Her eyes brightened. “I’d love a beer but that’s really inapprop—”
“Two Stella Artois,” he ordered, stuffing a bill in the tip jar.
“Frosted glass?” the bartender asked.
“Bottles.” A moment later, he turned and handed over her beer, a cocktail napkin wrapped around the iced-down bottle. “You don’t strike me as the type to conform in a crowd, Isabella Sawyer.”
“Being here…around my parents.” She shook her head. “I feel like a child around them—a misbehaving one.”
“So if I weren’t here, you’d choke down champagne you don’t want?”
“My mother says ladies drink champagne.” Her pronouncement brought her closer to his ear, the scent of her perfume wafting over him. The musky spice reminded him of cinnamon or ginger or some exotic flower. Maybe all three.
Eli took her hand and held her at arm’s length, encouraging her to spin in a circle, which she did. When she was facing him again, bright pink dress revealing legs a mile long, sweating beer in one hand, a glorious grin on her face, Eli couldn’t help smiling back. He tugged her closer, his hand low on her back sliding over the silk of her dress.
“Trust me, Sable. No one will mistake you for anything less than a lady. Even holding a beer bottle.” He felt eyes on them and noticed a few men watching her with bald appreciation. “I think you’re more of a catch with it.”
They parted and drank down a few swallows, their eyes locked.
“Now,” he said. “Let’s hear it.”
“Hear what?”
“Whatever I need to know about this Josh guy.” He regretted steering the conversation back to her ex the second he did it. Isa lost her loose composure and sucked in a deep breath that tensed her shoulders.
“What do you need to know?”
“Did you live with him?”
“No.” She practically spat the word. “Thank God.”
He’d second that motion. Living with Crystal had been a mistake. Especially when she’d announced she was leaving him when he shipped out. It was an added stress he hadn’t needed to leave—or come home to.
“Were you engaged?” he asked.
“Definitely not.”
“How long did you date him?”
“Are you writing a book?” she snapped.
“Journal entry, maybe,” he said, his tone even.
“Sorry.” She shifted, smoothing the skirt of her dress. “I’m beginning to regret coming here.”
“Why did you?”
She shook her head, seemingly at a loss for a reason.
“I don’t like going into enemy territory blind,” Eli said when she didn’t respond. It brought a smile to the edge of her lips, which he liked seeing there. “I’ve got your six, Sable.”
The second it was out of his mouth, the words settled in his chest like a weight. Being here with her had become about way more than making sure Isa didn’t date Zach. This wasn’t a trade for favors from a boss/employee. Isa had been in his and his family’s corner since the beginning—he wouldn’t fail her when she needed him the most.
“Josh and I dated on and off for five years,” she said. “We split around three years ago.”
“Five years.” He and Crystal had ended things around the two years and three months mark. It was a long time to be with someone, and Isa had more than doubled that with her ex. “And you want me here because…” She’d alluded to it, hinted at it, but never truly told him.
“Because I want both Josh and my parents to know I’m not going to date him again. He once delivered an ultimatum that I choose his dream or my own or we couldn’t be together.”