“Are you asking as my bodyguard or as my… friend?”
He rolled his eyes. “Your friend. I assume Anton will pass you off to me, but that doesn’t mean I only want to spend time with you because of it. I would’ve wanted to regardless.”
Even though I wanted to be annoyed at him, I knew he was telling the truth so I couldn’t get too angry. “You sure?”
He faced me, looking super serious. “Yes, Oak. Of course. I was hanging out with you before the bodyguard thing came back up, wasn’t I?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”
“I promise I want to spend time with you. So… on that note, do you want to have dinner with me tonight?”
I smiled. “For sure. You wanna go out so you don’t have to cook for once?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment, just staring at me with this look of… happiness? Affection? I didn’t know what it was, but finally, he said in a husky voice, “I’d love to go out with you.”
My belly swooned, and I lost my voice for a moment, unsure of how to take it. Did he… did he mean on a date?
I blinked.
No, he couldn’t possibly want to take me on a date. That was just my stupid crush doing all kinds of wild stuff to my brain… and my heart.
I sucked in a breath and nodded. “That’ll be fun.”
He smiled softly at me. “It sure will. I’ll make a reservation for two at… six-thirty?”
“Perfect.”
The way he’d saidfor twoalmost made it sound like he was emphasizing it, like he wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to invite anyone else out with us.
Was… was it a date?
I stared at him. At Roman, my sometimes bodyguard, my always work partner, my very dear… friend.
My crush.
And my father’s best friend.
I almost grimaced at that thought.
Right. He definitely couldn’t be asking me out, not when he was best friends with Dad, not when his king would want to murder him.
I held in an annoyed sigh and concentrated on my food.
No date for me.
Probably ever, if Dad had any say in the matter.
We finished our sandwiches in companionable silence, then cleaned up and headed for the door.
“The Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron cultist still isn’t speaking?” Roman asked.
I shook my head. “I spoke to Tan earlier, and he said the guy’s still not speaking at all. Apparently, he won’t say even a single word, not even what he wants for lunch or whatever when a guard asks him.”
He nodded, then sighed. “That’s what I heard from Tan yesterday. I was hoping the guy broke overnight.”
“I honestly think he’s a dead-end.” I shrugged.
Having the Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron after me was nothing new. Sure, we’d thought they’d given up—or at least I’d hoped they had—but it would be fine. Not ideal, but we’d dealt with it before, we’d deal with it again.
