Page 7

“Esme.”
All four kids turned to look at me, then back at Esme, who was staring at me like I’d suddenly grown ten heads. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, then she rubbed them together. “Um, Wolfe. Hi.”
“Wolfe? What sort of name is that?” This was from the boy, who maybe didn’t realize his whispered scoffing was definitely loud enough for me to hear. The older girl realized though and blushed as much as Esme before sticking her elbow in his ribs and hissing at him to be quiet.
Now, let me tell you, I have wined, dined and bedded the best of them. I’ve fucked women wearing nothing but diamonds that I paid for. In cars. On rooftops. In their beds while their husbands played golf. I know how to woo, seduce and enthrall. It’s part of my charm. But in front of a fresh-faced young woman and four wide-eyed kids, all that skill, all that charm, utterly deserted me. I had no fucking clue what to say to her. A lame, “I’ll leave you to your shopping,” was all I could manage before turning on my heel and heading back down the aisle, into the next one. Full of household cleaning items, which I was now going to have to pretend to be interested in, even though someone came to clean my house every day.
I tried to wait until she was done with her shopping, but obviously hadn’t tracked her movements around the store adequately enough, so that I arrived at the registers just behind her. And there was only one till open, which meant I was standing behind her while she loaded her cart onto the belt.
“Your name isn’t really Wolfe, is it?”
Jeez, this kid was fixated. Esme spun around so fast I’m surprised she didn’t get whiplash.
“Yeah, it is actually.”
“That’s a pretty weird name.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, but it’s cool. I like it.”
“What’s your name?”
“Florian.” The kid straightened his spine, maybe ready for some mockery.
Not from me, kid. “That’s a cool name.”
“I get teased a lot.”
“I used to, too.”
He looked me up and down, clearly not believing a word of it. “What did you do to stop it?”
“Grew really tall and took up boxing.”
His shoulders slumped. “I’ll never get tall.”
“Get really good at boxing, then.” Through the entire conversation, Esme continued to unpack her cart. I noticed the way she grouped the items. First came the cleaning products. Then cans of food. Cartons of milk and juice after that. Fresh produce next. Bread and eggs last. Fascinating.
“My name’s Tiana.”
“Hi. Nice to meet you.”
This one flashed me a gap-toothed smile. “Do you have brothers or sisters?”
“I do. Two brothers and one sister.”
“Are their names weird like yours?”
“Guys, you can’t just go around telling people their names are weird.” Esme didn’t look at me as she admonished the kids and I found myself hungry to feel her eyes on me again.
“My oldest brother is Grayson, then there’s Rhett, then my sister is Caitlyn.”
“Boring.” Florian was completely unimpressed.
“Sorry to disappoint. I’ll pass your feedback on to my parents.”
That earned me a quick look from Esme, her eyes dancing with amusement. Utterly gorgeous.