I stared at him, open-mouthed. “You’re?—”
“Giving?” he offered. “A brave champion of the fine arts?”
“Deranged,” I corrected. “Full of yourself.”
“Doesn’t look like you’re getting up to leave though, does it?”
I stuck my tongue out at him before I remembered I was a thirty-three-year-old adult, and not some petulant child.
Graciously, he ignored it, sipping on his coffee in hisridiculousexcuse for an outfit. The Crocs really tied the whole thing together.
“Hey,” he said, breaking through the comfortable silence we’d lapsed into. “I just realized I don’t have your number.”
I blinked. “You’ve been in my DMs for over a week.”
“Yeah, but that’s the perfectly curated, Bookstagrammer, Figments employee Juniper Haddock.” An almost wicked grin crossed his features. “I want to talk tothisJuniper.”
I narrowed my eyes. “This isn’t a bit, is it?”
“No bit.” He held out his phone. “Just me, trying to text a friend.”
A beat passed.
I took the phone from him — the case was cracked, the lock screen was a blurry photo of what looked like a raccoon and a hotdog bun, andof courseit was on 7% battery.
I typed in my number. Gave it back.
He grinned when it popped up on the screen.
“Juniper Haddock,” he read aloud. “Look at us, being grown-ups.”
I sipped my coffee, trying not to smile.
“Don’t make it weird,” I said.
CHAPTER 16
Ididn’t hear from him for several days, which honestly surprised me. Had I been ten years younger and one divorce less, I would have thought he looked absolutelyendearingin that coffee shop, trying to convince me of something I wasn’t willing to hear.
That was until my phone rang one afternoon. I was getting ready to clock out of a half-shift, and head home when the text came through.
cowboy
hey kid
what are you doing tonight?
Bubble bath, wine, and a new romance release?
Cowboy
…
would you be willing to change that?
can I call in a ‘childhoodcrush’ favor?
Not a thing
