sat and made small talk. After a few minutes of conversation ranging from “who’s the next Ranger on the trading bloc?” to “how about those Devils?” Jack became a bit more candid.
“I have to be honest with you.”
Uh-oh. I hate honesty on the second date. I took a sip of my perfectly prepared martini and braced for the worst. I knew it. He was the Chewbacca costume brother.
“Kevin told me that you wouldn’t go out with me again unless I just dropped in. I normally wouldn’t do that…but…” He stopped, looking at me sheepishly.
So he did know more than he had let on. “It’s fine, Jack. I’m happy to see you.” And that was the truth. I just knew in my heart that what we had couldn’t go any further with the relationship despite my single status, his good looks, and my burgeoning attraction to him. However, if I let my hormones do the talking, all of that was bull crap and I would be making out with him by dessert. A little making out wouldn’t be so bad, right?
Jack opened his menu. “What’s good here?” He perused the offerings.
“The Crawford appetizer is wonderful.”
He looked up from his menu. “The what?”
Damn. Damn, damn, double damn. I looked down at the menu. “The crawfish. The crawfish appetizer. It’s great. Pretty much everything is great.” I studied the list and gave some thought to the stuffed flounder.
“I presume you’ll be having the rabbit?” he asked, a smile on his lips. He continued looking at the menu.
“Now, why would you say that?”
“I know a thing or two about French Canadians. And if I know one thing, they love their roadkill.”
I raised an eyebrow. “They do, do they?”
“Oh, yeah. The roadkillier the better.”
“‘Killier’ isn’t a word.”
“Oh, yes it is. See Ulysses, page four hundred and three.”
“I’ve read Ulysses several times and I don’t remember the word ‘killier’ being in there.”
“You’ve memorized the whole book?” he asked, daring me.
I shook my head. “Of course not. But I would have remembered a word like that. It’s not in there.”
He put his menu down. “Wanna bet?” He held out a pinkie. “Loser has to take the winner to dinner.”
From his perspective, that was a win-win, but I didn’t mention that. “You’re on.” I linked pinkies with him and pulled lightly.
He took a sip of his drink. “Messier and I used to eat at some pretty wild places when we traveled.”
I dropped my menu. “Mark Messier?”
He nodded casually, resuming his study of the menu.
“The Messiah? The Captain?” Mark Messier was my favorite Ranger and the man responsible for the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup—the Holy Grail of hockey—after a forty-odd-year drought. Any insult I could have taken by his suggesting that all French Canadians ate roadkill was mitigated by his mention, and apparent friendship, with Mark Messier. And if Mark Messier ate roadkill, well, then by God, I would eat roadkill, too.
He looked up, giving me a sly look. “Impressed?”
“Just a bit,” I stammered.
“Next time he’s in town, I’ll make sure we get together.”
My heart almost stopped beating. Now he was playing hardball. “Really?”
He nodded. “Sure. We go way back.”
Okay, I admit, he was a bit cocky. But he also had a jocularity and casualness that suggested the personality of a border collie. Border cocky?
He closed his menu. “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t offend you. Kevin always reminds me that I’m not as funny as I think I am.”
And self-aware. The package just kept getting better and better.
I reached across the table and touched his arm. “No offense taken. If I had to be completely honest with you, I would have to admit that I ate my fair share of wild game on summer vacations in Quebec. I just didn’t think I’d ever have to admit that to anyone.”
We ended up having a great time and I wondered more than a few times how I had ended up in a situation whereby I had two men interested in me at the same time. This was Max’s domain and I didn’t even have her around to counsel me. We arrived back at my house in his car, and I turned to tell him what a great time I had. He surprised me by leaning in and planting a long, lingering kiss on my lips.
“Make sure you look up page four hundred and three in Ulysses,” he whispered, his arms around me in a snug embrace.
“You know as well as I do that I’m not going to find the