That was how he found himself asking her out for a drink again. This time, they had two beers. Not just the one.
And she didn’t put quite so much space between the two of them when they left.
They had three nights in Sedona. She won every single one.
On the last night, it was three beers.
“Okay. So now I’m in the second position. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to buy me boots,” she said.
“The hell I won’t,” he said, jamming his finger on the table. “Have you not figured out that I don’t let anyone tell me what to do?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really pondered you all that much.”
“Liar,” he said. It was a little bit more flirtatious than he had been with her.
She wasn’t his type.
That was the thing.
But she was awfully damn pretty in the bar light. And just after she finished her ride, even with those fluorescent lights shining down on her. She was pretty in every light—that was the thing.
But not his type.
“I never lie,” she said. “Not ever.”
“Because your daddy was a liar?”
“I assume he still is. He’s not dead, and his mouth is still moving.”
“Fair.”
“What about you, Flint?” She rarely called him by his name. She usually called him Ace. He didn’t know why. He liked it, though. “Are you a liar?”
“I try not to be.”
“That’s not very definitive.”
“How about this. I don’t know if I’m a liar or not. Because I don’t get close enough to anyone to need to lie.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“You lie to protect yourself, right? You lie to make people think better of you, mostly. I’ve never needed to do that, because I’ve never cared enough to do it.”
“Well,” she said, and suddenly, the bar seemed quieter. “I guess that’s about as honest as a person can be.”
“Like I said. I try.”
He downed the last of his beer and they both got up, walking out the door. This time, it was a little bit farther of a walk to the motel, but they’d decided to walk so they could drink. They took the walk back kind of slow.
For some reason, he stopped. But she seemed to have the same idea he did. He turned to her. The sky above was lit up only with stars, and he could see them reflected in her eyes.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted to kiss a woman. Just kiss. That was what he wanted to do then. He wanted to reach out and cradle her cheek in his hand and feel how soft her skin was. He wanted to lean in and press his mouth to hers, but slowly.
He just wanted to kiss her.
He didn’t want to take her back to his motel room. He didn’t want... He didn’t want anything but to kiss her. She hadn’t said that he couldn’t kiss her.
“Ace,” she whispered. “Please don’t.”
He took a step back. “Okay.”
They started walking again.
“Did you only stop because...because I asked you to stop? Were you going to...?”
“Yeah. To both.”
She nodded. And then they reached the motel parking lot. And she beat a hasty retreat toward her room, which was at the opposite end of the complex. And he wondered if he had ruined whatever this was. And for some reason he felt...torn up with regret over that.
He didn’t want to lose her.
He knew that much. So he wouldn’t let himself be that stupid again.
After
“You still have this,” he said.
Tansey looked at him in horror. She hadn’t meant to leave that there. But then, she hadn’t known that he was going to come here. She hadn’t realized that he was actually going to come to her room to bring her dinner. And she felt exposed. She felt unmasked in some strange way.
