by Emma Hart
Let’s face it. If we dated, I’d have to feed him on a semi-regular basis, and I did that anyway. He stayed over. We’d even had bad, drunk sex.
We’d basically been dating for years, just without the physical or emotional side.
Just, you know. If we went back to normal, I’d probably compare every guy to him and use his kiss as the top level for kissing. I’d never date again because there was no way anyone could compare to him.
He’d move on easily. Look at him. He was perfection in a slightly lazy package. He’d get married to someone who would feed him and who his grandmother would love and he’d forget all about me.
Oh, Jesus, he’d forget about me.
That was why he was late.
He’d changed his mind and he was already forgetting about me.
I needed a drink.
I moved as quickly as my shoes allowed me to over to the corner where the tequila bottle was. Thirty seconds later, I had the tiny glass full of liquid in my hand and was throwing it back like it was a magic potion that could cure all my problems.
Ironic, considering it was the root cause of all my current problems.
Three knocks thundered against my door, and I almost dropped the shot glass in shock.
“Uh—uh, hold on!” I shouted, shoving the dirty glass back into the cupboard and sliding the bottle back into the corner. It clinked against the vodka, and I winced, then quickly breathed into my palm to sniff my breath.
Tequila.
“Aspen? Are you okay?” Luke called through the door.
“Yeah! Just a sex! I mean sec—shit.” I yanked open the medicine drawer and popped out two Gaviscon pills. I had no mints and no time to brush my teeth, so these would have to do.
I chewed like my life depended on it and, when I’d swallowed the last, chalky bit of mush, went to the front door. But not before I did another quick breath test.
Eh. Gaviscon, but better than before.
I pulled the door open and froze.
Luke’s shirt looked starkly white against his tanned skin, and if possible, it made him even more handsome. It was tucked into perfectly-pressed black pants that rested upon shiny, black shoes. His dark hair was swept to the side, and his blue eyes shone brightly as they looked me up and down.
And, I’m not gonna lie, my heart felt as though it’d jumped into my throat at the sight of him.
“Hi,” he said, bringing his gaze up to meet mine with the twist of his lips.
“Hi,” I whispered, my own lips twitching into a tiny smile.
“You look beautiful.” He took a step toward me, smiling a little wider.
“Thank you.” I dipped my head, smiling. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
He reached out and cupped my chin, tilting my head up. “You ready to go?”
I nodded.
“Hold on.” He leaned in and softly kissed me, brushing his lips over mine and making my stomach flip. “Is that…Gaviscon?”
“Umm.” I put on my sweetest smile. “Yes.”
“I really shouldn’t be surprised, should I?”
“Nobody wants trapped gas on their first date.” I shrugged, taking a step back and grabbing my purse. “Should we go?”
Laughing, he stepped back into the hall so I could lock the door, then took my hand with a wink. “Let’s go.”
***
I peered at Luke over the top of the menu.
We’d had more than a few people stare at us when we’d walked into the restaurant. That was the problem with Port Wynne. There was only one fancy restaurant in the whole town, so we had no escape unless we left town, and we’d both agreed that was too much effort when we both lived right here.
“People are staring at us,” I whispered into the crease of the menu.
“It’s because they saw your ass in that dress as you walked in.” He met my eyes. His were twinkling with laughter. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like it’s a secret there’s something going on with us. I got stopped at the grocery store earlier by Lorna Raleigh and—”
“Wait, what?”
“I got stopped at the grocery store by Lorna Raleigh who asked me about us.”
“I’m hung up on the fact you were at the grocery store.” I put the menu down. “Are you kidding?”
He slowly shook his head. “See, it started when I went to get a snack after work, and I realized that if my date decided to go home with me tonight, I had nothing to feed her.”
“Not even Abuelita’s cooking?”
“No. I, er, ate it all.”
“Are y’all ready to order?” Our server interrupted our conversation, looking directly at Luke even though she’d directed the question at us both.
Luke nodded, not even looking at her. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah. I’ll have the shrimp tagliatelle, please.” I folded the menu.
Luke placed his order and handed the server both of our menus. She shot him a stunning grin as she took them from him and spun on her heels.
I sipped my wine, glaring a hole in her back.
Luke picked up his glass, smirking. “What’s up, Asp? You jealous?”
I jerked my head around so our eyes met. “No.”
“If looks could kill, she’d be six foot under right now.”
“I’m not jealous,” I said firmly. “I just think she was a little too flirtatious for a girl at work. She’s supposed to be professional.”
He scratched his top lip, his hand hiding his smile. “You flirt with people all the time at work.”
I gasped. “I do not!”
“You do. I’ve seen you pull your shirt down a little bit to get people to buy more drinks, and you do this girly little hair flip whenever you’re talking to someone who’s clearly attracted to you.”
“Now who’s jealous?”
“You. Because you won’t be flirting with anyone anymore, or I’ll kiss you even harder in public.”
My eyebrows shot up. “It’s my job to flirt with people.”
“Aspen, you’re a bartender. Not a hooker.”
I ran my tongue over my lower lip. “You’re right. I’m so in the wrong profession.”
His eyes darkened, but he took a sip of his wine instead of talking straight away. “By the way, you just contradicted yourself. You said you didn’t flirt, then said you did. Which one is it?”
“I’m friendly,” I said quickly. “That’s all. I have to be nice to people, even when I don’t like them.”
“That’s why you and Blaire get along so well. You bond over your mutual hatred of most people.”
“No.” I tilted my glass toward him. “We bond over our mutual hatred of Justin.”
He choked on his drink, putting the glass down. “By the way, he asked me today what I’d do if he asked you for your number again.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him I’d shove him into a cement mixer and feed him to some chickens if he even thought about it.”
I tilted my head to the side. “I thought you weren’t jealous.”
“I’m not. I’ve been telling him something similar for years. I just accompanied it with a punch this time.” He grinned. “What? We’re dating now. I get to do that.”
“I don’t think we agreed to dating. We’re on a date. Dating would imply more than one.”
“We can count the other as our first date.”
“Right, if you counted sex as a first date, Blaire would be a serial dater.”
“Instead of a serial slut?”
“I’d tell you not to call her that, but I’m pretty sure that’s her email address for the dating websites she used to be on.”
“Ah.” Luke nodded. “That explains the numerous ‘first dates’ until Tom.”
I laughed, propping my chin up on my hand. “No. I think Tom was like lightning for her. She had a crush on him the moment she laid eyes on him.”
“I didn’t know she was capable of human emotion.”
“She is capable o
f surprising people every now and then.”
He laughed, sitting back in his chair. “We can talk about her anytime. Let’s talk about something different.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Something different?”
“Yeah. This is about us pushing our boundaries of friendship, so… Let’s do that.”
“Okay, um.” I spun my wine glass by the stem. “Any ideas?”
“Nope. None.” He clicked his tongue a few times. “You?”
“Well, Blaire had an idea.”
“Oh, God.”
I dipped my head to hide my laugh. “It’s actually not that bad. She suggested that we pretend this is a first date where we don’t know each other the way we do.”
Luke frowned. “You mean we go back to basics and tell each other about ourselves?”
“I guess, yeah.”
“But we already know everything about each other. I know you can’t use hair ties with the little metal clasp because your hair is too thick. I know you can’t stand pantyhose because they never make them for long legs and the crotch constantly falls down. I know you can’t stand to have the TV volume over fifteen, twenty if it’s music, because it’s just too loud for you to be able to concentrate.”
A shiver danced over my arms.
Twenty years was a long time to be friends with someone, but it wasn’t until it was in front of you that you realized just how well you knew a person.
“You know all those things?” I said softly. “Even the hair tie thing?”
“Yeah. You say it catches on your hair and those ties always break because the metal clasp is weak.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I just—I’ve heard you complain about it so many times I never thought it would be something that would amaze you.”
“I guess I don’t think about it like that. It’s just something that is for me. It’s not something I ever thought you would have retained.”
“Why? Because I forgot your birthday one year? I told you, I got my dates mixed up.”
“No!” I covered my mouth while I laughed. “I forgave you for that when you showed up the next day with pizza, wine, and ice-cream.”
“We’re practically already dating. That’s exactly how I’d show up if I was your boyfriend and we fought.”
“No. If you were my boyfriend, you’d have to bring chocolate, candy, and chips on top of that. You’d also have to grovel for at least a week and tell me how pretty I am on an hourly basis.”
“I’m starting to see why you’ve been single for a few years.”
“No. I’ve been single for a few years because the internet is full of fuckboys, and Port Wynne is full of, well, Justin.”
Luke burst out laughing. “I can’t comment on the fuckboys, but I’m there with you on Justin.”
“Also, you’re still single because you never go to the grocery store.”
“Ah—I went today.”
“Only because you’re potentially getting laid.”
His grin was lopsided. “Potentially?”
I pursed my lips at him, but hiding my smile was hard. “Yes, potentially. Would you have gone to the store if we weren’t having dinner tonight?”
“No,” he said quickly. “I’d have come to your place and eaten your food instead.”
I stared flatly at him.
“See? Practically dating.”
I reached for the bottle of wine to top up my glass, once again having to fight my smile as he grinned at me sexily. Thankfully, I was saved from replying by Flirty McFlirterson bringing our food over.
Pulling out her magic trick from when she took our order, she asked us if we needed anything else with her attention fully focused on Luke.
She didn’t even look at me when he asked if I did.
I gave her back another deadly look as she walked away, ignoring Luke’s breathy chuckling.
“Yeah. You’re not jealous.”
“I’m not jealous,” I muttered. “I simply like to stare bitches to death.”
“You should put that on a t-shirt. That’ll scare them off.”
I rolled my eyes and picked up my fork. “You’re ridiculous.”
He grinned again. Damn that grin. Why had I never noticed how sexy it was? What magic was this?
“All right. Let’s do your thing while we eat.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where we pretend we don’t know a lot about each other. I think it could be fun. Like, I didn’t know you had a jealous streak.” His eyes shone with laughter.
I jabbed my fork into a shrimp. “I didn’t know you had a jealous streak.”
“I don’t, but we’re understanding now.”
I sighed, putting the shrimp into my mouth and chewing. “Okay, fine.” I set the fork down. “I work at Salty’s Bar just a couple of blocks away from the beach. I have a borderline unhealthy relationship with Netflix and like quirky socks, and I can get a little wild after a few too many drinks.”
Luke chewed, nodding his head. “Okay. Well, I’m a builder with Wynne and Sons with some of my friends. I once flashed the members of the bingo club in the town square after one too many tequila shots, and I am terrible at grocery shopping, so my grandmother often cooks me meals in batches.” He paused. “Wait, scrap that last bit. That’s not attractive at all.”
“Not a good idea to mention Abuelita at all,” I added. “She’d scare anyone off.”
“Right. Good point. What kind of movies do you like?”
“Oh.” I picked up my glass. “I’m a bit of a mixed bag. I like romcoms, but I also really like thrillers.”
“Thrillers are fun. They’re a favorite of mine, too. Do you have any hobbies?”
“Judging others and drinking wine.” I tilted my glass from side to side to punctuate it. “You?”
“I watch a lot of sports.”
“Oooh, that might be a dealbreaker. I’m not really into sports.”
“I can make a deal not to watch it around you. I can cope with it.”
“What happens if you need feeding on a Sunday?”
He grimaced. “Do you do a delivery service?”
“Do I look like Uber Eats?”
“No, you’re very pretty.”
I laughed and twirled some pasta onto my fork. “You’ll just have to make sure you go and see your grandmother before a long day of watching sports.”
“Ah, my totally not-crazy grandmother.” He nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.”
I smiled, putting the pasta into my mouth. Luke winked, sticking his fork into his lasagna.
I held his gaze for a second before dropping my eyes to the condensation on the table from our cold water glasses.
This wasn’t so bad after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY – ASPEN
Thrillers and Thrills
“Okay, no, I don’t believe you.”
Luke laughed, nudging me with his elbow as we walked across the sand. “I swear. When she found out we were having dinner tonight, she sat down and told me all the excuses you’d told her about why you couldn’t date any of my cousins, then asked me why I was so much better than all of them.”
I shook my head and swung my shoes at my side. “I don’t even remember why I turned them all down. I don’t think I even gave her valid reasons half the time.”
He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. “She told me that I’m not allowed to fuck this up, because she’s tried to marry you into this family for years, and this is the first promising sign that her plans are finally coming to fruition.”
“She’s insane. Now I know why y’all made a promise to each other to elope whenever you planned to get married.”
“You know she’s insane. It’s not like it’s a secret for you. The only question is whether or not you think you can deal with her if we started dating for real.”
I snorted, stopping. “If we started dating? I think we’ve both come to the conclusion that, until this point, we’ve been dating without any kind of romantic feelings. It’s
not that much of a stretch, is it?”
“Does this mean we’re finally over the whole ‘best friend’ thing being an issue?”
“No. Absolutely not.” I shook my head. “It’s going to be weird. You know that, right?”
Luke reached over and took my hand, then pulled me down to the sand with him. I set my shoes on the sand next to me and tucked my feet under my butt.
“I know it’s gonna be weird,” he said. “No matter how much we joke about it, we’re still always going to have been best friends first. Adjusting from our normal relationship is going to be hard, but I don’t want to lie, I want to try it.”
“Do you think we can do it? Go from best friends to more?”
He nodded slowly, meeting my eyes and smiling. “I do. I think we’ll need to work hard at it, but then again, tonight has been easy.”
“Except for that bitch server who gave you her number.” The audacity of the woman. We were clearly on a date, yet she’d had the balls to scrawl her number on the back of his receipt.
I’d wanted to go after her.
Luke had wrapped one arm around my waist and all but carried me out of the restaurant.
I was still a little annoyed about that.
“I know what you’re thinking, and no, I do not regret hauling you out of the building.” He kept his gaze focused on mine. “I’ve seen you get in a fight. It’s not pretty.”
I held up one finger. “I was nine, and Tammy Rosenthal had stolen my project and turned it in as her own. I’d spent two weeks on that damn solar system.”
“Yes, and you slapped her like you were a seal trying to get someone’s attention.”
“Well, it worked, because she had to admit she’d stolen my solar system.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “Still, I can’t let anyone else witness that.”
“Just as well. I’d have ripped her extensions right off her head.”
“For giving me her number?”
“Did you or did you not have a hissy fit this week because some guy gave me his number? And we hadn’t even agreed to go on a date?”
He opened his mouth, then stopped. “Totally different. I’m a guy. I was marking my territory.”
