“We should probably order one of every dessert to go right now,” Daphne replies.
The older woman gives us a look I’m beginning to recognize well.
It’s theyou got money to pay for this?look.
“And thank you,” Daphne says.
Our server strides away.
“You’re gonna have to pay for the whole restaurant,” Daph whispers to me while she takes a tater tot right off the plate and dips it in cheese.
“After they check and make sure my money isn’t counterfeit.”
“Yeah, they’ll do that too.” She giggles, making me momentarily forget I ever disliked her for how happy I am that she seems like herself again.
Is this what relaxing feels like? What being a normal, anonymous person in a small town in the middle of nowhere feels like?
If so, I think I like it.
“So where’s home?” I ask.
She eyes me, almost like the question is startling, while she chews her food.
Or possibly like she doesn’t know if it’s safe to answer.
“You ever hear of Austen & Lovelace College?” she finally says.
I nod. I don’t know it well, but it’s not an unfamiliar name.
“It’s in a little town upstate called Athena’s Rest. Bea’s mom taught there, so Bea got free classes. That’s where we met. It was my last school before—well,before.”
“You’re happy there? In the town? Truly happy?”
“I made a new family there after they kicked me out and my parents did what they did,” she says around another tater tot.
I reach for my glass but sit there with my hand resting on it instead of taking a drink. “I—my ultimate goal when I left on Saturday was to eventually settle in a small town and find a boring wife and have boring children and do boring things.”
She cringes a little, but she doesn’t apologize again for calling me boring.
Not Daphne.
She takes a different route. “Hate to break it to you, but there’s rarely anything boring about small towns. At least, in my experience. Honestly, I’m not sure there’s anyplace that’s truly boring unless you let it be.”
“When you start your life going to third-grade jail…”
She nods very seriously. “I definitely took the more adventurous path. Here. Try the okra.”
She leans across the table with a small fried nugget in hand and holds it to my lips.
My stupid cock decides having a woman holding food to my mouth is the most erotic thing I’ve ever experienced, and he springs to full-mast without warning.
And not for the first time today.
Maybe I don’t like this part of relaxing.
“Or feed yourself, whatever,” Daphne mutters.
Probably because I’m grimacing at the pull in my gut from popping a boner so fast.
