Jas chuckled at Mona’s comment, but flushed. Without being asked, he translated once Mona winked at her and left. “She said it was a good thing it wasn’t the coffee that landed in my lap.”
Knowing Mona as she did, she assumed the woman had cracked a ribald joke. Katrina puffed out her cheeks. She’d have to download that language app again.
“See?” Jas blotted his thighs. “Good as new.”
She’d take his word for it. There was no way she was going to inspect those finely clad appendages for leftover jam and butter. “Okay, sure.” She picked up his mug and handed it to him. “Speaking of coffee, here you go.”
“Thanks.” Their fingers brushed as she passed the warm ceramic to him.
Katrina indicated a table across the café. “I’ll be over there.” It was common for them to sit separately. She liked the routine of the same spot, and he preferred to be able to see the whole room.
She stuck the hand he’d touched into her sweatshirt pocket as she walked away. Her fingers brushed the stone she always carried with her. She’d found it on a walk a few years ago and decided it was a perfect fidget stone, smooth and a good size for her small hand. She ran her thumb over the dip in it, the cool rock grounding her.
But it couldn’t get rid of the tingles racing up her arm.
One might call them zings.
She settled into her seat and pulled a baseball cap and a book out of her bag. She adjusted the cap on her head and knocked the brim down lower over her face. She wasn’t a celebrity anymore, but the café would start filling up soon and it calmed her to have the illusion of anonymity.
She opened her book and stared down at the page, thinking of what Andy had asked her just before she’d left.
Is there anything else going on that you want to talk about?
I can’t stop thinking about my bodyguard, and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s the only eligible bachelor in my life, or because I’m genuinely in love with a man who sees me as nothing more than a responsibility he takes very seriously.
She cast a glance at Jas. He’d returned to his own reading, but she knew he was entirely, fully aware of his surroundings. He hadn’t been a military man in over a decade, but he always had that air of hyperarousal around him. Something else they had in common. She hated being startled.
As if to taunt her, he slowly scratched one perfect eyebrow, and another zing ran down her back, to the hand he’d touched. She refocused on her own book, and curled her fingers into her palms.
Yes. Something else is definitely going on, damn it.
Chapter Two
AS LUNCHTIME APPROACHED,more of the red-cushioned chairs in the café became occupied by locals, students, and tourists. Occasionally Katrina glanced up to people-watch. Since so much of her brain was occupied with her crush, she couldn’t help but notice the couples in the room. The two giggling college girls who walked in holding hands, wearing goofy smiles. The older couple at the counter, familiarity in the way the two men stood and chatted with each other. The newlyweds in the corner, rubbing noses and cooing. The young parents who sat nearby, harried and yawning while they passed their chubby baby back and forth so they each could eat.
It was almost too much to bear. She tried to get lost in her book and nearly succeeded until she heard footsteps pause next to her table.
“Excuse me?”
She used her finger to hold her place and casually glanced up.
Her finger slid out of the book. The thriller was no longer the most thrilling thing around.
The man looming above her was so breathtakingly attractive she had to battle a sudden urge to scrub her eyes like a cartoon character of old.
The stranger had the jaw of a Disney prince, with a cleft in his chin to match. His unzipped red sweatshirt revealed a soft blue-gray shirt that matched his eyes, and his auburn hair was artfully tousled.
He held an absurdly tiny espresso cup in his big hands. “Hi. It’s so crowded in here today.”
Her back was against the wall, so he must be talking to her? “Um. It is,” Katrina agreed.
He gestured to the seat across from her. “Is this taken? Do you mind if we share a table?”
“Oh.” She glanced around. The young woman sitting at the table next to her, a leggy blonde in yoga pants and a sweatshirt, gave her a curious look before leaning forward to whisper something to the dark-haired man she was with.
Katrina’s gaze skipped over them to meet Jas’s. He’d placed his book facedown on the table, and he was making no secret of the fact he was watching carefully, his face hard and suspicious.
When Katrina had first started coming here, she hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone other than Mona and her employees. It had taken her a while to get to a point where she hadn’t felt nervous about a stranger sharing her table, especially when it was crowded.
