Her grip on the phone tightened as she concentrated on not clenching her jaw. “Everyone’s tucked in.”
Don’t accuse him of anything.
“What about you? Are you still in Florida?” If he said yes, Maddie could call Alex for confirmation, because she’d also been part of the team Elite Force sent down there.
“Got back earlier today. I’m over at Murphy’s with Alex and Spike.”
Maddie forgot about not clenching her teeth, and she actually felt her nostrils flare.
Sure you are.
If Keith were with Alex and Spike, he wouldn’t have his hand on another woman. If he even tried it, they’d call him out and then make sure she knew.
“So that’s the story you’re going with.” She heard the anger in her voice. While she’d rather sound indifferent, she preferred to sound angry instead of hurt.
“It’s the truth. After the debrief, we met here,” Keith replied, confusion clear in his voice.
He’s good.Maddie would give him that.
“I have some pictures that are telling me something else, Keith. Why don’t you check them out and then try again?” she said before forwarding the two photos to him. So much for not accusing him of anything. But hey, she was only human. She didn’t wait for a response before continuing. “Because the person sitting next to you doesn’t look like Spike to me.”
* * *
Alex was next to him,while Spike sat across the table. Not that it mattered, because it didn’t help clarify Maddie’s comments. If she were at home, he’d ask if she had been drinking. That was how much sense she was making.
With no idea of what he’d see, Keith lowered his phone. A photo of him with his hand on the blonde’s breast and one of her all but sitting in his lap greeted him.
“Who sent you these?”
Half a second after speaking the words, Keith realized his mistake. The question made him sound guilty. And dammit, he’d done nothing wrong. The woman had sat down next to him. He hadn’t invited her.
“A friend. So you don’t deny that it’s you in those pictures?”
I wish I could.
Keith scanned the crowd. He didn’t see any of her friends, but he didn’t know all of them either. But someone in here not only recognized him but took photos without his permission. Photos that didn’t tell the complete story.
Up to that point, Alex and Spike had been arguing about which was better: ice cream or frozen custard. It was a stupid argument, because everyone knew ice cream was superior. But both shut up and focused on him when he said, “No, but I don’t know who she is.”
“Then you make a habit of groping women you don’t know.” Maddie’s tone went from angry to furious.
Dragging his hand across his face, he wished a slow and agonizing death to the blonde and whoever had sent Maddie the pictures.
“Maddie, you know me better than that. And it’s not what it looks like. The woman in the photo sat down next to me while I waited for Alex and Spike. She put my hand there and invited me back to her house.”
Several surveillance cameras recorded everything that happened in the restaurant, so there was a good chance one had recorded the whole encounter. Too bad he had no way to access the data.
“When I turned her down, she left and returned to the bar. That’s it. About five minutes later, Alex and Spike got here. We’ve been together ever since.”
“Some random woman just sat down, placed your hand on her boob, and invited you back to her house?” Skepticism dripped from Maddie’s voice.
It sounded like an unlikely scenario, even to him. However, that didn’t change the fact that it had happened.
He’d never cheated on a girlfriend and certainly didn’t intend to start now. But if he’d planned to take a woman home with him while Maddie was away, he wouldn’t do it while waiting for their friends to show up. “Do you honestly think I would’ve invited her over while waiting for Spike and Alex?”
“They’re with you now?”
Isn’t that what I just said?