Travis (Pelion Lake) by Mia Sheridan

“One protein shake coming right up,” she said, finally tearing her eyes away as she turned and began adding the ingredients to the blender, giving one not-so-furtive glance back at Gage. I resisted rolling my eyes.

“I hope you’re coming tonight?” Gage said, turning his stool toward me.

I searched my mind for what the hell he might be talking about, remembering some charity event invitation that I’d stuck to my fridge at home. The one I wasn’t currently living at. “Oh, is that tonight? Sorry, I totally spaced it.” I noticed Haven lean back slightly as she obviously listened to our conversation over the grinding of the blender.

“Any donation helps,” Gage said. “And we’d be honored to have the chief of police at our event.”

I felt a muscle in my jaw twitch. Gage was the only one who still invited me to crap like that. The events that I’d attended regularly, as had my mother, before she had moved away and I’d been demoted to “common citizen.” Not lakeside royalty like the Buchanan family. The fact that Gage still endeavored to include me made me feel both grateful and embarrassed. “I’ll try to make it,” I said noncommittally.

In front of us, Haven poured the blended drink into a glass, and set it in front of Gage who gave her a wide, genuine smile, held the glass up in a cheers gesture, and then took a sip. “Thanks, Haven. This is delicious.”

She noticeably swooned. For Christ’s sake. I drummed my fingers on the counter. “Anytime,” she breathed as he got up, nodded to me, and walked away.

Haven stared after him for a few moments, sighing as she leaned back against the counter.

“You too, huh?”

She looked at me, watching her with one eyebrow raised. “Me too, what?”

“One of the hordes who have a crush on Gage Buchanan. How . . . boring.”

She flung the cleaning towel over her shoulder. “Maybe. So?”

I shrugged, glancing at my fingernails, attempting a combo of bored and disappointed, when what I really felt was a strange sense of irritability. I was the one who engaged her in scintillating conversation while carting a three-legged cat around. And Gage was the one she had a crush on? Which was good, I reminded myself. Because that would be awkward seeing as I was on a break from women and would just have to let her down easy when she inevitably threw herself at me. “I thought you were more interesting than that.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be interesting. How well do you know him?”

“I’ve known him all my life. Our mothers used to be friends.” Which wasn’t exactly true. Gage’s mother had invited mine to all her social functions, and they’d run in the same circles, but they’d never been close. Because Lana Buchanan was decent, and she’d obviously figured out that Tori Hale was not. Haven studied me for a moment as if she knew there was something I wasn’t saying, but didn’t comment. I squinted at her as I considered the situation at hand. The truth of the matter was that the entire Buchanan family was decent—more than that. They were good people. And so was Haven. I sighed. “Come with me to the event his family is hosting tonight. It’s at their house, which is about three times the size of this club.”

Her breath caught, eyes widening, but she tilted her head as though hesitant to say yes for some reason.

“As friends,” I said.

“Of course,” she answered, chewing at her lip momentarily. “What should I wear?” she asked. Ah. Was that what she was worried about?

“Strategically?”

“Uh, sure, a good strategy never hurts.”

“Agreed.” I sat back, allowing my eyes to travel down her slim body and then back up. She held herself immobile as though struggling not to fidget under my perusal. “The women Gage typically date have more . . . skin,” I finally said.

“They’re in possession of more skin?”

“Hmm.” I smiled. “Much more.”

“That sounds medically alarming.”

“Very alarming,” I said, deepening my voice and adding a dreamy note. I felt the muscles around my eyes tightening subtly as I resisted laughing.

She was obviously doing the same, her eyes dancing as she stepped toward the front counter and leaned in toward me. As if we were magnetized, I involuntarily leaned toward her, inhaling the clean fragrance of her soap or shampoo or whatever delicately floral scent she wore. I wanted to lean closer, get more of it. She drew away. “Might you mean they show more skin?”

“Oh. Yes. Maybe that’s it.” I grinned teasingly, and was rewarded by the small flare of her eyes. I knew the impact of that particular grin—no female could resist it. Even one who was only a friend.

“So what you’re saying is that if I want to catch Gage’s eye, I should remove several pieces of clothing?”

“Now you’re getting it.”

She laughed, tossing her dishtowel at me. I reached up and caught it easily.

For several moments we grinned at each other across the counter. It felt good but goofy, which was odd since I was seldom goofy.

“Seriously though,” I said, ending the weird bout of goofiness. “Get his attention with some skin, and then roll out your sparkling personality.”

“Is that what you do? Flash your muscles and then roll out your sparkling personality like some grand prize on a game show?”