Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
I stopped staring at the damn menu like I needed to and gave in to looking at her. She had that plump bottom lip between her straight white teeth as she studied the options. I wanted to ask her about shit I’d read on her phone, but then she’d question how I knew about those things.
Leaning back, I stretched my arm along the back of the bench, then scanned the room for the hostess. When I found her, she was looking directly at me. After staring at Montana, the hostess had dropped to a six. Yeah, I wasn’t going there. She had that too easy, stalkerish feel to her.
Not giving her any more encouragement, I turned my attention back to Montana.
A guy showed up beside the table, and I cut my eyes at him to see he was the waiter.
He placed two glasses of water in front of us. “I’m Kevin. I’ll be your waiter. Can I get you anything else to drink?”
Montana looked from him to me. I nodded my head at her to order first. She swung her eyes back to the waiter, who I realized hadn’t taken his eyes off her. Fucker. I was sitting right here. Sure, I wasn’t her date, but he didn’t know that.
“Sweet tea, please,” she replied with a smile.
She was going to give the guy a boner.
It looked as if he had to tear his gaze off her.
“And for you?” he finally asked me.
“Same.”
“All right, I’ll get those and give you a few more minutes with the menus.”
He was staring at Montana as if he wanted her to say something more, but she wasn’t paying any attention. Her focus was back on deciding what hamburger she wanted.
“What year did you fail in school? Or was it two years?” I asked, knowing it was going to piss her off.
Her expression hardened, but she didn’t look up at me from the menu she was studying. “Third.”
“Damn,” I muttered. I hadn’t expected elementary school. “Addition and subtraction too much for you?”
That got those eyes on me instead of the menu. Her glacial expression as she glared at me was hot.
“No. Math is one of my best subjects,” she said, clenching her teeth.
I was finding that I enjoyed getting her all worked up. It was better than fucking her. Since Linc would likely beat the shit out of me if I did.
“Cursive writing then? It’s a bitch.”
She gave her eyes a hard roll, then closed the menu with more force than necessary and set it down. “I was absent too many days.”
Oh. I hadn’t considered that. My parents had rarely let me miss school. If I’d stayed home, it had better be a sickness worthy of an ER visit.
“Sickly kid?”
She shook her head and dropped her gaze back to the menu. “No. Mom…” She paused. “Mom struggled with getting up early. She worked late nights. When she did wake up, she wanted to spend time with me.”
I’d fucked a lot of strippers. And I couldn’t imagine one of them being a mom. What kind of life had that been?
“You stayed home at night, alone, when you were young?”
She shook her head, but didn’t look at me. “No.” The word sounded as if I’d asked a stupid question. “Ms. Bartheson, a retired lunchroom lady who lived across the street, stayed the nights when Mom worked.”
“Why didn’t she get you up in the mornings and get you to school?”
Montana sighed and closed the menu before giving me those green eyes again. “Because when Mom got home around four or five, she was already up, having her coffee, and would go home. Why are you asking me all these questions?”
I shrugged. “Making conversation.”
Kevin was back with our sweet teas and placed them on the table. “Ready to order?” he asked, and Montana might as well have been the only person at the table as far as he was concerned.
Did she flash that smile on purpose? Because the dude was already salivating.
“I’ll have the bar burger, please. Medium,” she told him. “With fries.”
I picked up her menu and held out both to Kevin, causing him to have to look my way. “Sweet bourbon, medium rare, fries.”
He nodded and put the order into his iPad, then lifted his head to ogle Montana again. “Can I get you anything else?”
She shook her head since she was the one he seemed to be asking.
“That will be all,” I told him.
He barely glanced my way, then hurried off.
“Do you do that shit on purpose?”
She frowned. “What?”
I chuckled. She had the innocent look down. That was for damn sure.
“Kevin is sporting a fucking boner.”
Her eyes widened, but only briefly. She leaned back and raised her eyebrows as she gave me a pointed look. “It can’t be because of me. I’m a…what, six, or is it lower?”