Phoebe laughed. “I was going to tell Elena that Lea is your wife, and Jill is my sister-in-law.”
“Please, call me Elle. And thank you.” A blush rose into her cheeks. “I’m so glad you like my work.”
“We love your work.” Phoebe smiled. “You have to come to our weekly Thursday night chocolate fest.” She turned to Sophia. “You, too.”
“You had me at chocolate fest.” Sophia chuckled, and the sound did strange things to Ryder’s chest.
Refocusing on his food, he tried to ignore the odd current emanating from the woman. How the hell could he feel that? They weren’t even touching.
Christ. He was acting like a damn teenager.
“Thank you,” Elle said. “I’d love to come. No way would I pass up the opportunity to pick your brains.” She winked. “Besides, you said the magic word?chocolate. It’s an author’s necessity. Well, one of two. Coffee is the other. We mainline that sucker.” She pulled her phone from her apron pocket. “Just tell me where and what time?”
Phoebe rocked in her seat. “That’s great. We meet at the Confection Connection right down the block, just after it closes. Jill’s the owner. She and her husband are in California on business, but she left me her keys. She didn’t want us to cancel our get-togethers.”
“Remind me to thank her,” Sophia said.
“Me, too.” Elle nodded, holding up her pad. “I’ll go put in your orders and come back with your drinks.”
As she left, he reached for his iced tea, happy to stay out of the conversation.
“Sophia.” Ben frowned at her. “What’s up with your eyes?”
Ethan nodded. “Yeah. Didn’t you have one brown and one blue?”
A small smile tugged her lips. “Still do, underneath brown contacts.”
“You do?” Phoebe asked. “I never knew that. I bet they’re amazing.”
“They are,” he said, without realizing it…until everyone stopped to stare at him. He shrugged and refocused on his food.
“I just prefer to see the same color when I look in the mirror,” she said.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Phoebe proclaimed, and he silently agreed.
Growing up, kids had probably done a number on her. He knew how cruel they could be. He’d found out the hard way, after his mother’s death.
“So, Sophia,” Ben began, and Ryder stiffened at the teasing tone, knowing he was not going to like the next words to come out of his friend’s mouth. “My buddy, here, was just about to tell us where the two of you bumped into each other this morning. Care to enlighten us?”
Color rising into her cheeks, she met his gaze and smiled. Unwanted warmth spread through his chest.
“We met in Keiffer’s bedroom.”
Ah, hell. Here we go.
Ben’s attention snapped to him. “That’s probably why he didn’t tell me.”
“I’d just gotten out of the shower and walked into the bedroom a second before he entered,” she continued, still holding his gaze.
Ryder’s heart rocked against his ribs, because her confession was the last thing his buddy needed to hear. It had nothing to do with the memory of her mile-long legs and the wet towel clinging to her lush curves.
The woman had been sexy as hell before…now she was fucking hot.
And he had a hard-on to prove it. Second one that day, thanks to her.
Son-of-a-bitch.
He shifted in his seat to relieve the pressure from his zipper, and bided his time to leave.
