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I searched his face, looking for the “just kidding” in his expression. But no, he was dead serious—andthatwas hot as fuck.
“Okay, you win. As much as I think I’d like to see that.”
Gavin flipped open the menu between us. “Do you know what you want? I personally love the?—”
“Tie Dye Pizza,” we said at the same time.
Gavin grinned and shrugged, shoving the menus back where they’d been. “Well, that was easy.”
“Something else we have in common.”
“How did I not know that?”
“We’ve never been here before.”
“Together, at least.”
“Right.” And what a damn shame that was. It also had me wondering what else we both liked and had no idea about. But before I could dive a little deeper, the waiter stopped by to take our order, and a few minutes later, he was back with our drinks. We’d both opted for soda, deciding to give our livers a bit of a reprieve after our night out at Church.
Gavin took a sip then turned to face me. “So what happened earlier? You said you got held up.”
I was hoping he’d forgotten about that. But unlike all the other times Claudia and Patrick came up, that anger and dark cloud that usually rolled in was nowhere to be found. Instead, I felt…nothing.
“I saw my parents, or at least, the two who claim to be them.”
Gavin’s smile immediately fell, the color in his face draining. “Daire… I… Are you okay?”
I took his hand under the table and stroked my thumb across the top of it. “Yeah, actually. I’m pretty damn good.”
“But…” Gavin blinked as though he was trying to find his words. “You let me go on and on just now. Why didn’t you tell me when we sat down?”
“BecauseI’m good.” When my lips tugged up at the side, Gavin frowned andthatmade me laugh. I reached up and smoothed my thumb over the furrow there. “Seeing them today, I felt nothing.”
The sadness that filled Gavin’s eyes had me squeezing his hand and scooting in even closer, because he’d clearly misunderstood.
“Nope. Don’t do that. At least not over this. Iwantedto feel nothing. It means they don’t have a hold on me anymore. You know why? Because of you.”
“But I didn’t do anything.”
“Didn’t you?” I scanned the crowded restaurant then brought my attention back to him. “You ever known me to wanna hang out in public? Or to smile when I step outside on a fuckin’ spring day? Because I gotta tell you, I was kinda beaming earlier and didn’t even feel stupid about it. I mean, who the hell am I?”
A burst of laughter escaped him. “You smiled? Did anyone run screaming in the opposite direction?”
I shook my head. “Not that I noticed.”
“I’d like to see that, actually.”
“People screaming to get away from me?”
Gavin rolled his eyes and knocked his shoulder into mine. “No. Your smile.” He angled himself toward me. “Go on. Show me.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Sure, it does. Aaandgo.”
“I don’t smile on command.”
“Well then, pretend I’ve said something really funny.”
