He was smirking.
Smirking.
It wasn’t a full smile, but it was the most expressive I’d seen him look in all the days he’d been here. A little crooked, a little dangerous, and so completelyillegalit should’ve come with a warning label and a side of emergency chocolate.
Good thing that I packed my own.
“Well,” I said, trying to recover, “at least you’re smiling. That’s new. Should I alert the lodge that a miracle’s occurred? Call the Buttercup Gazette?”
Ben leaned back in his chair, his gaze still fixed on me like I was a puzzle he wasn’t sure he wanted to solve but couldn’t quite leave alone.
“That wasn’t a smile,” he said. “That was a twitch.”
“I’ll take it. Progress is progress.”
Another flicker. Another almost-smile. I’d call this one a twitch with ambition.
He took a sip of coffee, watching me over the rim of the mug. “Do you always do that?”
“Trip over things?”
“No.” His voice lowered just slightly, playful and unguarded. “Talk like your brain’s racing to outrun your mouth.”
I rested my chin in my hand and gave him a slow grin. “Only around people who stare like they’re reading my soul and judging my sins.”
He didn’t look away.
Neither did I.
Something unspoken buzzed in the space between us. It wasn’t quite flirty and not quite serious.
I swallowed hard. “Sorry again for the accidental strip show.”
“You realize saying it again doesn’t make it better.”
“Yeah, but I’m already in the deep end. I might as well dog paddle around in humiliation while I’m here.”
He chuckled.Chuckled.
That was new. That was... trouble.
“Your sister mentioned a trail,” he said after a moment. “Around the lake.”
“She mentioned the wildflowers, too?”
He nodded.
“And the espresso at the end?”
“Also that.”
I laughed. “She’s got a one-track brain when it comes to her favorite loop. She thinks the trail fixes everything. Heartbreak, lost keys, hangovers.”
“Does it?”
“I’ve never tried it for hangovers,” I said, tilting my head. “But itdoeshave a weirdly magical effect. By the time you’ve made it around the whole lake, you forget what you were overthinking.”
“I don’t overthink.”
