Loving You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 2) by Leeanna Morgan Page A

employee.”
    Dylan’s slow, sexy smile almost made her melt against the vinyl seat she was sitting on. A cheer rang out from one of the bowling lanes. Annie focused on the high-fives being exchanged and not the man watching her like she’d just offered him dessert. She didn’t even know if vegetarians ate dessert. And then she realized it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be eating Dylan Bayliss, and he wouldn’t be eating her.
    “So…back to our date…”
    “Or not,” Annie said defiantly.
    “You can’t go back on a bet.”
    “I didn’t think I’d lose.” Annie knew she sounded like a five-year-old crying over spilled milk, but she couldn’t help it. There was no way she’d go on a date with Dylan.
    “Why don’t you want to date anyone?”
    Annie wasn’t sure she was ready to tell Dylan about her less than perfect life. “I prefer my own company.”
    “You could have fooled me.” Dylan looked at her for so long that she felt like a science experiment that had gone wrong.
    “I got married when I was sixteen. By the time I was seventeen the marriage was over.”
    Dylan picked up his coffee cup, then put it back down when he realized it was empty. “Fast work.”
    “Bad decisions.” Annie sighed. “I thought I loved him.”
    “It didn’t take you long to figure out you were wrong.”
    “He lost his job not long after we got married. He decided to stay at home and live off my salary. When I had to stop working for a while, he refused to look for a job.”
    “Damn.”
    “Precisely.” Annie glanced back at the bowling lanes. It was better than meeting Dylan’s all too knowing gaze.
    “And you haven’t dated since you were seventeen years old?”
    She squirmed in her seat.
    “Annie?”
    “I’ve been on one date. It didn’t work out.”
    “Well…” Dylan didn’t seem to know what to say.
    Annie couldn’t blame him. Seven years was a long time not to have dated more than once.
    “You want to tell me why?”
    “He kept talking about his mom and how much he liked living with her.”
    Dylan’s eyes popped open. “I didn’t mean that. But since you brought it up, how old was he?”
    “Thirty-one. He was a nice guy, just not the right guy for me.”
    “So why haven’t you dated anyone else?”
    Annie finished the last of her hot chocolate. “That was a month ago. I’m still looking.”
    “Why are you looking when you’ve got me?” Dylan clamped his mouth shut when he realized what he’d said. “For one date, I mean. It doesn’t even have to be a real date.”
    “What do you mean? A date is a date.”
    “What if we did something that people don’t normally do on dates?”
    Annie smiled. “Like mend a fence or round up some cattle?”
    Dylan’s eyes gleamed. “How about going for a run with me?”
    Annie shook her head. “No way. You’re training for a Half Ironman Triathlon. I haven’t run anywhere since I was at school.”
    “You could ride your bike behind me?”
    “I’d feel like a groupie,” Annie muttered. It was bad enough being around Dylan when he was wearing clothes that covered his whole body. Running shorts and a barely there t-shirt would ruin her concentration and send her into a hormonal meltdown. “I thought you were training with Logan?”
    “I don’t think he’d mind missing one of our sessions. He keeps complaining that I’m getting him out of bed too early.”
    “That’s probably got more to do with who he’s sleeping beside. When is your Ironman competition?”
    “Two weeks from this Saturday.”
    “So you’re in countdown mode?”
    “You could say that.”
    Annie thought about all of the things she’d planned on doing over the next few days. She had a haircut appointment for tomorrow night, a girls night out on Friday, a bowling tournament on Saturday and more bridesmaids arriving to choose dresses on Sunday. Her personal life was bursting at the seams.
    Dylan was watching her closely. “It won’t work,” she said. “I’m really