“Are you gay?”
He thought about saying yes, but Liv chose that moment to deliver their plates and he didn’t want her to hear any of their conversation.Genius move, coming here. Instead of answering, he busied himself with salt and pepper and ketchup. By the time he looked up she was eating.Just as well.
Matt finally texted and confirmed he could drive the girls to their car and wait for a tow truck with them—and even better news, they were en route. Without a word, Rafe slid his phone across the Formica tabletop so Natalie could read it. Relief flitted across her face. He didn’t wait for Liv to bring them a bill. Their breakfast would be exactly twice his usual. He left three times as much on the table and escorted his sort-of-but-not-really date out to the parking lot just as Matt roared up in his bright blue F-150.
Natalie hesitated when her friend opened the passenger door and gestured for her to get in. “About your shirt…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Maybe if they have another date, I can send it back with her.”
Matt Foster rarely hooked up with the same woman more than once. He preferred to leave them with a happy smile after the first—and only—go round, before any attachment could form. The man managed to stay on this side of having a player reputation, and no doubt the next time he saw Natalie’s friend, she’d squeal and give him a big sloppy kiss on the cheek. But that would be it for them. “Yeah. Maybe.”
— —
Rafe scuffed his boot in the hard pack dirt at the bottom of the diner steps. He’d paid. His guest was gone. He had no reason not to get in his own truck and head home for some much needed sleep.
He definitely had no explanation for jogging up the steps and stepping inside. Liv hadn’t cleared his dishes yet, even though the place was now empty. Instead, she was tidying every other part of the space. Squaring off chairs around the tables in the middle of the room. Refilling napkins.
She reached over the counter for her damp rag, and he let himself have his fill of staring at her nipped-in waist and the flare of her hips. The memory of cupping her bottom as she slowly rode him in the middle of the night was bittersweet—one he never wanted to forget, and had desperately needed to get over.
His dick had other thoughts. Like closing the gap between them and pressing up against her, his front to her back. Hugging and kissing and making it all right.
But there was no magical cure for mismatched love. And anything less than that would just be a variation on disrespecting her. It was all that had held him back from suggesting something casual over the last twenty-four months. She deserved more than a furtive roll in the hay with her ex.
So instead of groping her or begging for sexual scraps, he forced himself to saunter to his table, grab his mug, and head for the coffee pot.
She knew he was there. She’d glanced at him in the mirrored panels over the pass-through. “Your girlfriend get off okay?”
He poured the hot, black liquid into his cup, grateful for the furious sloshing noise it provided. “I told you,” he drawled slowly. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“It’s none of my business.”
“I’m always your business.” In his chest, his heart thumped a little harder at the way her spine straightened when he said that. “I was Matt’s wingman last night and her car wouldn’t start at the end of the night. It was just easier to let her stay at my place.”
“Let me put this another way,” she said coldly, her back still to him. “I don’t want to know.”
“I slept on the couch.” The words grated out of him, and he knew it probably sounded like he resented having to explain himself. Except he didn’t. He’d come back inside to make sure she knew what had really happened. If he was gruff, that was more due to not knowing how the explanation would land. Doubt that it would be received as he hoped.
She whirled on him, eyes blazing and cheeks pink. “Do you think that makes you some sort of hero, Rafe? We’re divorced. You’re supposed to move on and date other people.”
“I’m not supposed to do it in front of you.”
She laughed, a sad, empty sound. “Hard to avoid that in a town of six hundred people.”
“We were in Lion’s Head, actually.”
She held up her hand. “Still don’t want to know.”
He took a sip of coffee. All the things he wanted to say froze in his throat.Give me a second chance. You look tired and gorgeous at the same time. Are you dating anyone?
“I’m glad you’re moving on,” she said, her voice softening. “It’s been…like time has frozen for us. And we’re too young for that. I just don’t want to see it.”
He took a final swig of coffee and glared at her across the diner. Then he rinsed his cup in the sink and placed it in the dirty dishes bin before prowling around the counter and getting close enough to see the whites of her eyes as she lifted her brow in surprise.
“I’m not moving on.” He matched her slow, quiet tone. They’d done enough yelling, him and Liv. He reached out and put his hands on her hips. She felt different, like maybe she’d lost some weight there. “Are you eating enough?”
“What?” She pushed hard against his chest, but he wasn’t going to be moved. “Rafe, give me some space.”
