“We might be overdressed,” he said.
“They’d probably kick us out if we went in naked,” I countered. “But it’d be fun to test the theory.”
Luke snickered and gave me his elbow as he had earlier. “Hungry?”
I bit my lip and nodded. We’d been so close tonight, staring at each. How could he not tell I was a guy? Maybe he didn’t care enough to?
Jesus, I was skating along the edge, just waiting to be pushed off it.
The restaurant was some sort of bougie burger place that took reservations and came with mood lighting to keep my secrets. I nearly swayed in relief.
“Name?” The bored guy at the host stand never lifted his head.
“Dorset,” Luke said smoothly, not at all put off by the attitude.
At Luke’s deep voice, the host snapped to attention and smiled, lowering his lashes in a flutter. “This way, please.”
“He’s totally flirtin’ with you,” I said at Luke’s ear while we trailed behind the host, who sashayed unnecessarily. Jealousy nearly made me forget that my date was probably very straight and that I was playing at being a girl.
Luke seemed confused for a moment, then cleared his throat. “I’m not sure I’d agree.”
Le sigh. Weren’t the most handsome always the most clueless? Even if they weren’t, it made Luke a little more charming for it.
The host seated us at a table near a corner, then gave one last longing glance at Luke before leaving. My green hue turned to a commiserating blue. That would be me by the end of the night, letting go of the guy for some other girl’s dream to come true.
“Have you been here before?” I asked as we lifted our surprisingly limited menus off the cloth-covered table.
“No. I hope we like it.”
They had burgers, sure, but they also had a selection of salads, entrees, and seafood. I snapped the linen folio closed.
“I have an idea.”
Luke glanced from his menu to me. Every second his eyes strayed from mine, checking out my other features, and I hoped to hell he wasn’t seeing too many masculine traits. He sort ofblinked himself out of whatever he’d been thinking and cleared his throat. “What’s the idea?”
“How about we order for each other?”
His grin was slow and sexy as fuck when paired with an equally slow blink. “Think we know each other well enough? Isn’t that more of a third-date thing?”
“No, you’re thinkin’ of sex, which is not on the menu.” Winking, I added, “I checked.”
My comment could make him tense or run screaming, but I was relieved, yet again, when he let out a great breath and relaxed into his chair.
“Okay. Sure. You order for me, and I will for you.”
“Ha! Awesome. This’ll be fun.”
His smile froze for a second before he chuckled and returned to studying his menu.
Absolutely nerve-racking. God, to know what he thought of me, what he saw …
After squaring away that neither of us had allergies, we were quiet as we searched the food choices. I wanted to make sure he didn’t get anything too pretentious, so I selected the messiest burger they served. Something with loads of tricky extras like onion straws, coleslaw, and barbeque sauce smothering it.
Without saying a word to each other, we pointed to the item and gave details such as well-done and no substitutions when the server came to take our order. Once left alone, the real date began, and I wasn’t about to let this get awkwardly silent. I wouldnotgive him time to think too hard about the not-so-feminine Ashley he was with.
“How much does your momma hate that you asked for my number?”
Luke laughed, took a sip of water, then smiled as he said, “So you noticed the steam coming out of her ears?”
