Once Sofia reaches me, I hold a quick inner debate with myself. Should I hug her? Kiss her? Wait for her to make the first move? With the other women in my past—casual relationships and hookups—I’ve never worried about it. I’ve just gone with whatever feels right. But with Sofia, I’m worried about fucking things up. Pushing her for more than she’s ready for.
“I don’t want to spend more money if we already have food,” she replies. “I could heat up some eggplant parm. And toast the garlic—” She stops. “Never mind about the garlic bread.”
“No garlic bread? Why not?”
Her cheeks go pink. “No reason.”
“Soph.” I compromise by taking her hand. “Tell me.”
She stares at me for a second. “Fine. Because it’ll give me bad breath. Even if I brush my teeth three times, I won’t be able to get rid of it. And I don’t want to kiss you with gross garlic breath. Not when we only just started kissing again. Garlic breath kisses are for couples who’ve been together forever and they don’t care about making a good impression anymore.”
I’m not sure which part to examine first.
The part where she talked about kissing? Or the part about being a couple?
Sofia’s face turns a deeper pink. She makes an exasperated sound. “I don’t know why I just said all that. The garlic bread is fine.”
“No, it’s not fine.” Saying a mentalfuck itto myself, I pull Sofia into my arms and kiss her forehead. “If you want to have non-garlic breath to kiss me, who am I to complain about that?”
“It sounds silly,” she replies. “Worrying about garlic breath.”
“I don’t think so.” I kiss her again, this time a quick brush of my mouth against hers. “Anything to do with kissing is important. Although—” I cup her cheek while holding her gaze. “I wouldn’t care what your breath is like if I get to kiss you.”
“Oh, really?” Amusement chases away the uncertainty in Sofia’s eyes. “So if I had horrible breath, you wouldn’t care? Even if it smelled like onion and old coffee and hot sauce?”
A laugh rumbles up in my chest. “Onion and old coffee and hot sauce?”
She giggles. “I was trying to think of the worst combination.”
“I guess that is a pretty terrible combo,” I concede. “But I’d just eat all the same things. Then we’d both have terrible breath, so it wouldn’t make a difference.”
“Nico.” Her expression softens. “I missed you. Did you know that?”
My heart thumps hard. “I missed you, too.”
Sofia strokes my jaw. Her fingers are soft and cool against my skin. After a brief pause, she says thoughtfully, “I still don’t know why I came to see you. And I know the circumstances aren’t the best. But… I’m glad I’m here.”
My heart thumps again. “I’m glad you’re here, too.”
She looks into my eyes for another second before squeezing my hand. “Come on. Let’s get some food.”
I let her lead me into the kitchen, feeling absurdly pleased by it. Even though I’ve always been more on the controlling side—yes, I know I am, and running a company with forty plus employees doesn’t help—I don’t mind when Sofia takes over.
“Your friends are really nice,” she says. “I mean, I thought they were when I met them at Fox & Falcon. But spending the day with them here… I got to know everyone better. I can see why you wanted them to start the company with you.”
“Yeah.” I give her hand a little squeeze back. “They’re more like brothers, really.”
“So was it just the five of you on the team? In the memoir I’m reading, the author talks about having six men on his team.”
“Yeah, our team was just the five of us,” I reply. “After Wraith left for the CIA, Grump replaced him.”
Sofia releases my hand and heads for the fridge. “Grump? Was he grumpy all the time?”
“His name was George, actually. And no, he was the opposite. Always cheerful. Annoyingly so, at times.”
“Was?” She turns away from the fridge. Worry creases her forehead. “Did he?—”
“Oh, no.” I smile to reassure her. “He’s still active duty. Grump was younger than us, just twenty-five when he joined the team. So he wasn’t ready to leave yet. We understood. I told him he’s got a job waiting at F & F whenever he wants.”
