My own lunch forgotten, I followed her outside. Also exiting my memory banks was my decision to stay away from her. Nothing good could come from getting anywhere near this girl, and yet before I knew it, before I even knew what I would say to her, I was at her table.

My shadow fell over her lunch, making her jerk in surprise. Gasping, she looked up as if she expected to see a serial killer.

I almost took a step back and lifted my hands to show her that I came in peace. But could there ever be any peace in her life if I was hanging around it? The best thing I could do here was apologize and get the hell lost.

But I remained.

Shaking her head, she blinked a haunted look from her eyes before wrinkling her nose in confusion when she realized it was me. She made a sound as if the beginning of a question, but she never asked anything.

So I said, “What’d you say that drink you gave me this morning was called again?”

No idea why I asked that. I didn’t give a fuck what the drink was called. But it was something to say and kept me from blurting out other things that were really on my mind, namely an apology of my own.

“Umm…” She shook her head slightly, probably wondering why I was finally talking to her. That made two of us. “Uh, it was a…a white chocolate mocha espresso. Why?”

Why? Why did she have to say why? I had no idea why I’d asked, other than to say something.

Panicking, I just nodded and made a humming sound in the back of my throat, trying to play it off. “It wasn’t bad,” I said. “Thanks.”

Thanks?

Wow, I was a moron.

“Well…” She kept staring at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Yeah. And…and thank you for, you know, forgiving me for the way I acted last night.”

I squinted at her, trying to remember when I’d forgiven her for anything. This would probably be a good time to tell her she hadn’t even needed to apologize.

But she blew out a pleased breath and swiped at her brow, looking relieved. “I thought you totally hated me.”

For real? Yikes, I guess I needed to work on my expressions if she’d ever thought that. Or maybe I should congratulate myself for being so awesome at concealing what I was really feeling.

Since I didn’t like knowing I’d worried her, I admitted, “No. I don’t… I don’t hate you.” But I had to look away as I said it because it felt a little too intimate of a thing to admit out loud.

This was so fucking awkward. You’d think I’d know how to talk to a girl. But since the conversation didn’t revolve around how and where she wanted it, I was just…lost.

Okay, I told myself. Just… Just pretend she’s Sarah. I could talk to Sarah. No problem.

Then again, most of my Sarah interactions involved brotherly teasing. Was it okay to tease a girl you wanted, even though you shouldn’t want her?

No clue. But thinking about my sister did cause me to remember.

“So I talked to Sarah this morning,” I blurted, grabbing the straps of my mess

enger bag for moral support.

“Oh, God,” Reese moaned, closing her eyes and slapping a hand to her forehead. “She told you about the makeup, didn’t she? Oh…fudge. Is Dawn pissed? Is she going to fire me? I swear, I removed every inch of it before she went to bed. We even—”

“No!” I cried, waving a hand to reassure her. Then I realized. Okay. “Yes,” I amended, since Sarah had told me something about makeup. Then I muttered a curse under my breath, mortified by how badly I was flubbing this up.

To calm myself, I blew out a long breath. Then I started over.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “Sarah told me about the makeup. She told me about everything you two did last night. And no, Mom is not going to fire you.” I grinned in amusement over the very idea. “She’s probably going to give you a bear hug the next time she sees you.”

Okay, so Mom probably wouldn’t do that either, but it was what I wanted to do for the way she’d delighted my sister, so I felt the need to mention it, even if it were in correlation with my mother and not me.

“Sarah was absolutely glowing this morning,” I explained. “I’ve… I’ve honestly never seen her so happy. So whatever you think you did to annoy me last night after my shower has been erased tenfold by everything you did for my sister.”

Her mouth fell open. She looked affected—in a good way—so I began to think, yes, I wasn’t botching this conversation up after all.

Tags: Linda Kage Forbidden Men Romance
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