“But no,” Carla continued, oblivious to Esa’s interruption or the loud beeping of the car horn behind them when Esa didn’t immediately scoot forward ten feet in traffic. “Instead you gave up everything. You’ve forsaken any type of the usual fun that a twenty-nine-year-old single woman has. Ever. You won’t so much as go out to have a drink with Kitten and me on a Friday night so we can laugh together or hang out with us to catch some rays on North Avenue Beach. Why don’t you just go ahead and get your room reserved at Shady Lawn Nursing Home before your thirtieth birthday?”
Esa grimaced. As if she really wanted to put her near-nude, mile-wide curves on display next to Carla and Rachel’s svelte, gym-hewn bodies at the beach. But she’d be damned if she’d give Carla the satisfaction of saying that out loud.
“I’m Shady Lawn’s physician, Carla. I can’t help it if I have to spend so much time there.”
“You have more fun socializing with those old coots than you do me!”
The driver behind them gave up laying on the horn and glared at Esa as he passed in the next lane. Esa was too busy staring at Carla in stunned disbelief to even notice. Finally she clamped her mouth shut and shot forward a long stretch of road.
“Well, that certainly came out of nowhere,” Esa muttered after a moment.
Carla sighed. “Sorry. But I’d be lying if I said any of it wasn’t true. You’re no fun anymore, Esa.”
“I’m fun,” Esa snarled.
“Sure, the residents of Shady Lawn think you’re the life of the party,” Carla muttered under her breath. She noticed Esa’s glare. “Okay, if you’re so fun, prove it. If Vito’s all he’s cracked up to be I’m meeting him and a few other chatters from the online traffic group for a drink at One Life, that new club on Huron Street downtown. Go with me? Please?”
Esa hesitated, thinking about all the medical charts she had stuffed into her briefcase. Carla’s scolding warred with her practical nature. Even though she’d been acting so superior in regard to this whole flirting in traffic affair, Esa had to admit that it felt kind of good to have Carla beg her to take part in a loony scheme.
“I guess it’ll be interesting if nothing else.”
“Perfect.” Carla clapped her hands happily before giving Esa a concerned look. “You’re going to at least take off your glasses before going in One Life though, aren’t you?”
Before Esa could unclench her teeth, Carla’s blue eyes overtook half her face. “Look, we’re almost to the 63rd Street viaduct.”
“What’s this Vito supposed to look like anyway?” Esa asked, curious despite herself. Her gaze flickered over the road construction to the left of the car, a vast landscape of cranes, drills, broken-up concrete, exposed rebar and hard-working men. The project was so massive that a full crew would work until nightfall. At that point gigantic lights would be illuminated and abbreviated work would continue until well past midnight.
The sight of a man exiting the door of a construction trailer snagged her roving gaze. Her eyes widened. Maybe Carla was right about this sexy-construction-worker thing. Talk about a long, lean slice of pure heaven. This guy was some serious eye candy. Esa fo
cused on the subtle rolling motion of trim hips encased in low-riding, clinging jeans as he came down the stairs, work boots stomping.
Those long legs and that sexy saunter would have caught her eye anytime, anywhere. Surely a guy who moved like that just had to move well in bed. At five-foot-eight-inches herself, Esa liked a tall man. She wanted to feel feminine in comparison to a date, not like Durgha, Queen of the Amazons. Maybe she was brainwashed by a sexist society but was it too much to ask for a man who she’d bet without a doubt could beat her in an arm wrestling match?
She found herself staring fixedly at the fullness behind the construction guy’s fly. She blinked dazedly. A warm, tingling sensation flickered in her lower belly and simmered down to her sex. The sensation took her by surprise, it had been so long since she’d experienced it.
She glanced forward just in time to stop them from plowing into a Dodge Intrepid.
The man drew her gaze again like a magnet, however. Her eyelids narrowed in fascination as her gaze traveled up a whipcord-lean torso that slanted tantalizingly to shoulders that weren’t necessarily brawny but extremely muscular and perfectly suited to his build. The dark blue t-shirt that he wore covered what Esa guessed were powerful biceps but left a pair of strong, tanned forearms exposed. He crossed them below his chest in a casual gesture when he paused next to a pickup truck that had just come to a neat stop next to him.
Esa was so busy mentally slobbering that it took a few seconds to realize that Carla was talking.
“I know what you’re going to say. Guys can say they’re Brad Pitt’s twin online and then you meet them and they’re more like Quasimodo’s uglier brother but I don’t know, Esa. I’ve got a feeling about this guy. He’s six foot three, dark blond hair, works out regularly at his club in addition to all that hard work that he does during the day so you know his body’s got to be rock-hard, thirty-one years old—”
A prickle of apprehension went through Esa when the man in the truck suddenly stopped talking to Mr. Adonis and looked point-blank at Esa. Although his face remained mostly in shadow, she saw his chin make a subtle pointing gesture. The man she’d been checking out so shamelessly turned around and pinpointed her with his gaze. Even at a distance of twenty feet that stare lasered straight through Esa.
“We’re here. This is it. Go slow, Esa,” Carla ordered in obvious excitement as they neared the 63rd Street viaduct. She sat forward in the passenger seat and examined the thirty or so men working in the vicinity.
“All right, all right,” Esa muttered under her breath as she pressed on the brake. She suddenly felt self-conscious and silly, like she was in the seventh grade and at the roller rink passing a cute boy standing on the sidelines. A hysterical laugh tickled her throat at the thought.
She glanced over nervously at the two men, still feeling the one’s stare like a light caress on her neck and shoulder. “I don’t suppose Vito said he had blue eyes.”
“Oh my God, Esa, that’s him,” Carla said under her breath when she finally zeroed in on the Adonis standing next to the truck. “Heaven help me, I’m in love.”
Chapter Two
Esa experienced a flash of jealousy at Carla’s proclamation. She’d seen him first, after all. Her ridiculous proprietary attitude only grew when Carla gave a high wattage smile and waved. She glanced over in time to see Vito’s hand go up slowly in a return greeting. He said something quietly to the man in the truck. Esa saw a flash of white teeth when he grinned at something his friend said. Carla giggled in the seat next to her.
Cocky bastard, Esa decided irritably. She threw him a sour look before she glanced ahead.