“I want to spend the evening hanging out with my girlfriend, who is on a quiz team at JTs.”
Tiana smiled and sighed. “No one is here. You don’t have to keep saying that.”
“Saying what?” he asked in faux ignorance.
“Saying my girlfriend and your boyfriend.”
“Why wouldn’t I say that?” His brow furrowed in mock confusion.
“Because I’m not—” She stopped herself when she realized what she was about to blurt out.
His smile widened, and the deep dimple that appeared on his right cheek caused her knees to go so weak. He stepped closer to her, leaned his head down, and his lips brushed the cusp of her ear as he whispered, “Damn, almost caught you slippin’.”
With that, he held the door open, and they walked out. As he helped her into his SUV, she couldn’t help the smile that was pulling at her lips at the disappointment that she hadn’t said she wasn’t really his girlfriend, so it hadn’t given him the opportunity to execute a consequence kiss. If she were being honest with herself, if he was disappointed, he wasn’t the only one.
14
On the shortdrive over to JT’s, Niko had to actively focus on the roadway, the crystalline frost creeping along the shoulder and the way moonlight made a prism out of the lingering snow patches. Otherwise, he’d have let his mind spiral back to the moment he’d nearly kissed Tiana in her studio. He’d wanted nothing more than to lean down and taste her lips, and for a split second he swore she wanted the same thing. But he stopped himself. If she wanted that, she knew what to say. He’d given her a cheat code.
Niko gripped the steering wheel harder. Tiana was unlike anyone he’d ever met— self-possessed, smart, stunningly gorgeous, and more guarded than a Federal Reserve vault. She was quick with a smile but slow to let anyone in, and it made Niko want to scale the walls she’d built around her heart with his bare hands.
She made him feel things, think things, and want things that he shouldn’t. She was sending clear signals that she was closed off. But why?
He flicked a glance at her in the passenger seat. She was staring out the window, her profile etched in navy blue twilight.He knew she felt his gaze because she turned and caught him, one eyebrow raised in challenge.
“What?” she asked.
He wanted to say,You’re all I can think about. Instead, he asked, “Have you dated?”
She blinked, caught so off guard that her forehead creased in the middle. “What?”
He turned his attention back to the road. “Since the divorce, have you dated?”
There was a beat, a hitch, and then, “No. I, um…no.”
Hoping she’d elaborate, he let that hang in the air for a few seconds. When she didn’t have more to say, he pressed on, unable to help himself. “How long has it been?”
She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, but her voice was steady when she answered, “Two years.”
Two years. Niko digested that for a moment. Maybe it was absurd, but to him, two years sounded like a hundred lifetimes to go without the spark of someone’s touch, a laugh at midnight curled together in bed, or the messy, terrifying, beautiful chaos of becoming one with another person.
What had happened to make her shut down like that? Was the wound that deep? Or was she still in love with her ex? The thought quickened his pulse, and not in the good way. It made him want to punch something, preferably Brock’s face.
He swallowed the instinct. He knew jealousy was a product of his worst impulses, hardwired from years of being terrified something good he had would be taken away from him. Still, he wanted to ask her a million things: Was the marriage that bad? Do you still love him? Is that why you won’t let anyone get close? But he’d always been good at reading people, and he had a feeling that patience was the only way forward with Tiana. He didn’t think he’d get anywhere bulldozing his way into her world or trying to steamroll over her heart.
Niko kept his eyes on the road, but more than once his gaze was snagged by Tiana’s reflection in the passenger window. Even in shadows, even in silence, she seemed to radiate some magnetic force, the kind that bent everything in its field toward her. It was impossible to believe she’d gone two years without a date, that not a single man in all of Hope Falls or Tahoe or the entire state of California had managed to break through her defenses. He’d seen her with her clients at the studio, with other guests at the wedding, and with the community at large at the festival. She was warm and present, never flirty but always aware, drawing out people’s best versions of themselves. But she kept her own heart under twenty layers of Kevlar.
It was a puzzle Niko was dying to solve.
When they pulled into JT’s parking lot, he got lucky and found a parking spot right in front. He ignored the faint flicker of pride when Tiana didn’t hesitate to let him open her door or take his offered hand as he helped her down with an ease that felt older than the few days they’d known each other. He’d wanted to ask her more about the divorce, about her marriage, about every instance of pain and every scar and every reason she thought she’d built her walls, but instead, he settled for the gentle weight of his hand on the small of her back as they walked inside. Together.
JT’s Bar was packed. The air buzzed with the noise of two dozen overlapping conversations, the rowdy bellows of a group that looked like ski instructors, and the hiss and pop of fryers hard at work in the kitchen. The scent of chili fries, beer, and peppermint schnapps hovered over everything.
There was not an empty table in the dining area. Every four-top was taken, and some of the teams were decked out in matching shirts or costumes. There was a table of women in pink boas and another with men wearing paper Burger King crowns. He noticed a table of women wearing tiaras and sashes thatread The Quizney Princesses. Next to them were four people in matching bowling shirts with their team, The Quiz Lebowskis on them. Niko grinned. He’d never been much for trivia, but he loved the competitive pulse in the air.
A blonde stood up and waved them over with both arms. She’d commandeered a table in the center of the action, the surface already littered with laminated menus, extra pens, and a basket of sweet potato fries that looked like it had been decimated by wild dogs. If there was one thing Niko liked about small towns, it was the way you could show up anywhere, any day of the week, and be instantly absorbed into a life, a plan, or a joke already in progress.
“Sorry I’m late.” Tiana barely got the words out before the blonde cut her off.
