When we were alone—or as alone as we could be in the middle of a bar—I turned toward her fully, running my eyes over her from head to toe. She wore a dress that covered her from neck to thigh, but her long, smooth legs were on display. Her black ankle boots were sexy, and I couldn’t stop my mind from conjuring up the image of her wearing only those and some lingerie.
Hot as hell.
Ink came over, and I told him to put her next drink on my tab.
Naomi asked him to make her another fruity concoction.
“So, I’m surprised to see you here,” I commented. “What brings you here?” I wondered if she had come to see me. It would certainly be unexpected.
“My friend, Angel, wanted to check the place out.”
I followed her gaze to the other side of the bar, where a tall redhead was leaning against a pool table with a cue in her hand as she chatted with Chalk and Hawk. She laughed, slapping Hawk’s arm in a clearly flirtatious way.
“Don’t let me keep you, if you want to go hang out with her.”
“No.” Naomi shook her head. “We’ve never gone out together before and I think we have a different idea of a good time.”
I glanced back over to see another man talking to her now, not a club member but someone I’d seen around Wheelz before. Angel had pulled a maraschino cherry out of whatever she was drinking and was making a big show of putting the stem into her mouth to tie into a knot. “How do you know her?”
“We work together.”
“You know, I just realized, I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned what you do for a living.”
Naomi broke eye contact, taking a sip of the drink that Ink had just placed in front of her.
I had a feeling there was more to it than just being thirsty.
A little panic flashed her expression for a second before she plastered on a smile. “You never mentioned it either. How’s your job?”
“It’s demolition. Tearing down buildings, gutting homes before renovation, that kind of thing.”
“That actually sounds like fun.”
I nodded. “It can be a great stress reliever, for sure. I find it satisfying to just tear things apart, especially when you know something else is going to be built. Something better.”
“I get that. The ‘building something better’ part kind of relates to what I want to do with my social work degree.”
“Really? That’s great. Have you always wanted to help people?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to help kids in the system. I grew up in foster care myself and I think it’s beneficial for a social worker to know what that’s like. It’ll help me connect with them, to build trust.”
“I had no idea you grew up like that.”
Her grin was small and understanding. “Don’t feel too sorry for me. Sure, I bounced around foster homes a lot and I never had a permanent home or family growing up. But I have Gavin now, and I couldn’t be happier about that. I’m ready to help other kids like me.”
For the first time, I could see the strength in her. She’d clearly had a tough childhood, if she went from one foster home to the other as a child. Then, she’d raised our son on her own for the first eleven years of his life. That must have been hard to do without family to help her. Without me to help her.
Finally, I didn’t feel like I was just suppressing my anger at her. I was able to really move past it. She had messed up by keeping Gavin from me, but I could understand why she might have been reluctant to depend on me. I was willing to bet she’d never been able to depend on anyone.
Of course, these were all just assumptions, but as I noticed earlier, she was easy to read.
“Speaking of kids, maybe you could tell me a little bit about Gavin?” I figured this was a good chance to get her to fill me in on his early life without him around, so she wouldn’t feel a need to censor herself about anything.
Naomi’s face lit up at the change of topic, and we spent the next hour talking. She filled me in on everything from his birth—he had a birthday coming up in two months—to his first day of school.
I laughed as she told me about his first little league game, when he got bored in the outfield and started dancing, to the delight of all the parents watching.
She was easy to talk to, and it seemed strange to realize this had been the longest conversation we’d ever had, even though we had a child.