Rough Play by Keri Ford Page B

but me and Trent? I don’t get it. I want to kick his ass just for thinking it.”
    She leaned her head over, thinking of Tonya and how her once simple secret had snowballed on her like a freight train down a hill with no brakes. Or tracks to run on. “It probably felt bigger to him than it does to you.”
    “Since you’re taking his side, I vote we find somewhere private so you can make it up to me. Show me how much you’ve missed me.”
    She laughed, shaking her head then punching him in the bicep. “I’m not taking his side! Maybe a little devil’s advocate.”
    “Let’s get out of here anyway.”
    “I can’t run away with you right now. I have to work. Grant is expecting me to be done in a decent time.”
    He wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her in close. “It happens that I’m good buddies with the owner and he won’t mind if I take you for a long lunch.”
    “Lunch,” she swallowed, tempted by that offer but also afraid of it. It was just lunch, but she wasn’t coming to find out that when Jacob was involved, there was no simple ‘just’ about it. “If I wasn’t already suited up for work.”
    “Nice knee pads by the way.”
    “Do they turn you on like the belt?”
    “I see some uses for them. Uses the manufacture probably didn’t have in mind, that’s for damn sure.”
    She laughed and shoved at his chest, pushing out of his embrace. “Maybe later.”
    “Only a maybe? I’ve been gone a week and the best I get is a maybe?” He stuck out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. “It’s like you haven’t missed me at all.”
    She shook her head. Oh, if only the opposite was true. She had missed him. “I’ll stop by your place after I get off work.”
    “How about dinner?”
    She paused. They usually didn’t eat together. Other than lunch. What difference was there in lunch and supper? “Sure. Just pick me up something. I’ll meet you at your house around five like usual.”
    “I meant, let’s go out for dinner.”
    Oh.
    “I’ll pick you up.” He frowned. “You know, I don’t even know where you live.”
    Yeah. She knew because she hadn’t wanted him at her house when this whole thing started. Their pattern began of her going to his house and it had remained that way.
    “I know you live in the big neighborhood behind the courthouse, but that’s it.”
    “I do.” She stared at him.
    He stared back. “So if you’ll give me your address, I’ll swing by around six?”
    She blinked. “Sure. Okay.”
    “Something wrong?”
    “I’m fine.” It was fine. It was just dinner. And hell, what was the big deal about her house anyway. Nothing. This was her being weird again. She gave him her address.
    After he dropped a kiss on her head and walked away, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Different. She tried shaking it off and got on with work. As she laid pipe, connected pieces and worked through lunch, there was nothing she could do to get rid of the oddness that’d settled in her.
    Oddness was the best way to describe it. It was warmth and tight all at once. A jumpy stomach and yet she couldn’t say it was dread, but rather, dare she say anticipation? But of what? It was stupid. It was dinner. Eating together in the evening.
    When she was stepping into her panties that night, sudden realization struck. Oh holy hell, she’d walked right into agreeing to a date . She stumbled backwards and landed on her bed. Breath rushed. Heart pounded and she swallowed it down.
    A date.
    She reached for her phone and dialed. There was a click and she didn’t wait. “I think I’m going on a date.”
    “You think?” Tonya asked.
    She leaned over and breathed. “No. I am. A dinner date. And I didn’t know it.”
    “Okay. Have fun.”
    “That’s all you have to say?”
    Tonya laughed. “You’ll be fine. Smile a lot. If all else fails and the silence gets awkward, make fun of someone’s clothes in the restaurant.”
    “Aren’t you funny.”
    “This