As they walked down the street, Blake took her hand and squeezed. “I need to warm mine up,” he teased.
“Maybe if you brought gloves like me, you wouldn’t need to use the warmth of my hands.”
One eyebrow rose, and his lips twitched. “What fun would that be?”
His flirting was strong today. She never knew what to make of it. It wasn’t overt or sexual, and she often wondered if he was simply that way with all women.
They managed to get a small corner booth in Blake’s favorite restaurant. The place was casual dining and fairly inexpensive, which was good because she always felt guilty when he picked up the bill. Said it was his way of paying her for the lessons. She liked this place, too. The lighting was good, and it wasn’t too loud.
The booth had the two bench seats touching kitty corner and two chairs on the opposite sides. Carli slid into the bench on the right and held her breath as Blake slid in from the other side instead of sitting across from her.
“Okay, Teach, what have you got for me today?”
“How about some food signs?”
At his nod, she showed him the signs for what he wanted to order, and a few others. As usual, he picked them up quickly. After the waitress took their order, she quizzed him on what he’d just learned and some of the words from previous lessons.
Biting his lip, he gazed across the room as he searched his memory for a sign. “Ugh. I can’t remember how to say table.”
Carli showed him, and he repeated the gesture. The smells from the kitchen were making her drool. She’d run some errands at lunch and hadn’t been able to do more than grab a stack of crackers. Her stomach grumbled, accentuating the fact.
“Hungry?” Blake signed as he asked. “Really hungry.”
“Not that way,” she said and took his hands, laughing, holding them down on the table.
“Did I do it wrong?”
“Some signs are similar to others, and you have to be careful. If you use the hungry sign more than once, it means something else.”
She prayed he didn’t ask. He did.
“What does it mean?”
After glancing around, she whispered, “It means desire or…”
“Or…?” Tilting his head, his intense gaze never looked away.
“Horny.”
Laughter erupted from him, and he pulled her hands closer and kissed them. “I better not say that to the waitress.”
“Not a deaf waitress, anyway.”
When the server showed up with their food, Carli pulled her hands away and stuck them in her lap. They ate in silence for a bit, and she peeked at Blake as he swallowed his water, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. Why was that small movement so appealing?
As he glanced up, he caught her, so she picked up her own glass and took a sip. He reached over and brushed his fingers across her cheek. Her breath caught.
“Um, you’ve got some glitter on your face.”
Spying some glitter stuck to his wrist, she touched him. “So do you.”
What was happening, she didn’t know, but whatever it was felt good. His hand still cupped her cheek as he stared into her eyes. The brown color of his gaze was so deep she thought she could get lost in them, lost in him. Was he feeling the same thing?
A bark of laughter across the room pulled them from the spell, and she immediately dove into her food again. Blake’s smile was crooked, and his expression was like a toddler who’d gotten away with stealing a cookie.
“You need to be careful. If you get sloppy with your signing, you could end up saying something you regret.”
“Like ‘I’m horny.’” His grin grew as her face flamed.
