No Time like Mardi Gras. Kimberly Lang

Teddy. He owns the Lucky Gator.”

      Jamie followed his finger, and Teddy waved at her. With a small, slightly confused smile, she waved back.

      “Teddy is concerned that you’re not having a very good time in his establishment.”

      An eyebrow went up. “So you’ve been sent over here to find out why?”

      She was honest, it seemed. No false assertions or denials. “Something like that. He seems to think I might be able to entertain you a little, since the music isn’t doing it.” He leaned forward. “Not that I blame you for having better taste than that.”

      “That’s very kind of you and Teddy both, but I’m sure you’re very busy today and have better things to do than entertain me.”

      “Teddy is busy. I’m done, thank God.”

      Jamie’s head cocked sideways, causing the end of her braid to fall over her shoulder and into the cleavage that peeked through the colorful beads. “Your shift is over already? I’d think the big money would be made later today.”

      It took him a second to catch up. Jamie assumed he was Teddy’s employee, which, considering the circumstances, wasn’t a bad guess. But he didn’t feel the need to correct her, either. The truth would require explanations and this really wasn’t the time for that. “This place will be a zoo in a few more hours. And once the parades are over, it will be a complete madhouse. There’s not enough money on the planet to get me to work that shift.” And Teddy knows not to even try to call in that as a favor.

      “It gets that crazy, huh?”

      He laughed. “This must be your first Mardi Gras.”

      Jamie’s nose crinkled. “Is it that obvious?”

      “Pretty much. The big giveaway is that you’re sitting here not having a good time when no matter what your definition of a good time is, it can be found right beyond those doors.”

      She sighed wistfully. “Yeah, this was not what I expected to do today, but I came with Kelsey and she wants to listen to David play.”

      “Boyfriend?”

      “Not yet, but she’s hopeful about it. And since I don’t know my way around or anything, I’m stuck here with her.”

      “What did you want to do today?” There was literally something for everyone, but since she’d already ruled out drinking, she obviously had something else in mind.

      She smiled and it lit up her face. “I wanted to see the parades, of course. We caught a little bit of Zulu on the way in, but we were carrying the band’s stuff and couldn’t hang out to really watch.”

      He looked at the clock over the bar. “Rex should be getting to Canal shortly. The truck parades follow it. There’s still plenty of parade goodness available, if that’s what you want.”

      He could tell she wanted to, but that she was tamping down the desire. “Yeah, but I don’t think Kelsey’s really interested.”

      “Go without her.”

      She wrinkled her nose. It was kind of adorable. She was kind of adorable. “It wouldn’t be much fun to go alone.”

      “It couldn’t be less fun than you’re having now.”

      “True.” She fiddled with the beads around her neck, seemingly torn. “But would it be safe to go by myself? This may be my first Mardi Gras, but I have heard stories and I’m not stupid.”

      That did show good sense. “Well, you’re sober, so that increases your safety exponentially right there. And you’d only need to go about two or three blocks on well-populated streets in the middle of the day, so I think you’d be all right. There’s a lot of people, but there’s also a lot of police around. If it was dark and you were planning on wandering the Quarter alone, I’d say differently.”

      “I don’t know.” He could hear the indecision in her voice, the desire to go somewhere else battling with the common sense not to wander about alone in a strange city. “When I was a teenager, my mother used to tell me that it wasn’t me she didn’t trust, it was the situation.” Her mouth twisted into a wry smile. “And if there was ever an untrustworthy situation, this would probably be it.”

      “Want me to go with you?” It wasn’t until Jamie’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline in shock that he realized what he’d said. The offer had just come out of nowhere, without forethought, and he was almost as shocked as Jamie that he’d even made it. But he couldn’t just let her sit here when it was such an easy thing to fix.

      Jamie was quick to recover, though. “That’s very kind of you, but I’m sure you have other plans today.”

      He realized that was almost as suave of an invitation as she could get from any number of random dudes on the street. She’d just said she wasn’t stupid, and her refusal—as polite as it was—showed it.

      But he was oddly disappointed. He’d known her for all of five minutes—and without Teddy’s intervention he wouldn’t have known her at all—but being shot down like that still stung, no matter how much sense it made. And it wasn’t as if it would help to mention that she’d be perfectly safe with him; he was pretty sure most serial killers professed what nice guys they were, too.

      “I have no other plans,” that much was almost true “and I’d be happy to go with you for a while and walk you back here when you’ve seen enough.”

      He could tell Jamie was really tempted. She was clearly bored out of her mind here and desperate to do something else, but he understood her hesitation at wandering off with a guy she’d just met. He’d kill his sister if she ever did exactly what he was suggesting to Jamie. At the same time, he was growing more and more interested in her and actually wanted her to accept his offer.

      Then the band hit a particularly discordant note, and Jamie winced. That seemed to shake her out of her indecision. She tapped her friend on the shoulder. “Kelsey, give me your phone.”

      The blonde turned around for the first time. “What? Why?” she asked as she handed it over.

      Jamie held it up in his direction. “Smile.”

      Caught off guard, he did, and Jamie took his picture.

      “Kelsey, this is Colin. He’s a bartender here.” Jamie was typing into the phone as she spoke, but Kelsey sized him up and smiled at him appreciatively. Then Jamie looked at him again. “Last name?”

      This didn’t make a lot of sense, but he answered anyway. “Raine.”

      “R-A-I-N?”

      “E,” he added automatically.

      “Thanks.” She handed the phone back to her friend. “Colin and I are going up to Canal to watch the parade.”

      Kelsey gave Jamie a look and a smirk. “Really, now? How interesting.” The innuendo in her voice all but had them doing it in an alley fifteen minutes from now.

      Jamie frowned back at her. “I’ll meet you back here later. I’ve got my phone with me, so send me a text if you go somewhere else.”

      Kelsey gave Jamie a big smile and then winked at him suggestively. He wasn’t unaccustomed to having women flirt with him, but that wink bordered on tawdry and made him feel a little dirty. “Y’all have fun.”

      Jamie stood. Until now, he’d only seen her from the waist up, but that white T-shirt tucked into a pair of cutoffs exposing tanned legs and firm thighs. She wasn’t tall, maybe only chin height on him, but everything was perfectly proportioned.

      So far he had no real reason to regret his impromptu and unexpected invitation.

      Then Jamie grinned at him, her excitement clearly evident and surprisingly contagious to someone who should have been long immune to the parades. “Let’s go.”

      Chartres