Gruff-and-Complex could take his innuendo and mixed signals and feed them to another girl. She had better things to do.
Even if she wouldn’t mind doing him.
Chapter Three
“Dude,” the kid said behind Henrik, sarcasm coming through in the drawn-out word. “You pretty much screwed the pooch on that one.”
Henrik ducked his head, chuckling. “I’m kind of used to that.”
The bells on the door jingled in the distance, and he moved down the aisle to see Jacqui striding down the sidewalk, a navy backpack slung over her shoulder, long brown hair swaying with each step, before she disappeared from sight.
The kid—Max was it?—came up beside him to stare at the empty sidewalk with Henrik. “She’s a hard one to catch.”
“Yeah?” Henrik had already figured that out. The enigmatic woman had spun around Henrik’s moves with the grace of a figure skater and the hard edge of a fighter.
“I’ve been trying for a year, and it all flies over her head.”
He stared down at the kid. Was the guy joking or serious? By the moony look on his face, he was serious. Max had a major crush on his coworker.
“You sure about that?” Henrik didn’t believe for one second that Jacqui hadn’t noticed Max’s advances. She was too sharp to miss something that obvious.
Max shrugged. “She hasn’t even acknowledged any of the passes I’ve made at her. It’s like she’s completely clueless to the whole mating game.”
“Mating game?” Henrik had to work to hold back his snort of laughter.
There was nothing but pure innocence in Max’s expression when he glanced at Henrik. “You know, that back-and-forth dance that happens before you get a chick in bed. The mating game.” He cocked a grin and lifted his chin, pride tumbling out. “My buddies and I came up with that term.”
And this kid was what? Twenty-one if he was lucky. The fresh face still held hints of boyhood that went with his lanky build. Must be nice to be so sure of himself. Henrik couldn’t remember if he’d ever been that sure of his prowess.
He shook his head and coughed to cover his chuckle. “Dude. You have no clue.” Max froze, the cockiness dropping from his face. “If any woman caught you saying that, you’d have zero chance of ever bagging her. Let alone dating her.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say it to a girl.”
“But you’re thinking it, and that’s bad enough.”
Max screwed up his face, his disagreement clear. “I don’t get it.”
Henrik turned back to the rack of guitar strings and quickly pulled some off. “Maybe your luck will change when you do.”
“Well, you struck out with Jacqui too. It’s not like you’re Mr. Suave.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Henrik’s laugh was sharp and harsh. “I never said I was.” He’d had way too many people tell him exactly how uncouth he was. Patricia being the latest in a long, long line. He held up the packets of guitar strings. “I’ll take these.”
“Right.” Max shuffled past, heading toward the counter. “I’ll ring you up over here. Hey!” He spun back around, face bright. “Didn’t you want to look at guitars?” He made a move toward the back wall, but Henrik stopped him.
“Not today.” He set the strings down on the counter and tugged out his wallet. “I have something else I need to do.”
“Oh. Okay. Maybe another time.” Max rang up the purchase. “We’re open seven days a week. I’m here on the weekends and some weeknights. I know a lot about guitars and can answer most questions.”
“You play?”
He held up his left hand, the hard calluses on his fingertips clearly displayed. “Music major. Guitar.” He grinned, ticking his head to swing his long bangs out of his eyes. “Jacqui is too. Keyboard though. She’s the one who gave me the heads up on this job.”
Henrik took that in. The wisp of longing that wrapped around his heart was so faint and old he barely recognized it. It’d been years since he’d thought about the music possibilities he’d abandoned. “That makes sense,” he mumbled to Max. “She was damn good on the piano.”
“You heard her?” His surprise was clear.
“When I came in. She was playing.”
The kid grinned again. “Her baby, right?”
Henrik raised a confused brow.
“That Steinway over there.” Max pointed to the piano Jacqui had been playing. “She loves that thing.” He shrugged. “But her forte is the keyboard. She’s killer on one of those.”
Similar yet different instruments. “Does she mix music too?”
“One of the best at our school.” Again, the pride glowed from Max. His chest