It’s more peaceful.” His eyes looked for mine as he spoke, and he held my gaze in the silence that followed his words. I shifted in my seat, the hard surface of the bench the only thing that kept me grounded as Rocco pierced me with a look I didn’t want to try to figure out.
I sucked in a breath and gave a much-needed mental talking-to to the part of me that felt the need to figure out what was wrong with the man and fix it. I was no longer the designated repairperson of beautiful and fucked-up men.
“Thanks, Rocco.” The table was a bit subdued by this point. I guessed I wasn’t the only one who was feeling a bit affected by Rocco and José. But I had been raised by a woman who was practically allergic to awkward silences, so I got us redirected quick.
“Okay, now that we know each other, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the eye-contact situation in this city. Does it feel over the top to you guys too or is it just me?” That got a real laugh out of the table, including a minuscule grin from Rocco, which I tried very hard not to dwell on, and the conversation took off from there.
This happy hour idea was working out. I just needed to keep my eyes, hands, and head off Rocco Quinn, and my Dallas experiment might work out after all.
Chapter Five
Rocco
I was still sitting in my car, where I’d been since I’d said my goodbyes and agreed to meet everyone again for drinks the next week. In the end, I’d had a nice time.
Still, I was brooding.
As soon as I’d gotten to the bar tonight, I knew I’d made a mistake. I really needed to remember that I was here to do a job and get back to New York City and the responsibilities I could not turn my back on.
That was my other problem. The meeting had actually been fun. Tariq and Dani were big Yankees fans, and Julia, that traitor, joined them in giving me shit about the Mets. Meanwhile, Salome, who was a diehard baseball fan, but only of Dominican teams, had the time of her life telling us all the ways in which the Dominican winter league was superior to the major leagues. José teased us mercilessly about his newfound love for the Rangers, and the hours flew.
Then there was Julia. Julia and her colors and her energy were addictive, and I had a feeling once I got a taste, I would not be able to stop coming back for more.
Her big brown eyes hypnotized me. Her long, curly hair cascading halfway down her back was as big and wild as I’d imagined it. There had been something different about her tonight.
She’d been at ease. A side to her that wasn’t what I’d seen in the office. It seemed to me like Julia, once she was away from work and the machinations of the IPO, had shed some of the tightness she always carried around me. And no matter how much I wanted that to mean there was some kind of opening there, it didn’t matter. She was still her and I was still me, and I needed to do my job, and that job was to deliver that IPO into Duke Sturm’s hands.
I’d started my car and headed out of the parking lot when I noticed her standing on the sidewalk, glaring at her phone. She’d put her hair up in a messy bun and was tapping furiously as she leaned on a bench. I drove up to her and lowered my window with my heart beating way faster than it should with someone I was supposed to keep my distance from.
“Hey, do you have a ride home?” I spoke in a soft voice, aware it was never a good idea to startle a woman who’d grown up in New York City.
She jumped anyways, but when she turned her eyes toward me, she looked relieved to see me. “Do you go around sneaking up on women like that? You’re lucky I’m slow when I’m tired.”
I tried to look contrite, but a smile happened anyway. My lips had a mind of their own when it came to Julia. “Sorry about that. This car makes no noise.”
Davidson’s arranged for whatever we needed while on a project and usually went for something that would “reflect well” on the brand. So I was driving a black Tesla sedan.
Julia was