“Only if you’re not planning to enforce it,” she said with a grin.
Moving back, he inspected himself in the rear view mirror. Wiping the last of her lip gloss off his mouth, he said, “We better go inside now before—”
His phone rang. Looking down, he said, “Deacon.”
Silencing it, he said, “They’re going to send out a search party.”
Smirking, Chloe said, “Probably.”
They got out of the car, and walked hand in hand into the restaurant. After Chris told the hostess that they were meeting someone, she directed them back to the table where Deacon and Sara were waiting.
Sitting down, they exchanged greetings and quickly looked through the menu.
Deacon said, “You guys are sun burnt. Take the boat out?”
“Nah, we went to the beach today. That reminds me, though. We should do a fishing trip before it gets too cold,” Chris said.
Nodding, Deacon said, “Next weekend?”
“Going to San Diego next Friday for work, and we’re going to stay over the weekend,” he answered, gesturing to Chloe.
Deacon and Chris started talking about fishing. Chloe grimaced and tuned out, turning to face Sara.
Sara said, “San Diego is so much fun! I love the Gaslamp District. Oh, and Coronado is so pretty!”
Chloe turned toward Sara and said, “Yeah, I’ve never been, and aren’t we staying in Coronado, Chris?”
Without even breaking conversation he nodded at her, then turned back to conversation with Deacon.
Sara raised her eyebrows and said, “Fancy. Coronado is really, really pretty. You’re going to get such amazing pictures. I can’t wait to ogle them jealously on Facebook.”
Laughing, Chloe said, “Yeah right. Like you couldn’t talk Deak into doing anything. I mean, anything ever. You got him to parasail, for god’s sake.”
Sara waved her hand and said, “I only use my powers for good now.”
The conversation paused for a moment when the waiter came to take their orders. Chloe got the fettucine puttanesca, crossing her fingers. It was incredibly difficult to find a good red sauce in a restaurant. They tended to sit for a while and end up watery. She’d stopped eating Italian food out and decided to make her own a couple of years back.
After everyone else had ordered, they settled back into mostly separate conversations at this point. The men continued to discuss fishing, while Sara and Chloe talked about San Diego. Sara gave her a laundry list of places to eat and things she needed to see.
This dinner was just like any other that they’d shared over the time they’d all known each other. There was laughter and a constant flow of conversation. The only real notable exception to the norm was that Chris had his hand on her thigh and was idly rubbing it with his thumb as he talked to Deacon.
The conversation died when the meal arrived. Her food was pretty decent, which shouldn’t have surprised her since Sara owned her own catering business and basically lived and breathed food.
Pausing to take a sip of her water, she said, “Sara. This place is freaking awesome.”
Grinning, she said, “I know.”
Chris swallowed the food in his mouth and said, “Yeah. This is great,” gesturing to the Alfredo he had ordered.
Spearing a shrimp, he held his fork out to Chloe and said, “Babe, you’ve gotta try this. The sauce is amazing.”
Opening her mouth, she accepted the bite, chewing thoughtfully. After swallowing, she said, “Oh, wow. That’s really good. I’d totally come back here.”
Chris nodded and said, “Right?”
“Mine is pretty awesome too. Wanna try it?” she asked.
He eyed the plate skeptically and said, “Yours doesn’t even have any meat in it.”