Going All In Read Online Free PDF Page B

his hands over his face and yawned as he rested his head on the back of the booth.
    “Looks like you didn’t get much sleep last night and could use a nap.”
    He cracked his eyes open and watched as Callie sucked in a breath and pressed her lips together. With a huff, she dropped her gaze to the table and fiddled with a fry, then dragged it through a mound of ketchup before tossing it into her mouth. She seemed to be working hard to keep her focus on her food and not him, and his super-sized ego wondered if she was fishing for personal information.
    Interesting.
    Damn, it felt good to be able to tell the truth, rather than a watered-down version of how he normally spent his evenings. “I desperately need a nap.” He yawned and rubbed his face again and pulled himself out of his slouch. “Sorry. I have friends in town on vacation. They lay around and sleep all day, gearing up for another round, while I schlep my worn-out ass around and try to work. And usually fail miserably. It happens every year. You’d think I’d get better or smarter, but I never do.”
    She laughed and nodded. “I understand how that goes. My best friends, Jen and Tiffany, don’t work, so they don’t understand why I go home early on weeknights. Although, to be fair, I didn’t used to get it either, so I can’t get too upset with them.”
    Without allowing himself to put much thought into why it mattered, or why he was interested, he used the opportunity as an opening to learn more about her. “How do you normally spend your evenings?”
    “I spend a lot of time with Jen and Tiffany, either going out to clubs or hanging out at mine or Tiffany’s condo. If I’m not with them, I work on one of my projects. She grinned sheepishly. “Or I lie on the couch and watch TV.”
    He found it endearing she was embarrassed about being a couch potato, especially since he hadn’t expected a whole lot more from her in the first place. At least not until this morning. Now that he’d gotten to know her better, he felt bad about his rush to judgment. “What kind of projects?”
    She took another bite of her burger and a big gulp of her sweet tea. “I restore old furniture. Well, not exactly restore. I usually give the pieces a fresh coat of paint to liven them up but rarely restore them to their original look.”
    He stared, speechless. Something that didn’t go unnoticed.
    “Mountain lion got your tongue?” Her grin was sly and playful as she scooped up another glob of ketchup.
    “Mountain lion?”
    “Yeah.” Her grin grew and that damned dimple that seemed to be mocking him made another appearance. “It would be silly to say ‘cat got your tongue.’ You’re too big and tough for that. Although, it’s probably silly to say anything got your tongue. What does that even mean?” She snapped her mouth shut and ran her tongue over her teeth, then grabbed her burger and shoved it into her mouth like a plug, stopping the flow of words.
    He laughed at her quirkiness and switched his attention to her mouth, opened wide, and her pretty pink lips wrapped around the burger. The nasty thoughts that had started getting their groove on were cut short, though, as her white teeth sank into the burger and reality cut the fantasy off at the knees.
    He cleared his throat and tugged on his jeans while shifting his position. “I admit you surprised me with the restoring furniture thing, but that’s cool. Where do you get the pieces?”
    “Here and there, mostly secondhand shops.” She paused and diverted her gaze. “I haven’t gotten up the nerve to go to yard sales yet, but I’m working on that. What about you? How do you spend your evenings?”
    A chill slivered through him as he looked into her eyes, once again projecting an inner naivety and innocence that would be permanently sullied if he answered her honestly. Lying wasn’t his thing, but he also found the-whole-truth-and-nothing-but incredibly unappealing in the face of her guilelessness.