Mia appeared to consider this. “I think you should take a page from Hermes. He clearly likes me.” She motioned to the curly-haired dog, who had clear adoration shooting from his eyes. Ross considered his pet’s loyalty to be wishy-washy at best.
“First of all, Hermes is not discerning in who he likes. And I can’t just pick up like ten years haven’t passed between us.”
“I know,” she relented quietly. But her lips scrunched together in thought. “I just feel weird asking you for a favor under the circumstances.”
A short laugh escaped from Ross. “I’m sure you’ll try it anyway.” He’d give her credit; she had a lot of nerve.
Her expression, painted with sweetness and innocence, turned its charm toward him like a spotlight. “Rosso—”
“That’s not going to sway me one way or the other.”
“Ross.” Her voice became gentle. “Do you think I could possibly borrow your camera?”
“Why?”
“I’m going to work on the social media accounts and website for Pony Expresso, and I want to use a nicer camera for some images.”
“This sounds like something I’ll regret.” He didn’t realize he’d stepped closer until Mia’s backside bumped up against the car.
But her upturned, sunny face remained confident and fixed in place, meeting him head on. “What do you think can possibly happen?”
“I don’t know, but it feels like some kind of trap.”
“Come on, Rosso. It’s your old pal Russo.” She gave him a light tap on a bicep as if they were old, chummy friends again. Her amber eyes melted another chunk off the old glacier.
He released a record-setting groan. “Look, how about you borrow it for your coffee shop thing and then maybe you can take a few pictures for me.”
A bright smile cracked across her face. “Deal!”
“I just want to make it clear here that I’m helping you out. It’s not the other way around.”
She adopted a serious expression, but delight slipped through at the edges. “I can live with that. Although, technically, it’s more like a favor-for-favor thing, but you did rescue me from becoming a black bear appetizer so I’m willing to overlook it.”
Ross didn’t know what he was getting into, but when her cheek crease turned into a full-fledged dimple he knew he was in trouble.
Damn that dimple.
Chapter Nine
“What the hellam I doing?” Mia asked.
“Getting paper towels for the bathroom dispenser. At least, that’s what you said you were going to do.”
Mia flipped around to find Natalie standing behind her in the storage closet’s threshold. “Uh. Yeah, you’re totally right.” She snatched the appropriate box.
“You’ve been very distracted today. Is everything okay with you?” Natalie’s expression turned into concern.
“Yeah, everything’s great.” She did her best to push out a convincing smile. “I, uh, just get a little absent-minded sometimes.”
Natalie laughed. “I do catch you staring off into space, especially when it’s slow. It’s like your body is here, but your mind is somewhere else.”
“Oh, it’s just the usual school stuff and trying to think of creative names for my future books I plan on writing.” Her hand flicked through the air as though this dilemma was standard Mia behavior and, maybe, it was.
At least that was a better answer than starting a conversation with,Well, you see, there’s this good-looking, grumpy jeweler.This type of answer wasn’t very adult and Mia was an adult…At least, she wasadult-lite, which meant she was technically an adult but she didn’t necessarily always feel like one. She still had a habit of looking around the room for someone who was more adult than her. Since Natalie was a few years older, and in a management position, it meant she was the designatedrealadult here, and Mia would rather impress her than appear like a silly teenager with silly teenager thoughts.
Natalie snorted. “Yeah, sure. Maybe you’re thinking about book stuff or maybe it’s daydreams of thesexykind.”
Her face must have revealed something, because Natalie snapped a closed fist under her chin, indicating she was all ears.
