I wanted to ask why, but I’d bitten into the brownie while he was laughing and now I was stuck trying not to make an embarrassing noise.
Xander’s eyes lit up, as though he needed to be any more attractive, and he smiled at me again. “Good, right?”
I nodded, since I was still processing the balance of bitterness in the lavender and the chocolate with the sweetness of the brownie, the perfect chewy texture, the glossy, crackled top that dissolved on my tongue like popping candy, and all through it another herbal note I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Okay, two points for small town living.
“Apology accepted,” I said, licking crumbs off my lips and then fingertips, grabbing my phone again to take another shot now that I’d had my first bite.
“Yeah?” Xander asked, pulling his phone out as it vibrated on the table where he’d set it down. “Because—shit,” he said, standing and drinking a few mouthfuls of coffee at the same time. “I’ve gotta go, please believe me when I say I’d rather be here, but this is life and death. Talk tomorrow?”
“Uh. Sure?” I blinked at him. Life and death?
I wanted to ask if I could help—he was my friend, that was what friends did—but he was gone before I could finish deciding how to phrase it.
7
XANDER
“Milo,if you don’t ask him, I’ll tell Mom you gave up the chance to—”
The bell over the door gave me away as I slipped into the florist. Dawn turned her attention from Milo so fast it almost gavemewhiplash, and broke into a smile I didn’t trust for a single second.
I loved Dawn, but I also knew when she was up to something.
Milo—halfway through rearranging a display of what I thought were maybe gerberas—also stopped and turned to look at me.
His whole face changed when he saw what I was holding in my hand, and a tiny, adorable gasp escaped him as he rushed over.
“This is life and death?” he asked, hovering close enough to me that I could feel his body heat and smell the barest hint of warm, rich cologne under the grassy floral scent that always hung in the air in here.
I held up the tiny longhaired tortoiseshell kitten I was carrying so he could see it better.
“This is life and death,” I said. “Sorry about running out on you yesterday.”
Milo waved my apology off, ducking down to look the new kitten in the face as it blinked sleepily at him. “Forget it, this was way more important. It’s so tiny.”
“Yeah, only a handful of days old,” I said. “You wanna hold him?”
Milo looked at me like I’d just told him Santa was real after all. And dating the Easter bunny. “Really?”
“Really,” I held the kitten out. “Just make sure you’re supporting all of his weight. Like a baby.”
“I’ve never held a baby before,” Milo said as I transferred the kitten across. “What’s his name?”
“Well, you know I’m doing a space theme right now, and we’re up to O. Can’t decide between Orbit and Orion.”
“I like Orion,” Milo said, holding the kitten like it was the most precious thing in the world and gently petting its head with a fingertip.
“Orion it is, then,” I said, smiling up at him. I could have said I was planning on stripping naked, setting my ass on fire, and running down Main Street singing ABBA’s greatest hits for all the attention Milo was paying to me, though. He was too busy cooing over the tiny yawn and squeak Orion had just made.
“Your timing is actually perfect, Xander,” Dawn said. “Milo was just about to go next door to tell you I won a voucher for dinner and drinks for two at The Friendly Otter a while back and today’s the last chance to use it. Since I’m, y’know,” she gestured at her belly. “Better if someone who can really enjoy it goes. He wanted to ask you if you’d go with him.”
Judging by the way Milo blushed and was suddenly twice as interested in Orion as he had been, that wasn’t quite the truth.
“Didn’t you, Milo?” Dawn prompted.
Milo finally looked up, first at Dawn, and then at me.
