Reba obviously didn’t care. She began chowing down on her meal without a second glance at Devon. He couldn’t stop himself from staring at her. She wasn’t a quiet eater. Her sounds of pleasure and enjoyment would have irked him on a normal occasion, but he was fascinated for some reason.

He was a silent eater himself. Didn’t mean he wasn’t enjoying his food; he simply saw no reason to be this noisy about it.

Another moan and hum of delight from Reba was enough for him to decide he needed to get to his dish. Focus on that and not the sounds coming from across the table. Sounds that seemed way too intimate for their current setting.

The first hit of flavour burst onto his tongue, and Devon was pleasantly surprised. He couldn’t name the dish, but JB had created something aromatic and colourful that included perfectly cooked slivers of steak. How the man had gotten it so right, he couldn’t guess. He almost asked Reba if she had orchestrated this entire lunch to push at his buttons—had somehow known exactly what Devon’s taste would be and alerted JB beforehand. That all seemed farfetched, even for her. Reba was guileless in her own way, preferring to be too honest and open as far as he was concerned.

“God, this is so good,” Reba sighed. “I would seriously let JB hit this if he wasn’t already married. If I could convince them to let me be their third, I’d be living my best food life!”

Devon choked on a vegetable, and Jesus Christ, if this was how he died, he would be pissed. He looked up at Reba, who had paused with her fork to her lips.

“Whoops, sorry. You okay over there?”

Devon wiped his mouth and nodded. “Yes. Perfectly fine. This is good.”

“It’s more than good, isn’t it, but your set-in-your-ways ass won’t admit I was right to bring you here. Come on, you can say it. I was right. I won’t gloat too much.” She licked the back of her fork, and Devon’s gaze returned to his food.

“I highly doubt that,” he muttered.

“Just say ‘thank you, Reba.’”

“For what? I’m paying.”

“But you’ve gained so much from this experience.”

All he had gained from this was knowledge he didn’t want about Reba’s underwear choices.

Let’s not forget she sometimes doesn’t wear any.

He stabbed at a piece of steak, shoving it into his mouth. Fucking traitorous subconscious.

“I want to try cookies on Saturday.” He needed to move this lunch conversation to a path that made sense. Thinking about Reba’s bare ass under her clothes wasn’t it.

She shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

“Oh, all of a sudden, it’s whatever I want?” He eyed her suspiciously. Why was she being so amenable now? He didn’t trust this.

“Cookies are fun and ups the difficulty level a bit. Come prepared on Saturday to show me cupcakes you made yourself, though. If I’m satisfied, we move on to the cookies. No ulterior motive.” She held up her pinkie finger. “Girl Guide’s honour and all.”

“Were you ever actually a Girl Guide?”

“Well, I didn’t quite make it past the Brownies, so technically no.”

“Hmm.”

“I was a Brownie until I rebelled at eight, tried to make my own patches to make the uniform less boring. The official patches and that brown dress and yellow tie just weren’t it. My Guide leader didn’t appreciate that, so they kindly told my parents that I should consider other pursuits more suited to my energetic personality.”

Devon shook his head. “Of course.”

Reba waved away his comment. “Organised institutions will never appreciate my creativity. I literally rescued a cat from a tree, so why shouldn’t I have a cute patch for that? They told me my cute Hello Kitty badge wasn’t an official patch, so I couldn’t put it on my uniform. The audacity. A Brownie is supposed to be helpful. I was being helpful by letting them know their uniform was trash.”

“So you were a hellraiser at eight? My condolences to your parents.”

“Oh, he got jokes? Just finish your food and hush.”

Devon couldn’t help his chuckle. He could definitely picture it, Reba telling off a bunch of adults because a uniform was a basic brown instead of something more colourful.

“Collecting those laughs like Pokémon, babyyyy!” Reba pumped her fists in the air triumphantly.

Tags: N.G. Peltier Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net