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The waiter turned to me. “Anything else for you, sir?”
I was going to need something stronger if I was going to preserve my sanity with Sophia’s scent invading my space and the dark line of her cleavage taunting me from the way she was leaning with her elbows on the table.
“I’ll have a SoCo. Make it a double. On the rocks.”
The waiter gave us a little bow and left me to my inappropriate thoughts and the conversation I never thought I’d have to have with Sophia.
“So,” I started. “About that kiss. It was a mistake, Soph. You know that, right?”
Sophia gave me a half smile and sat back, raising a dark brow. “Wow. Straight to business then? I’m fine. Thank you for asking, Brett. I had a great day, but yesterday was a little unproductive. Mondays suck. How are you?”
Okay, so I deserved that. I pursed my lips, but I couldn’t keep them from twitching up at the corners just a bit. “I’m good. Busy, but that‘s the story of my life these days, so it‘s nothing new. I‘m with you on the Monday thing, though. About the kiss—”
“Don’t worry about it, Brett. Seriously, it was nothing. Barely a kiss.”
What? No, it was definitely not nothing, but I couldn’t let her know that it meant anything to me.
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s just that it can’t happen again. Okay?”
Sophia reached out and placed her soft hand gently over mine. “I’m not a child anymore, in case you haven’t noticed. If I tell you not to worry about it, I mean that you shouldn’t worry about it. It really was nothing.”
I hadn’t expected Sophia to be so cool about it, or to shrug it off so easily. I wasn’t being arrogant or cocky or anything. Okay, maybe I was, but that was besides the point. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that she’d harbored a bit of a crush on me for years.
It started when she was about sixteenish. The way she looked at me changed. Gradually, to be fair, but it was like she stopped looking up at me to choose her side in squabbles with her big brother and wanted me to be by her side instead.
For that reason, I thought that she would’ve read into the kiss, thought about it as the culmination of years and years of unrequited feelings. But she was watching me coolly, her posture relaxed as she sipped on the beer that the waiter had soundlessly delivered, along with my drink.
Nodding once, I removed my hand from under hers. “Okay, so we’re putting it behind us and never talking about it again. Just like that?”
“Just like that,” she said. “But if you’re ever in need of a pair of lips to make a mistake with, mine are always available.”
She flashed me a playful smile, drawing my attention to said lips. They shone with a nude gloss, accentuating their naturally pink color.
Sophia never had been one for much makeup. Her eyes were framed by long eyelashes that were only lightly brushed with mascara, and thin black lines were drawn on her eyelids. I didn’t know why her tendency to avoid wearing so much makeup turned me on, but it did.
It shouldn’t have, but the fact that she was so comfortable with herself, and with me, for that matter, made my slacks just a little tighter around the crotch.
“Thanks for the offer, but my lips never should’ve been anywhere near yours to begin with. So, I think I’ll pass.”
“Why?” she asked.
Both my eyebrows shot up, and my hand closed around the tumbler holding my liquor. I shot back half the liquid in one gulp and stared at her.
Sophia, for her part, looked completely unaffected. How was she doing that?
“You know exactly why not,” I said.
Sophia’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Because I’m Mark’s sister? Is that it? Because that just seems a bit... I don’t know. Silly?”
“Silly?”
“Yes. I’m a grown woman. You’re a grown man. We’re not related to each other. Why should it matter that my brother is your friend?”
“It matters because it would hurt him. And you. I’m not the guy you’re looking for, Soph. I promise you that.”
“How do know what I’m looking for?” she asked.
“Because you told me that weekend we all went to Florida, remember?”
