Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,97
his place?” Eve said.
“Okay, listen. I didn’t want to get into it. Because it wasn’t how it looked.”
“How was it, then?” Nora asked.
“It was football! He has the specialized app for the bar!”
“Why don’t you just watch it at the bar?” Eve picked up the questioning. “Why are you watching it in his apartment?”
“Because…” She was digging a hole here. “It’s just…a thing we do.”
“You said ‘was,’” Nora said.
“Huh?”
“You said it wasn’t how it looked. Past tense.”
They were as bad as the town meddlers. “Okay, yes, we slept together.”
“Oh. My. God,” Eve said.
“In one sense, it’s not really that surprising, is it?” Nora said to Eve. “The way they’re constantly bickering?”
“I know,” Eve said. “There’s all this tension between them all the time. Still, it’s a tad surprising.”
“Hello, I’m right here,” Maya said.
They were no longer listening to her. “It’s probably not that much of a stretch for it to be sexual tension, right?” Nora said to Eve. “Jake said they had a massive blowout at the bar last night after we left.”
“I can hear you, you know.”
“So the next question,” Eve said, finally deigning to turn her attention to Maya, “is how long have you been sleeping with him?”
“Last night was the first time.” They looked like they didn’t believe her, so she raised her right hand and said, “I swear on the grave of William Shakespeare.”
Eve whistled, indicating that she’d gotten the message.
“How are you feeling?” Maya nodded at Nora’s belly, hoping to change the subject.
Nora swatted her. “Nice try. I feel like shit, but that is a topic for later.”
“Look,” Maya said. “It just happened. I don’t know any more than you do at this point.”
“Is it going to happen again?” Nora asked.
I sure hope so. “I don’t know. I left before he woke up.” She’d woken before the alarm, all tangled up with him, and she’d panicked, extricated herself without waking him, and bolted.
“Are you guys together now?” Eve asked.
“No!” Maya didn’t know much, but she did know that.
“So is this a ‘friends with benefits’ thing?” Nora made the air quotes with her fingers. “Because I think it’s well established by now that those don’t work in this town.”
Right. Eve had told Nora as much less than a year ago. “Yes, but you and Jake were friends. Eve and Sawyer were friends.” She looked at Eve. “Sort of. Eventually. Anyway, my point is you can’t be friends with benefits if you’re not friends to begin with.”
That momentarily silenced them. She seized the opportunity to say, “You know what? I hardly got any sleep last night. I’m not saying that’s not my own fault, but I have to be at the theater in a few hours. And I love you guys, but get out.”
Chapter Eighteen
The next time Law saw Maya was after her Saturday show, when she came into the bar and pulled out a stool like everything was the same as it ever was.
Which maybe it was?
She, dressed in her Beatrice costume with that damn corset all laced up like it hadn’t just been flung to the floor at his place forty-eight hours ago, was acting like nothing had changed.
So they were going to pretend that Thursday night hadn’t happened?
Of course they were. He’d known that yesterday morning when he’d woken to the six a.m. alarm he had set to find her already gone.
So. Okay. He could do that.
No, actually, he couldn’t.
But what could he do about it now? Here in his half-full bar with Karl sitting only three empty spots away from Maya? What could he possibly say? I am and have always been insanely attracted to you, so would you please at least acknowledge what happened?
“Rough night?” He set a glass in front of her and uncorked a bottle of her wine.
“You could say that.” As he poured, she picked up one of the wine menus. When he was done, her hand shot out and stopped him from retracting the bottle. They each held an end of it for a moment in a tug-of-war while she transferred her attention between the wine label and the menu.
He was about to be busted.
Which, fine. It wasn’t like this was a secret. She would have noticed the preferential treatment if she’d been paying any attention at all.
“This isn’t on the menu.”
“That is correct.”
“There’s a different Riesling on the menu.”
“Your powers of observation astound me.”
“Why isn’t this one on the menu?”
“It’s a limited release. If I put it on the menu, I’d run out.”