The Gamble(35)

“Should I guess?”

I felt my body get stiff and I declared, “Absolutely not.”

He gave me a grin and got closer. “Give me a ballpark figure.”

“Older than Becca, younger than your mother,” I told him.

His hand not dangling from the table came up and touched my shoulder. I looked down to see my shirt had again slid off. I rearranged it so it covered my shoulder, his hand fell away and then I glared at him.

“That’s quite a range,” he commented and I shrugged then he said, “You look thirty,” well, that was good, “you act ninety.”

I stiffened then leaned toward him. “I don’t act ninety.”

“Honey, it was possible, I’d think you were born two centuries ago.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means you’re uptight.”

I leaned in closer and snapped, “I’m not uptight!”

He grinned again. “Totally uptight.”

“I’m not uptight,” I repeated.

“Don’t know what to make of you,” he said, his eyes moving down my torso to my lap and he finished with, “contradiction.”

“What does that mean?” I asked but I really shouldn’t have and I knew it.

His eyes came back to mine. “It means you look one way, you act another.”

I leaned in closer. “And what does that mean?”

He leaned in closer too and we were nearly nose to nose. “It means a woman who owns those jeans, those boots, that shirt, deep down, is not uptight.”

“That’s right, I’m not uptight,” I snapped and then jumped when two bottles of beer hit the table.

I looked up to see a waitress standing there, tray under her arm, white t-shirt, jeans, ash blonde hair in a ponytail, pretty mountain fresh face, no makeup.

“Hey Max,” she said.

“Hey Trudy,” Max replied.

“Hey,” she said to me then she smiled.

“Hi,” I replied, not smiling.

Her smile got bigger and without leaving menus she walked away.

I looked at the beer and Max, thankfully, moved away, grabbed both, put one in front of me and took a pull off his.

“Is that for me?” I asked and his eyes came to me around his beer bottle then he dropped his hand.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t order that.”

“I did.”