argue with you.” In one swipe of his arm, he cleared everything off the coffee table and into the trash bag. “So we didn’t get much of a chance to talk today.”
That’s because I’ve been avoiding you.
“How have you been? Has it been getting any easier?”
He meant the Drew issue, but she was more concerned with the issue at hand. Which had more to do with her fingers dying to trace the lines of the tattoo on his forearm. Focus.
“Yeah. It’s been getting better. I have a plan in place and should have this whole thing settled in no time.”
He stopped what he was doing, rising to his full six feet. His broad shoulders dominated the space, making him impossible to ignore. His dark eyebrow arched and the side of his mouth lifted in a half smile, the very same smile that left a good third of the women in Boston weak in the knees. Man, she was going to have to add her name to that list! “A plan?”
“Yes. I have it all worked out.”
“Do you really think that’s the best way to approach this?”
“Why not?” She shrugged her shoulders and got back to work.
“How does a plan help you control the dreams?”
She snapped to attention. “How do you know about the dreams?” She hadn’t told him anything about them.
“Sabina.”
A noise closely resembling a growl escaped from her before she could stop it. Sabina needed to mind her own business. Thank God she hadn’t spilled everything about the dreams. How mortifying would that have been?
“She’s worried about you, Mike.”
“I really wish everyone would stop worrying about me. And talking about me. Mind your own business.”
She carried the empty trays to the kitchen, and as she passed Josh, he jumped out of the way. Normally she wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But since the other night, she’d found herself analyzing every move, every look, everything. And that quick leap to avoid touching her as she passed didn’t need much dissecting. It wasn’t a good sign. Not a good sign at all.
The slight drop in her shoulders couldn’t be helped. Giving herself a mental shake, she made quick work of cleaning the serving trays.
* * *
He was scared to death. Like sweaty-palms, ragged-breaths and pounding-heart scared. Being alone with Micah left him terrified that he would once again do something to royally screw up their friendship. Things had taken a nosedive since the night he’d lost control and had her pinned underneath him on his bed.
She wasn’t the same. The phone calls and text messages were decreasing and the space between them increasing. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
And the way she kept looking at him—it was really throwing him for a loop. He was aware of the effect he had on women. He could see the signals long before they were even aware they were sending them. Micah had that look in her eye and he couldn’t do a thing about it.
First, she was Drew’s girl. Second, regardless of whatever plan she had in place, she was still in love with the guy and far from