“A double espresso with the Indonesian espresso bean blend,” he announced. Not that she’d specifically asked. But he figured he might as well get it out there.
Yup, that’s what he’d order.
“No cream. No sugar,” he added for good measure.
He could sip away, and Molly could chat away.
Yeah, this would be good.
“Sounds like that will put some hair on your chest,” she said with a chuckle, flipping over the menu to study the other side. Silently. She studied the menu in silent torture.
He moved his mouth closer to her ear before saying, “There’s already a bit of hair there, you know.”
Her eyebrows shot up and, thankfully, she was no longer taking refuge in the menu.
“If you were curious,” he added with a slight lift of his shoulders. “I thought you might be curious.”
Molly was a talker. He knew this from years of knowing her. But he’d only realized recently that he appreciated her ability to chatter. Among other things, that chatter of hers had grown on him since his dip in the lake to pull Oliver out.
So, Molly, standing still, mouth open, not filling the space between them with chatter, wasn’t right. It sat funny.
Molly not talking meant she was nervous, she was pissed, or she was confused. He had done nothing recently—that he was aware of—to piss her off. She was a sharp cookie, so that wasn’t it. Nerves, it had to be.
“Tea, huh?” he asked, filling the vacant space for her.
Tea was a curve. She seemed to be coffee and cocktails. But leave it to Molly to do what he didn’t expect.
Like stay quiet and order tea, when he fully expected her to suck down enough cappuccino to start a solid conga line.
Please let this be the start of something new. Something not pretend. Something more.
“I figured since I’m trying something new as well—” She surveyed him up and then down, dotting the edge of her lips with the tip of her tongue. “I might as well try something new from the menu. You know? Go all in?”
A flare of desire flickered in his belly at the flick of her tongue.
Right. Good. So they agreed.
She was flirting. Molly was flirting andnotfor pretend. Because there was no one here to pretend for. Just him.
“Doyouwant to go all in?” she asked, looking up at him from under her eyelashes.
Oh yes, he understood exactly what she meant.
“By all means.” He did his best attempt at you-don’t-affect-me because maybe, just maybe, she’d keep doing the tongue thing. The tongue thing was a keeper. “Let’s go all in.”
Going all in meant that it didn’t matter who the woman was at the front of the line. Cassidy. Dakota. Didn’t matter.
The only person who mattered was standing right next to him in line.
“Here’s to trying something new,” he murmured under his breath.
That got him a full Molly sunshine-filled grin.
Oh yes, different was good.
He reached for Molly’s hand, holding his palm up to see if she might like to take it. Leaving it out there like a teenager hoping to score.
She gave a pointed look at his open palm before taking the bait. He scored—in the teenage sense. Then she swung their arms between them like they were kids ready to play Red Rover.
