church. As if he was going to discuss their sex antics in front of his mother. Stupid bitch.
“I was at the Bait and Tackle fixing the toilets.” He shoved his fingers through his tangled hair. It wasn’t a lie. He’d spent hours choking on sewer gas before he’d managed to unplug the clogged lines. “That damned place is sucking the life from me.”
She unzipped her coat and shrugged out of it. No doubt to show off the cashmere sweater that hugged the luscious swell of her breasts. With a casual motion she threw it on the threadbare chair that was piled with empty pizza boxes. The entire place was a pigsty, but he didn’t have the energy to clean it, or the interest. Maybe it was time to invite his mom in for dinner. She’d take one look around and start scrubbing.
Chelsea studied him in confusion. “I thought you loved the bar?”
“I love being a bar owner.” His lips twisted. “I hate owning a bar.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
He snorted. His fleeting attraction to this woman had nothing to do with her brains. A good thing, since she didn’t have any. “Not many things make sense to you.”
She stuck out her bottom lip in a childish pout. “There’s no need to be mean.”
“This is how I am at nine o’clock on a Monday morning.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist. As if protecting herself from a coming blow. “We need to talk.”
Nash groaned. The only thing worse than being hauled out of his bed when he was nursing a hangover was being harassed by a jilted lover. “Why?”
“Because I have a right to know if you seduced me just to get your hand on those drugs.”
“Seduced you?” He laughed. “You’ve been trying to get into my pants since I started dating Lynne. If anyone was seduced, it was me.”
An ugly flush stained her cheeks. There was no way she could deny the accusation. She might be younger than Nash, but she’d been aggressive in her attempts to capture his attention.
“That didn’t answer the question,” she instead accused.
“You don’t want me to answer it.”
Her flush darkened. “You used me.”
“Bull. It was a mutual exchange.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you kidding?”
Nash’s head throbbed and his gut was queasy. He’d gone past the age when he could drink all he wanted without repercussions. The knowledge only intensified his anger at having to deal with the ridiculous woman. “You were panting to get a good, hard banging and I needed some extra cash,” he told her in harsh tones. “Win-win.”
He heard the breath hissing between her lips. As if she’d taken a physical blow. “Everyone said you were a pig. I heard them warning Dr. Gale that you weren’t good enough for her, but I didn’t believe them. I thought . . .”
“What?” he demanded as her words trailed away. “That I was a bad boy with a heart of gold?”
“Yeah, something like that.” She sniffed, jerkily wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I’m an idiot.”
Against his will, Nash’s heart twisted with regret. What was happening to him? He’d always been arrogant. And selfish. But he’d also been fun-loving, charming, and the life of the party. Now he felt old and bitter. As if he’d squandered his life despite the fact he was still in his early thirties. “Crap. I’m sorry, Chelsea. I didn’t intend to be a jerk,” he muttered. Then he sighed. “I didn’t intend a lot of things.”
“What things?”
He waved an impatient hand to indicate the shadowed room. “I’m not one of those freaks who worries about being ‘in touch’ with my feelings, but it doesn’t take a genius to know my life didn’t turn out like I expected,” he said in sour tones.
“What did you expect?”
“I was going to play Division One football. Maybe even go pro.”
She furrowed her brow. “You went to college, didn’t you?”
Nash shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. It was hard to remember the eager young man who’d packed his bags and headed off to become rich and famous. “For a semester. Then I got caught cheating on a test and they cut me from the team.” He’d been shocked when the coach had called him in to clean out his locker. No one had cared in high school when he cheated. It’d been bogus to be cut because of one stupid test. Still, he’d known his college days were over. If he wasn’t playing football, there was no point in