BEING CAUGHT
“What’s that?”
Natalie held up the box in her hand as Arik opened the front door to his new rental home. “Dessert.”
“Yum,” he said. “But I told you I had dinner covered.”
He leaned in to give her a light kiss on the lips. She wanted to pull more out of him.
More than the physical that they shared.
To just see if what she was feeling was shared or in her imagination.
“But did you make dessert?”
“No.”
“Then you didn’t have it covered as well as you thought you did,” she said primly. “And I’ve been craving chocolate all day.”
“I love this side of you,” he said. “Open, honest, busting my ass and dropping all those walls you’ve spent years building.”
“I’m not sure they’re dropping, but they are crumbling some. At least the foundation is.”
Which took a lot for her to admit that.
“Whatever it is, I’m glad. And my culinary talent might just shake it up some more.”
She appreciated he wanted a dinner in tonight. It felt like since she had met him all they did was order in or go out.
Not even fun dates anymore. The day trip to Provincetown had been a blast. Even going to Baltimore was more fun than she realized.
But once they returned to the island, everything he planned for them was more on the quiet side.
Not dull or boring.
Yeah, itwasdull and boring.
She just didn’t know why and was going to get to the bottom of it tonight.
“Show me around your new place.”
“Don’t judge the decor. It’s not my style.”
“I’d think not,” she said. The place was decorated as if it were a beach home even though it was a few blocks away.
There was more sea glass in this room than she’d seen in the sand.
The walls were pale blue, the furniture gray with white wicker tables and glass tops.
They moved through to the dining room, then the kitchen. “Not the best place I’ve worked in but more space than I had at the hotel.”
She noticed the bag of clams, shrimp, and lobster on the counter.
“What are you making?”
“Seafood Fra Diavolo. I got what looked good at the store and we’ll have it over linguine.”
“Wow,” she said. “I’m impressed. I’ve never made anything like that.”
