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“This is boyfriend/girlfriend stuff.” He just looked at me. “We’re not that. Right?”

“Hmm? What’d you pick?” He turned his attention to the TV.

“Dave—“

“Daddy,” he corrected immediately. I simply sighed and looked at the table.

“So… what’s all this?”

“Buried treasure.” He was grinning when I turned to look at him.

“What’s buried treasure?” I asked, and we both shimmed to the edge of the couch.

“It’s a movie must.”

“In the Ferguson family?” He shook his head.

“Na, the Garcia family.”

“Garcias?” I asked and watched as he nodded.

“My family… they’re a little…”

“On the well-off side?” I guessed. It didn’t take a genius or a private detective to know that Dave came from money. I mean, he had a whole floor as a crash pad. He wasn’t showy with it, but there was no hiding it.

“We can say that.” He chuckled. “What I was going to say is, they’re not what you’d call warm people. But my mom’s college best friend, Rita, was great. She’d find any excuse to take me and my brothers for the weekend because she knew how strained my parents’ relationship was. I mean before we were shipped to boarding school.”

“Boarding…” I didn’t even finish speaking. I’d known Dave and I came from completely different financial backgrounds. I mean, he had an apartment over a bakery in town while I shared an apartment with my best friend in a kinda shitty side of town to have enough to get tuition paid on time.

But boarding school?

“What was that like?”

“Honestly?” He ran his fingers through his dark hair before scratching the scruff on his sharp jaw. I nodded. “Lonely,” he admitted. Something inside me cracked for him.

“Wow. I can’t even imagine.”

“It wasn’t all bad, but back to the buried treasure. Rita and her family made this a tradition anytime we had a movie night at their place. Now I can’t sit and watch a movie without some kind of version of this.”

“Okay. So, show me what we have to do.” I sat there watching him closely as he explained what he personally liked on his, insisting that mini marshmallows and M&M’s were the best two things to add to buttery popcorn.

I went with his suggestion, pleasantly surprised how right he was.

“It’s the sweet and salty, right?” I nodded, munching on popcorn.

“This was really great. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He settled back on the couch before starting the movie.

It was a good one. A Marvel movie I’d watched over the summer only because Callie had been missing Adam and I knew the franchise reminded her of him. I’d kind of hoped it would have helped her talk to him, but it hadn’t.

Dave’s hands reached for my foot midway in, pulling it to his lap, and I let him. He rubbed it. Slowly at first. Softly. It felt good. Soothing. Even though I wasn’t really working two jobs like Callie thought I was, working at the bookstore kept me on my feet, not to mention the stress of a full load of classes that were overwhelming me and the weird hours Dave had me meet him at his apartment, had worn me out.

Both emotionally and physically.

Just as my eyes started to feel heavy with sleep, his grip on my foot tightened. Dave ran the pad of his thumb over just the spot of my heel that had been bugging me, and I moaned. Loudly. My face burned, but he didn’t make a comment as his hands worked their magic on my foot. My eyes fluttered shut as he did it again. And again. Hitting the same spot with just the right pressure only to find a new one.

My nipples tightened under the tank I had stupidly walked out braless in. I knew if he so much as glanced in my direction, he’d see them standing at attention, begging for his touch. As subtly as I could, I reached for the throw blanket at the back of the couch and tossed it over my shoulders. I had no idea why I was being shy now. I was never shy! Except with him.