Sorry. Something came up. Rain check?

She stared at the message blankly for long moments. So much for an explanation. Something had come up? And he was only telling her now? Half an hour after he was supposed to be meeting her?

Tucker, who was watching her face intently, leaned forward. “What?”

“Guess I have been stood up.” Handing over the phone, Della sat back in her chair. Had Joel ever had any intention of meeting with her tonight? And why on earth would he string her along?

“What the hell?” Tucker said, glancing from the screen to her. “Something came up?”

A sudden spike of irritation flushed through her system, and she held out her hand for her phone. She wondered if he was idiot enough to broadcast what had been more important. On a terrible hunch, she navigated to his Facebook. An hour ago, he’d checked in at Hooters. Twenty minutes after that, he’d posted Making friends with my buddies and a picture of him and three other guys draped around two pneumatic blondes wearing tiny white T-shirts and even tinier orange pants.

Oh yeah. Something had come up all right.

Della was torn between crying and hurling her phone across the restaurant. Not because Joel had decided that the women at Hooters were preferable to her company, but because he hadn’t considered her important enough to clue her in earlier. And to think she’d been worried that something might have happened to him. It looked like his only risk of injury at the moment was a black eye from being slugged with one of those giant boobs.

God alone knew what her face looked like, but Tucker actually slid his hand over hers as he leaned even closer. “What?” he said in a half whisper, his voice urgent.

She turned the phone around to show Tucker the post. It took about two seconds for his face to go from anxious to grim.

“What an asshole.” He flicked his gaze to her face. “Are you okay?”

The concern in his voice rattled her already shaky foundation. Hot tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, and she blinked rapidly to dispel them before they got a foothold. “I’m fine,” she dismissed.

“Della.” He squeezed her hand. “That dude is not worth your tears.”

“I know.” And she did know. She wasn’t crying over Joel. She was crying over how damn inadequate he’d made her feel. “I just don’t understand how three hours ago he texts me to tell me he’s looking forward to tonight, and then he stands me up to stare at big-boobed women with his buddies.”

“As much as I don’t want to make any excuses for the guy, I suspect three hours ago he was still planning on seeing you, and then he…”

Della’s brain picked up where Tucker was leading. “Got a better offer?”

“Yeah… Something like that.”