“Not a romantic guy, huh?” I said dryly.

He tilted his head to the side and shrugged. “You can’t force romance out of a guy. The guy has to want it for the girl.”

“So…?”

“So I haven’t found a girl I want to be romantic with.”

I frowned, mulling his words over. “But you’re not giving anyone a chance. I mean, Trudy could bring that part of you out if you decided to be serious with her.”

With a sad smile, he said, “I think when you want something more with someone, you’ll know. I never felt that way with Tru, or any girl before her. Call me a man-whore all you want. Say I’m shallow. Disrespectful. Whatever. But you can’t say I’m a liar, or that I led them on. I told them what they were getting into, and they were more than happy.”

Hmm. I considered his words before taking another bite out of my strawberry. It was sort of nice being able to talk about a guy’s relationship history. Heath was quite open, whereas his brother was a goddamn treasure chest locked and buried at the bottom of the sea. He didn’t want to talk about it at all, and for a girl who’d only been with one guy, that was something I kind of always wondered about.

“So what do you think of me after all that?” he then asked, eyeing me carefully.

I laughed. “Who cares?”

“I do. I want to know.”

My laughter faded when I realized how serious he was. “If they know what they’re getting into then I can’t see a problem… But I do think you’re incredibly dumb for it.”

His brows came together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“You can’t expect a girl to be with a guy that looks the way you do and not have feelings eventually. It also doesn’t help you’re a pretty good guy on the inside.” When the light bulb still didn’t register, I sighed. “You’re not being one dimensional with them, Heath. That is, if you’re being anything like you are right now with me, then they’re screwed.”

His lips curved up slowly, and the warmth in his eyes grew as he quietly said, “Afraid that’s not true, Allie. I’m as one dimensional as glue to them. You’ve been around me longer than they have, so I’m more open with you than I’ll ever be with them. But on that note, can I ask you something?” I nodded carefully, but I was also wary judging by the seriousness in which he asked it. “You and Ryker…” he paused and searched for the right words. “What did you see in him?”

I smiled shortly, reflecting on my relationship with Ryker for a moment. “I didn’t see anything at first. He was as smart as a box of rocks, but he was dreamy to look at. He was just the neighbourhood boy – both of you guys were. You let every kid around to play, including me. But Ryker… he noticed me. Nobody ever had. I was the weird one. The kind girls didn’t want to befriend. After my father died, he stopped and gave me his time of day to get to know me. It almost looked like he was protecting me. From what, I don’t know, but it meant everything to me because no one else ever had. I was just the ugly girl in the background with the crazy mother that never let me out.”

He looked bothered by my words. “You were never ugly, Allison.”

Allison. I felt my insides melt. It wasn’t often I was called by my full name. “Why didn’t anyone ever say so then? All a young girl wants to hear from time to time is that she’s pretty. Not that she’s a spider with her long limbs and big eyes.”

“If I knew that, I’d have fucked up a lot of people for you.”

I smiled in good humour. “It’s fine, Heath. What’s a childhood without some bullying, right?”

“A normal one?”

I shook my head, not wanting him to see the way my lips quivered and my heart pounded. I turned back to my food and pretended to eat with enthusiasm. All the while he sat beside me, still as stone, quiet and attentive. I hoped he wouldn’t keep talking about private stuff like that. It wasn’t a fun topic for me. My childhood sucked. No use reminiscing about it. Any bullied person would understand – by the heavy feeling in the pit of your stomach, the way your chest tightened, and the stinging behind your eyes – how difficult it was to talk openly about a difficult childhood.

“So where are we going to go and eat later?” I asked, changing the subject.

“I don’t know. I don’t usually take girls out, to be honest. Any ideas?” His tone was a bit flat, like he was still bothered by our talk.

“I’m not picky,” I said, taking another enthusiastic bite out of my omelette – which was freaking amazing. “Didn’t you and Ryker go out to that fighter bar with the boys some nights?”

“Yeah, but that’s a pretty rough spot.”

I shot him a wicked smile. “Oh, whatever, Heath. What’s rougher than you? I’m sure we’d be fine.” He was the strongest in his group. Had the most wins under his belt. So it was easy for me to think it’d be an alright place to be with him on my side.

He ran a hand through his buzz and nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”

He stayed around for a while before he got up and left to the shops. I didn’t know what we could possibly need since the fridge was still packed, but I didn’t ask. Call it strange, but I had a feeling he wanted to be alone, and I was fine with that. Because I sort of wanted to be alone after that conversation too.

While he was out, I sorted through my clothes. Knowing we were going out tonight, I didn’t want to dress in more baggy, unflattering clothes. I had a feeling I was going to be bumping into a lot of attractive girls, and after feeling plain around Trudy, for once I just wanted to blend in.

Eventually I found a better fitting outfit at the bottom of my bag.

Heath

I parked a bit away from the bar, not wanting to attract attention to my truck in a spot where there were loads of people and car-jacking was the norm.

“Alright,” I told Allie as we stepped out into the night, “keep close to me. You’ve never been to this place, and you don’t want to be a lone girl in there. There are no gallant men. They have one thing on their mind and that’s the golden treasure between your legs.”

She cringed at my words, shutting the car door and hurrying to my side. I had to look away from her. She’d decided on wearing something… tighter than usual, and it really emphasized her body shape, which was soft and feminine. A simple white tunic with grey leggings that would have classed her as a nun in comparison to the booty shorts I was already seeing the other girls wear.