“Why didn’t you tell me?” She smacked his arm.
“Because I already looked like an idiot showing up late, and then I coughed all over you. There was no coming back from that.”
She shook her head at him. “I would have understood. I would have helped you. You’re lucky your throat didn’t close off.”
“I had an epi in the car.”
“Geeze, Ben.” She smacked him again.
He held up his hands. “I’m fine. See? I can breathe and everything.” He sucked in dramatically.
She shook her finger at him. “You’re lucky.”
The kids moved back to the trail and walked together in front of the adults. They all merged to one side to allow another group from the school to make their way up the path. “That’s the last group. As long as we’re in front of them, we’re doing great,” Avery told Landon. He’d be mortified to come in last.
They walked for a few minutes. Each time Avery paused to take a picture or two with her phone, Ben waited for her. Their silence was comfortable, but a question nagged at Avery. She scratched her neck, the need to ask getting uncomfortable. When she thought she’d burst, she said, “Okay, I’m just going to throw this out there—you don’t have to answer.”
“Go on.”
She bit her lip.
His deep brown eyes fairly twinkled as he anticipated her question. The sight of it made butterflies awaken inside of her. She pressed her flat hand over her belly. The feeling was so odd. She didn’t know if she’d ever experienced that with Luke. Maybe the first few times he’d kissed her. Certainly on her honeymoon. But they’d been together for so long that there wasn’t muchnewin their courtship or marriage.
“Um. So you live in The Cove?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, on your dating profile, it didn’t say anything about you being …”
“Rich?” His ears tinted pink. Like he was embarrassed to use that word to describe himself.
A humble billionaire? No way. “Why lie?”
He chuckled. “I was testing the app for a friend. Dawson Fitzwilliam. His company owns the app. Anyway, he thought that if women knew who I was, then it would skew the results.”
She laughed. “Oh my gosh. Did you tell him about our date?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been able to avoid his calls so far.”
“Oh my gosh.” She covered her mouth with her hands and widened her eyes. “I told him.”
“How?”
She dropped her hands to her throat. “There was a survey after the date was completed. I told him everything.”
Ben tipped his head back and laughed. “So much for my reputation as a ladies’ man.”
She giggled. “Have you ever had a worse date?”
“Never.”
She lifted an eyebrow in challenge.
“I promise. You were, and hopefully will always be, my worst first date.”
She took a bow. “It’s an honor I don’t take lightly.”
He turned his chin up in a Superman pose. “What about me?”
