“Not a chance,” he replied with quiet conviction.
Gia opened her mouth to respond, but the waitress returned.
“Are you two an item?” the chesty waitress asked as she began to clear. She waved her hand between Seth and Gia significantly. Gia froze in the act of setting her napkin on the table. Crap. Had the waitress seen through her disguise all along?
“He’s my nephew,” Seth said, giving the waitress a stare that would have sent a less determined woman running for the distant mountains. The waitress was made of strong stuff, apparently. She blanched, but rallied.
She winked at Seth as she took Gia’s plate. “Just double-checking. I knew God couldn’t be so cruel as to make a man who looks like you gay. Boys are a bottomless pit at this age, aren’t they?” she asked Seth, glancing at Gia’s polished plate. “But a big, strong guy like you definitely needs his energy as well,” she added with a warm downward glance at Seth’s chest. “That salad isn’t enough to power up muscles like those. How about a slice of cherry pie?”
Gia watched in openmouthed amazement as the waitress continued to flirt outrageously with Seth for the next half minute. She seemed to consider Seth’s occasional grunts and brief, uninformative replies to her comments and queries as some sort of challenge to try harder.
Finally, Gia’s amusement waned and she stood, mumbling an excuse. She checked out the tiny on-site gift shop. Seth joined her a minute later.
“Are you a gambler in addition to being a surfer?” Seth joked a few minutes later as they walked through the parking lot back to the SUV. He nodded at the pack of playing cards she’d bought; they featured Route 66 streaking through the desert like a black-paved path to adventure.
“I thought we might need something to do while we’re in exile. Do you play?”
“A little,” he replied with typical brevity.
“Hmmm. You sound like you’re still talking to the waitress. Could you believe her?” she asked as they got into the SUV. Seth had indicated he wanted to keep driving until he got tired.
Seth started up the vehicle. “Believe what?”
“That waitress! The way she was coming on to you like I wasn’t even there,” Gia said with incredulous amusement.
He shrugged. “She thought you were a guy. She didn’t bother to put on the dampers.”
Gia absorbed this bit of information in fascination. “You mean that when you’re not with a
nother woman, women flirt with you like that as a matter of course?” Weird. There was a whole other world out there to which she had previously had no access.
He pulled onto the highway. “I wouldn’t say as a matter of course. If they’re prone to flirting, they certainly tone it down if there’s another woman around.”
“She really did think I was a guy,” Gia said, the reality of her appearance striking her again. She looked down at her boyish figure with renewed interest. When she focused on Seth, she saw the amused tilt of his mouth as he stared at the road.
“I’m good,” he said.
She laughed at his atypical cockiness. “What about my acting? You have to admit my boy voice was good,” she challenged, pointing a finger at him.
He nodded once in uncontested agreement. “And your walk was inspired. Smart of you to keep your hands in your pockets as much as you can. You definitely have the hands of a girl.”
She grinned because he’d noticed. A flash of guilt went through her when she recalled she’d refused to say anything about his disguise because she was feeling a bit prickly and vulnerable about these circumstances.
About being with Seth.
“If I was inspired, it was by your work. I didn’t tell you after you finished the makeup in L.A. I couldn’t believe that was me in the mirror. You are good,” she conceded, her gaze glued to his compelling profile. “I’ll give you that.”
Good at quite a few things.
His smile faded. Damn. Why did she feel like he could sometimes read her thoughts?
“So what’s my name?” she rallied, trying to turn things light again. He was going to think she was as flirtatious as that waitress. “My boy name, I mean.”
He seemed to consider for a second. “Jessie? Jessie Bauer.”
She tried out the name in her head and nodded in agreement. “And should I call you Uncle Seth?” she teased.
His swift, dark glance made her clamp her mouth shut.