Hunks Too Hot To Touch by Marie Rochelle Page B

interested in Shauntie and now I might have an opportunity with her. I won’t allow it to slip away from me again. I have a second chance with her.”
    Brian eyed him from across the table giving him an odd look, as waitresses dressed in their red shorts and tight black tops walked past them. Nash mentally kicked himself for not keeping his mouth shut. Brian was going to remember Shauntie.
    “Wait a minute,” Brian said, “are you talking about the girl who dated J.T.? You used to talk about her all the time whenever you spotted J.T. with another woman. Wasn’t she a doctor or something? I mean she’s wealthy. I know you aren’t talking about the same person. I thought you’d forgotten all about her. It’s been a while since you brought her up.”
    Chance’s eyes darted from him back over to Brian. “Shauntie’s a doctor and you actually think she would give you the time of day? Why would she ever think of you as anything more than her roofer?”
    Nash thought Brian and Chance would be happy for him. What was going on tonight with his buddies? Weren’t they supposed to be buying him a beer and celebrating he might have found someone? Instead of getting praise and congratulations all he was getting was cheap shots and negativity. He wasn’t expecting any of this from his friends. They should be on his side not against him.
    “Brian, you’re right. Shauntie is the woman that J.T. used to date when he was our roommate. I had feelings for her back then, but as you know she only had eyes for J.T.”
    “Man, I can’t believe you’re interested in getting with a woman one of your friends dated. Isn’t there some kind of code against doing that sort of thing?” Chance asked. Grabbing a handful of peanuts out of the bowl in the middle of the table, he tossed them into his mouth.
    “No, there isn’t some sort of rule about that Chance because J.T. wasn’t ever my friend. He was a guy paying one third of the rent for a month or two. Besides, it wasn’t like he ever brought Shauntie to the apartment. The only time I saw her was when she would come by the construction site,” Nash snapped getting fed with Chance’s harassment. Yeah, he might be a cop, but he didn’t have to interrogate him.
    “Okay man, whatever,” Chance said getting up from the table; he grabbed his empty beer bottle. “I’m heading over to the bar for another beer and maybe find that chick you tossed away, so I can get her number.” Chance walked away from the table leaving him alone with Brian.
    “What’s up with him tonight? He’s being more of a pain in the ass than usual,” Nash asked as he watched the back of his friend’s head as it disappeared into the crowd.
    Looking away from Chance, Brian’s eyes landed on him. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “He was in a bad mood when I picked him up. I think it might be something involving his job. I know the police station has been making him work longer shifts since two officers got transferred out of the precinct.”
    “Well, I’m sorry his job has been getting to him. But, that doesn’t give him the right to treat me like I’m the suspect in a murder crime. What was up with him and those questions? Shauntie and J.T. are over. I have every right in the world to want to date her and it isn’t any of his business.”
    “Don’t let him get to you,” Brian said. “Tell me more about Shauntie. How did it feel to see her again? I remember how you talked about her all of the time back when we both worked construction together. I think even J.T. knew that you liked her.”
    Now this was the Brian he had been looking for earlier, Nash thought. The Brian he could always count on to have his back no matter what it was about. He understood why Chance wasn’t concerned about his feelings towards Shauntie. His other buddy wasn’t around during that part of his life, so Shauntie was a stranger to him. He wasn’t there to experience the history.
    “I can’t put it into words. She