He smiled and played with her fingers over the linen-draped table. “Impossible. I thought of you the whole time. I just barely had a breath away from work.”
“Well, I can’t blame you for that.”
“Which is something I appreciate. All the other women I’ve dated have hated how much I work. Not you, though.”
“No, not me.” She gave him a demure smile.
After the meal, they sashayed out of the restaurant with their arms linked. Aubrey leaned into him, though she hadn’t drunk so much as to need the support. She just wanted to fill herself with his steady warmth.
They headed for the Magnificent Mile, where they strolled beneath the holiday lights, cocooned in their own laughing, wine-bright bubble. A few sparkling snowflakes drifted from an infinite sky.
“So.” Gallant wrapped an arm around her shoulders and anchored her to his side. “Tell me about your week. What did you do, besides miss me?”
She giggled. “Let’s see... I did a boatload of Pilates. Worked on that project. Oh, and I went and spoke to the high school math club. Nick’s daughter invited me. That was nice.” No need to mention the weirdness that had followed.
Gallant stiffened. “Nick Thacker’s daughter?”
“Yeah. Paige. Have you met her?”
A crinkle formed between his brows. “I’ve passed her on the street a couple times, I think. How do you even know her?”
The alarm in his tone slowed her steps. “From Hinkley Farm. Megan paired us up. It’s been surprisingly nice, getting to know her. She’s a sweet kid. Smart, too.”
“Huh.” He peered down, as if waiting for more.
A frown pulled at her brows, but she had nothing else to tell. Over the weekend, she and Paige had finished up the floats as if the previous day’s conversation had never happened. Paige had been cheery, if a few degrees subdued, and had babbled on about math and college admissions and something about newly discovered marshmallow planets.
Which Aubrey had thoroughly enjoyed. Even if Nick’s absence had throbbed in her consciousness like a splinter left to fester.
“You haven’t talked toNick, though, have you?”
Aubrey disengaged from Gallant’s embrace. He’d stopped walking, now. Something in him had gone tense.
“I have,” she said slowly. What was he getting at? He certainly wasn’t asking whether she’d let Nick push her up against a wall and bite her throat. Which, for some reason, she harbored only mild guilt over. She and Gallant hadn’t had the exclusivity conversation yet, and at least she’d tried, with Nick. At least sheknew. “A few times.”
Gallant exhaled through his nose. “And? What’d he say?”
She searched his face. “About?”
“I don’t know. How’s he doing? What’s he, ah, doing for work these days?”
She shook her head. His questions seemed to be driving at something, but she couldn’t for the life of her discern what. “He works at the mill. Which you already know.”
He gazed at her for a few tense beats. “That’s all?”
“Yeah. What’re you asking me, exactly?”
He expelled another breath and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her head against his shoulder. “Nothing. Sorry. I just know you two have history. And I don’t want this thing between us to end before it’s begun.”
Ah. That made sense. She steadied herself with the cool musk of his cologne. “You have nothing to worry about.”
As Nick had made so abundantly clear the other night.
Nope, not going there. Aubrey shoved the memory into a mental vault and slammed the door. She wanted nothing more than for this pleasant wine-buzz to propel her as far from that evening as she could get.
So she reached up, threaded her arms around Gallant’s neck, and kissed him.
He responded with alacrity, his hands finding the small of her back and pulling her in. She sank into the sensation and,even if part of her busied itself keeping that rattling door shut, it was a good kiss. By the time she eased back, her stomach fluttered and Gallant’s eyes had darkened to sapphires.
