“What is one of your personal demons?”
At this rate, Sophie was going to know him better than he knew himself. “Is this another book club question?”
“Of course.”
Deciding there was no harm in responding honestly, he said, “The last gig I was on, things went haywire because our…intel was faulty, and a child almost died. I blame myself for all of it. I should have done a more thorough check of the situation and didn’t.”
“Is that how you injured your finger?” she asked. “The one that’s bandaged?”
“It is.”
“How long will you have to wear the bandage?”
“Not certain. Tell me about one of your personal demons.”
“Remember the guy Poppie talked about? My last boyfriend?”
“I do,” he said, an unexpected feeling of something close to jealousy hitting him in the gut.
“I met him when I put my daydreamer job hunt on hold and took a regular job to help pay some bills. Turns out, he was nothing but a con.”
Stone found it hard to imagine Sophie in a regular job. “What kind of con?”
“I asked him to stay at my place and keep an eye on Poppie for me while I was away at a readers’ retreat. Poppie thought he was staying there to retrieve a package for me when it came. Anyway, while I was gone, he tricked Poppie into giving him all the information he needed to steal his identity and drain his retirement funds. Among other things.”
“Did you report him to the police?”
She gave him a bright smile. “That’s a story for another day. We’re here.”
The shop’s quaint, inviting façade mocked the churn of Stone’s thoughts. Just because Sophie presented as a woman capable of handling his secret did not mean a damn thing. He’d been fooled once. Never again.
“Are you ready for me to have my romantic way with you?” Sophie asked.
“Can’t wait to see what you bring to the table.”
“Just know, once I take your romance virginity, you’ll never be the same again.”
Stone raised a hand to tousle her riot of curls, only to lower it again. She wasn’t really flirting with him. She was practicing, pretending he was her boyfriend. He needed to keep that in mind. “Talk is cheap.”
She playfully nudged his shoulder.
Thunder boomed.
“Yes, but reading is priceless,” she said. “Let’s go pop your cherry.”
As Stone looked up at the cloudless sky, his gut told him the mere act of having met Sophie E. Clark had forever changed his life. He just wasn’t exactly sure yet how it would play out.
Chapter 8
Aweek later, after getting a crash course on romance novel tropes, Stone knocked on Sophie’s front door, prepared to embrace tonight’s homework. The woman loved giving exercises for him to finish.
“Come in, sweetie,” she shouted.
Rolling his eyes at her insistence that they stay in character even when no one else was around, he let himself in and found her in the kitchen plating spaghetti, the steam wafting up in warm tendrils.
Tonight, her T-shirt proclaimed:Book Boyfriends Do It Better.
“It’s a good thing I’m not vying to be your real boyfriend,” he said, as he took in the scene and shuddered.
