“Right.” I knew that. How did I know that?
“So what do you think?” Ollie said. “Wanna try ’em out?”
I could hear him talking, but all my mind could seem to focus on was the image of Ollie mixing spices.Get it together before he decides to cut the night short and take you home.“Sure. Fish tacos sound great.”
And they were. Fresh and perfectly flaky with some kind of creamy sauce that had me licking my fingers. When I moaned while savoring my last bite, Ollie chuckled.
“Doesn’t look like you enjoyed those at all. I really should give better recommendations,” he said.
“Yes, terrible choice. Absolutely hated them.” I grinned and sucked a bit of sauce from my finger, and Ollie’s eyes dropped down to my mouth. But then he quickly looked away, over to where Mike and Deb two-stepped on the dance floor. Or at least that was what I thought they were supposed to be doing. Mike seemed to be making up a few moves, complete with hip thrusts that had Deb laughing her ass off.
“Your friends are pretty interesting,” I said.
“That’s a nice way to put it.”
“I mean that in a good way. You’re lucky to have people who care about you the way they obviously do.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. They seem protective in that way that says they’ll kick the ass of anyone who messes with you. And they welcomed me tonight with no hesitation, not even knowing anything about me other than you invited me. Not to mention they’re hilarious.”
“Oh God. Please don’t say any of this to Mike. It’s already hard enough to get his ego through the door.”
I let out a laugh, because I had no doubt that was true, or at least half true. Mike seemed to be in on the joke. “Did you guys meet at work?”
“No, actually. We met before that.” He stopped and gripped the back of his neck as his cheeks turned pink. “I, uh, dated Deb’s cousin, so I’d met them at some dinner or…something.”
“Oh. So you could’ve been family, huh?”
“Well, they’re the closest thing I have to family, so yeah. I guess you could say I got them in the breakup.”
The closest thing to family?“You don’t have brothers or sisters? Family nearby?”
He shook his head. “I’m an only child. My parents passed away when I was seventeen, and I’ve been on my own ever since.”
Holy shit.For some reason, I wasn’t all that surprised at his words, but Iwassurprised at how they affected me. An intense wave of sympathy and crushing sadness filled my chest as I realized this man beside me, who I’d thought was so sure of himself when I met him, was all alone in the world, save for Mike and Deb. Or did he have anyone else? Aunts, uncles, cousins? Grandparents? I got the feeling if I asked him, he’d tell me no, because wouldn’t they have taken him in when his parentspassed? And again I felt the twinge of guilt for how I’d treated my own parents over the last few weeks.
As if reading my thoughts, Ollie said, “It’s okay. I’m not a sob story, I promise.” Then he nudged me, trying to lighten the mood, but something else had popped into my brain, something that came out of nowhere but I knew to be true, though I didn’t know how.
“They died in a car accident, didn’t they? Your parents?”
Ollie’s brows shot up. “Good guess.”
But it wasn’t a guess. At least, I didn’t think it was. Shit. Had my accident caused me to become clairvoyant or something? First the bowling guy, then the taco seasoning, and now this? “Yeah,” I said, swallowing. “Lucky guess.”
As I looked over to where Mike and Deb were slow-dancing in the middle of the crowded floor, another pair of eyes nearby caught my attention. Blond surfer guy was staring at Ollie…or maybe he was staring between the two of us, I couldn’t tell, and something about the way he looked in our direction made me want to hit him—a reaction that surprised the shit out of me, considering I wasn’t usually a violent person and I didn’t know him from Adam. But when he didn’t look away, I finally asked Ollie who he was—not that it was any of my business.
Ollie looked over in the guy’s direction. “Who, Holland over there? He’s just someone I used to hang out with.”
Holland? What kind of a name isHolland?“Used to?”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“Why not?”
“Been busy.”
“But you used to date?”