Ada leaned forward. “You know what I mean.”
I wished I didn’t. But her point was hard to miss. Especially since she’d been making it for the past four years.
“You’re delusional. But I love you anyway.” I grinned at her. “K, I need to go. See you tomorrow.”
We quickly maneuvered some kind of gentle hug while she was holding two full cocktails in her hands. “Can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I deflected. “Oh, I put Charlie in charge until Will’s back. Good luck.”
I heard her squeaked protests as I rushed from the room, thankful she couldn’t chase me with two drinks in hand.
Outside, I saw that I’d been right. Jonah was double-parked right in front of the building. I slid into his passenger’s seat out of breath from my fast getaway and the cold air.
“There she is,” he said by way of greeting. “I started to think you bailed on me.”
“Um, free vodka, remember? It was just tricky getting out of there. Will is still at the airport picking up Lola, so I had to leave Charlie in charge.”
He made a surprised noise. “Wait, what? You left Charlie in charge?”
Shrugging like it was the most obvious outcome in the world, I said, “Well, Ada’s there too. He’s not entirely on his own.”
“Did you tell him not to burn the place to the ground?”
“Those were my literal instructions.”
He grinned at me. “Where’s all this renewed faith in Charlie coming from? Not too long ago, he was public enemy number one.”
He had been public enemy number one. Back before Lola was in the picture, he’d stolen Will’s wannabe girlfriend only to dump her a couple of hookups later.
I still suspected he’d done it out of spite. Not that he would ever admit it.
“Will’s on my latest shit list,” I told him honestly. “But, Will's life seems to be moving away from the bar more and more. And he doesn’t seem the least bit guilty about it. I can’t be the only one tied to it every second of every day. I have other stuff to do. So then there was Charlie.” I shrugged again. I was learning to nail this whole “look casual” thing with all this shrugging. Or he was starting to think I had an incurable tick. Either way. “Might as well use his salaried ass to pitch in every once in a while.”
“You make valid points.”
“I always do.”
He glanced over, smiling and full of energy tonight. It filled the car with an electrifying vibe. He was excited about this tasting for some reason. And it surprised me because all he’d done since Galliger opened was complain about them.
But itwasfree. And that was a big enough reason for me to get excited.
“Thanks for coming with me, English.”
My heart did that weird tightening thing again. “Thanks for inviting me, Mason.”
He pulled up to a stoplight and turned to smile at me again. Our gazes locked, and we just looked at each other. He was so good-looking. So damn gorgeous. His longish hair was pulled up into a loose topknot. It was somehow adorable and oh-so masculine. He wore a navy blue crewneck sweatshirt that looked simple but was definitely expensive. And trendy gray trousers that would no doubt fit him perfectly. Without looking at his feet, I knew he’d be in leather flip-flops. His toes were apparently impervious to the cold.
I couldn’t seem to catch my breath looking at him. Most of the time, he was just Jonah, my best friend, someone I had known forever, someone whose features were so familiar to me I hardly noticed how they made me stare and ogle and wonder at them. But there were other times when all I could see was his startling beauty. The bold, virile man he’d grown into. The cute dimples. Those expressive eyes. The perfectly tan skin that made my mouth go dry. Some days his attractiveness threatened to upend me completely. But sometimes, he seemed to struggle with the same battle.
It was the look in his eyes. The one I’d all but run from last Sunday. The one that appeared at the most surprising times and seemed to swallow me whole. He stared at me like he was trying to drink in as much of me as humanly possible. He stared like I was a mystery he was willing to spend his whole life solving.
He stared like he had that night. Like he was just about to kiss me.
Someone honked their horn behind us. The light had turned green, and neither of us had noticed. He tore his gaze from mine and gunned the gas.
“Let’s go get drunk, English.”
ten
