“And you?” I ask him.
“Same as them,” he responds, and I wait, feeling there should be more, but he offers nothing else.
North’s mouth tips slightly, like he’s been waiting for me to ask. “You should come tonight. Big luau. Food, music, activities, tourists pretending they’re not sunburnt. Come with me.”
His gaze holds mine.
Before I can answer, Luca leans in a little, all dark amusement spreading across his smile. “Careful. He gets very confident when he’s inviting women to places.”
North doesn’t even look at him. “It works often enough.”
Ace lets out a quiet breath that might be a laugh and finally sets his menu down. “You’d like it,” he says to me. “Food’s good. Show’s good.”
I narrow my eyes slightly. “That sounded suspiciously reassuring.”
“It was,” Ace says.
“And what do you do there?”
“Perform,” Ace answers.
I stare at him, my mind going in a dozen different directions from that one word alone.
He just stares back, completely composed.
I laugh once. “No, really.”
His mouth curves, slow and maddeningly self-assured. “Really.”
Luca points at him with his glass. “That reaction happens a lot.”
I shake my head and look at North. “And you’re the same?”
“Yep. I guarantee that you will love it.”
I turn my attention between them, and I hate how curious I’ve suddenly become.
“So this is all very mysterious on purpose?” I ask.
North gives me the faintest smile. “A little.”
I tap my finger against the edge of the menu. “And if I say yes?”
North doesn’t hesitate. “Then I’ll take you with me as a guest, as I’m not working the luau tonight.”
Luca glances at Ace, then at me, clearly enjoying himself far too much. “See? Told you. Confident.”
Ace shakes his head, but I catch the corner of his mouth moving.
And just like that, I’m sitting at lunch with three men I barely know, being invited to a luau event. Objectively, I should have concerns. Instead, I hear myself say, “Fine. I’ll join you.”
North’s expression doesn’t change much, but something satisfied settles into it all the same. “Excellent,” he says.
And somehow that single word feels like I’ve agreed to a lot more than dinner and a show.
The waitress arrives, and she has eyes only for the three Alphas, which, fair, I get it, as I understand the impulse, but I am also sitting right here. She does a full sweep of Luca, then Ace, then North, then back to Luca, and I’m watching this happen with the patient detachment of a wildlife documentary.
“What can I get you all,” she says, to Luca’s left shoulder.
