The Greek's Green Card Bride - Holly Rayner Page 0,2

city. I’m here for work, but this afternoon I’m just going to enjoy myself and see what DC has to offer.

Chapter 2

Eva

Eva couldn’t believe the heat. “Isn’t it supposed to be cooler than this in September?” she asked her best friend, Nikki, as the two walked side by side. “It feels like freaking August.”

She waved a hand in front of her face, hoping that it might provide some relief. She was happy that she’d thought to pack a tank top with her when she went to work that morning, for her shift as a hostess at The Red Door Grille. There was no way she’d have ventured out in the afternoon heat in the thick polyester polo shirt that she had to wear as a uniform each day.

Nikki ignored Eva’s question. “Oh! I can hear him playing!” Guitar music floated through the air, getting louder with each step that they took.

Nikki went on. “I swear, he’s been practicing for like two or three hours every day. Isn’t he getting good?”

“Really good,” Eva said.

Nikki’s husband, Clint, was a guitarist in a modestly successful local band. Eva always enjoyed their music, and she was excited about the performance ahead.

“This is the new song he wrote!” Nikki said, grabbing Eva’s arm. “We’re missing it!”

Eva pointed to an alley across the street. “Let’s duck through there,” she suggested. “It’ll save us some time.”

She waited for a few cars to pass and then stepped lightly across the road. Her sandals made slapping sounds against the pavement. As soon as she stepped into the alleyway, she felt the air temperature drop a few degrees, thanks to the shade provided by buildings on either side.

A figure at the far end of the alley caught her eye—and stopped her in her tracks.

He was shirtless, and his abs rippled with definition. He had dark, curly hair, and his body was out of this world. For an instant, she thought that she was hallucinating due to the heat. There was no way a man that good-looking really existed.

“Hottie, twelve o’clock,” Nikki said in a hoarse whisper.

Eva blinked a few times. If Nikki saw him, too, that meant he was real.

She felt her breath catch in her throat. It was a few seconds before she managed to inhale and exhale again, and another few before she could respond to Nikki.

“What is he doing?” she whispered.

They both watched as the man reached for something in a paper shopping bag at his feet. It was a black T-shirt. He pulled it over his head, hiding his drop-dead-gorgeous bare torso from view.

Then he turned, stepped out of the alley and into the sunlight beyond. When he was bathed in sunlight, Eva saw that his skin was a deep bronze. She caught sight of dark stubble on his chiseled jawline. He reached a hand up and ran it through his dark hair, and sunlight glinted off of a gold bracelet that he wore around one of his tanned wrists.

Eva couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

She watched, speechless, as he adjusted the messenger bag on his shoulder, and then headed in the direction of the waterfront.

Nikki spoke first. She turned to Eva and raised her brows. “Wow. I sure am glad we took this shortcut. You saw that, right?”

“How could I miss it?” Eva said. Now that the handsome stranger was out of sight, she was beginning to gather herself. “He was gorgeous!”

Nikki laughed. “Well, you’ve been saying how much you wish you had a guy. Here we are, taking a random shortcut, and we see a Greek god right in front of us, with his shirt off. Girlfriend, if that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.”

Eva started walking again. She didn’t want Nikki to miss all of the song being performed, and it wouldn’t last much longer. “You’re right, that was pretty magical,” she said.

“Dang, I wish I took a picture,” Nikki lamented. “That was a once-in-a-lifetime sighting—like a rare bird or something.”

Eva chuckled. “And what do you think Clint would do if he found a picture of a smokin’ hot stranger on your phone? Think he’d be thrilled about that?”

“Probably not,” Nikki admitted. “Hey, you’re the single one. You should have taken a picture of him. Better yet, you should go find him. It looked like he was heading to the wharf, right? When life gives you lemons, you’ve got to make lemonade.”

Eva laughed again. “So in your analogy, that guy was the lemons?”

“Exactly,” Nikki said. They emerged out into the