he was, so she left it at that and stared at him.
Slade pushed his dark hair back from his face and smiled. “I was a jerk a long time ago, and I’m guessing this is payback.”
“Interesting.”
Slade’s brows perked up. “Which part?”
“That you’re willing to admit that you were a jerk.”
Slade leaned back in the booth as several appetizers were delivered to the table.
“Boy, this is enough to feed the entire town.” Erika laughed, eyeing the baked potato skins, jalapeño poppers, and spinach artichoke dip. “You must have known I was coming.”
Drew shook his head. “I would have ordered more if I did.”
Erika giggled and quickly plated some bar food and glanced at Slade. “So, what made you so much of a jerk that you’re now getting stood up in the middle of nowhere?” She took a bite of potato skin.
“Ouch,” Drew whispered.
“Well, it goes back a long way,” Slade confessed. “She was my high school girlfriend.”
“Oh, wow.” Erika was genuinely surprised.
She knew of a few couples who’d managed to last past senior year, but not many. Apparently, he wasn’t one of them.
“Have you been together all this time?” Erika asked.
Slade shook his head, and a wry grin spread across his beautiful lips, not that she was staring at his mouth or anything.
Drew laughed. “Do you want to hook him up to a lie detector test while we’re at it?”
Erika scrunched her brows. “Why would I do that? I have no reason to believe he’s not truthful.”
“It was a joke.” Drew rolled his eyes and polished off a jalapeño popper.
Slade laughed. “I’m going to sound more and more pathetic as the story goes on, so I might as well just start from the beginning.”
Erika clapped her hands enthusiastically. Besides knowing how to pour a good drink, the other prerequisite of her being such a sensational bartender was her people skills. She loved hearing a good story, and come midnight on a Friday night, they tended to come pouring in.
“So, I dated Penny in high school. It was pretty serious between us, but she wanted to stay in the small town and I didn’t. Her plan was to go to college two towns away, get married to me, buy a home where we grew up, and live happily ever after.”
Erika shrugged. “Could be worse.”
Slade laughed. “Whose side are you on?”
“Don’t know yet.” Erika grinned as she dug into the artichoke dip.
Drew nodded. “Sounds about right.”
Slade laughed harder and let out a sigh. “Well, I signed up for the military and never looked back. I only did four years, but—”
“You left her in the dust,” Erika completed and nodded.
“Yep.” Slade twisted his lips into a pout that was entirely too sexy for a man, but he just had that way about him. He probably looked great on day four of a camping trip too. “I left her a note and went off to boot camp.”
Erika’s jaw dropped. “A note?”
“Yep.” He dipped a chip into the dip. “A note.”
“How’d you get from there to here?” Erika was actually happy she got to come tonight. This was fascinating.
“After I got out, I heard she’d gotten married and was executing her plan flawlessly, so I didn’t think twice about the situation. I don’t think she cared who was in the husband spot. She just needed someone to fill the role.”
“You must not have loved her,” Erika pointed out.
“I was young.” Slade shrugged as if that explained it all.
“A lot of people who are young fall in love. Love isn’t age discriminatory.”
“Were you in love at that age?” Slade asked, and Erika immediately turned red.
“I . . .” Erika let out a wistful sigh. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been in love. I thought I was in love, but I was wrong.”
Slade nodded. “I should have been upfront with her. I just wasn’t ready. I might never be ready.”
“I hear ya.” Drew nodded. “Relationships are complicated.”
Erika chuckled, adding, “They’re complicated and rarely worth the effort.”
Drew frowned and cocked his head slightly. “When were you last in a relationship, Erika?”
“Hmm.” Erika pretended to think about it long and hard. “Scott’s about to go to junior high. I’d say about twelve years ago.”
Drew chuckled, and Slade looked shocked.
“What?” Erika straightened in the booth. “Why are you two looking at me like that?”
“You’re just . . .” Slade bit his lip and glanced at his beer. “You’re just gorgeous and smart and . . .”
“Too busy to care about a man other than my son,” Erika continued for him.