“Just think about it,” Emerson added.
She nodded.
“Oh—and Rose wanted me to tell you they’re hosting a barbecue.”
She didn’t have to ask. Emerson was already grinning.
“And yes,” he said, “your coffee man will be there.”
River rolled her eyes. “He’s not mine.”
Emerson’s grin only widened. “Keep telling yourself that.”
There wereplenty of familiar faces. The Palmer family was present, but so were people from the Keagan family and the Callahan family. But it wasn’t them she was looking for.
There was only one person she wanted to catch a glimpse of—as ridiculous as that was. And the second he arrived, she felt him. The hair at the back of her neck lifted. Her heart tripped over itself, the same way it always seemed to in his orbit.
His low voice brushed in right behind her left ear, and she couldn’t stop the shiver that coursed down her spine. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
River smiled and turned around. He was still close, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to step back or lean in closer. “Hey,” she said, aiming for casual.
His lips twitched as his gaze swept over her face. After work, River had actually put effort into her appearance. She’d scrubbed her face clean, added a little makeup, curled her hair and left it down. The jeans she’d picked hugged her just right, paired with a cream-colored tank and her combat boots.
This evening, she felt dangerously pretty, and she wondered what Mathew was thinking as he perused her.
He’d traded his usual look for jeans and a fitted T-shirt. His hair was neat, his jaw clean-shaven, that boyish charm on full display. It took her breath away and made her heart rate accelerate even further. “You clean up nice,” she managed.
“I was about to say the same to you,” he mused.
His attention dipped to the tray of cut fruit in her hands, a tray she’d nearly forgotten she was holding. “Need help with that?” He didn’t wait for her answer before taking it.
“Hey!” She huffed, following after his long strides. “I didn’t need?—”
He flashed a grin over his shoulder and set the tray with the other food at the long table. When he turned back, she was close enough she had to stop short.
River pushed up onto her toes to avoid colliding with him, then folded her arms. Her eyes narrowed, but her mouth betrayed her with a smile. “I didn’t need help,” she insisted.
“I know,” he said easily. “But I’m allowed to offer.”
The way he said it made her chest tighten.
He leaned in just a fraction, lowering his voice. “I’m well aware that you’re a strong, capable woman, River.” His gaze heldhers, steady. “But that doesn’t negate the fact that whenever given the chance, I want to do what I can to take care of you.”
And just like that, the air whooshed out of her lungs. She blinked a few times, trying to remember how words worked, and Mathew’s smirk turned softer around the edges.
“Fine,” she gritted out, though there wasn’t much bite behind it. “Do whatever you want.”
“What I want,” he said, “is to take you out.”
She huffed. “That’s still not happening.”
His expression didn’t harden. If anything, it warmed. “Then I’ll keep coming around, hoping you’ll give me a chance one day,” he said quietly. “And when you’re ready, if you’re ever ready, you tell me.”
River’s throat tightened at the choice he’d just handed back to her. She shook her head like she could shake off the feeling, then turned toward the house for another tray.
She didn’t have to look behind her to know he followed, close enough to help, far enough not to crowd her.
And she wasn’t sure she wanted to fight him on it.
