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“Josh Summers decided to bring you another pie,” Lily added. “Will you save me a piece?”
“Sure,” she said. “And thanks for the ride.”
Ryan climbed down from the truck and held the door open for her. “Nice meeting you. And if you see Noah, will you tell him I’ll swing by the bar later?”
She nodded as she shouldered her backpack and headed for Josh. With each step, the tension eased. She’d survived a car ride with an air force officer. That had to be a step in the right direction.
“How long have you been waiting?” she asked Josh.
“Just got here,” he said. “I wanted to stop by and ask you something.”
Her heart sank. He’d driven over an hour out of his way to ask her out. Of course, he’d brought a pie too. But he always brought pie. And she’d known it was only a matter of time before he stopped waiting for her to name a time and place for their first date.
A month or so ago, she’d asked him out when the memory of their first kiss still pushed her past fear and landed her in a big old pile of lust-inspired insanity. She’d felt brave, bold, and maybe a little brazen.
But today she felt as if she were dodging one bullet after another. As if her life was a series of obstacles, and at the end of the day her reward was survival.
“Ask me what?” she said as she withdrew the key to the bar’s back entrance from her pocket.
“Do you like whipped cream?”
She turned away from the door and faced the redhead with the sexy smile. Maybe she’d dodged enough bullets today. Maybe she could pack her concerns about the wedding, and how she planned to blend in with the flower arrangements, away until after he left.
“I love it.”
Chapter 2
“MAY I LICK the whipped cream off your face?”
Josh lowered his fork to the pie dish and waited for the Big Buck’s dishwasher to catch up with the conversation. Pie—not flowers—had offered him the perfect way to transition from the guy who found her in the woods to her friend. And he couldn’t resist the temptation to switch from small talk to damn near close to begging for a kiss.
And a date, he thought. I’m going to ask her out today.
Caroline raised one perfect, dark eyebrow. One hand clasped a spoon and the other rested on the stainless steel work surface that on busy nights held stacks of dirty pint glasses waiting for her attention. Right now, it was just the two of them and the pie. The bar wouldn’t open to Forever’s local logging population and the university students who outnumbered the men and woman born and bred in this section of the Willamette Valley for another hour.
“No,” she said. Her tongue darted out from between her pink lips that always looked as if she was wearing a kiss-me-now lipstick. Or course, he knew the woman whose ideas of accessorizing involved a concealed weapon tucked into the waistband of her pants did not bother with makeup. She licked the whipped cream teasing the edge of her mouth. “I’ve got it under control.”
He nodded, refilled his fork and lifted another bite of key lime pie to his mouth. He always asked—for a touch, a taste, a kiss—but he never pushed. Caroline would shift the parameters of their dessert-based friendship in her own time. Or she wouldn’t and he’d be forced to come to terms with the fact that the future he daydreamed about—settling down with Caroline, buying his own home, maybe a dog—would replace sleeping with Megan Fox on the top of his Never Going to Happen list.
“You’re going to Noah’s wedding on Saturday night?” he asked, sliding back into friendly chitchat. He’d waited a year to kiss Caroline the first time. And he’d sit tight for another if it meant more sugarcoated kisses. To hell with his siblings’ opinions.
“Just because I can take the dishwasher apart and fix it every time it tries to quit on us”—she nodded to the restaurant-grade appliance behind her—“doesn’t mean Noah wouldn’t fire me for missing his wedding. Plus, he’s closing the bar for the night. Everyone else is going.”
“Everyone else is in the wedding,” Josh pointed out. Big Buck’s owner and manager was marrying Forever’s former bad girl, who’d burst into his life over a year ago, demanded a job, and quickly worked her way up to assistant manager. And the only other bartender on the payroll right now was the groom’s best friend and the bride’s big brother.
“True. But I owe Noah. I can’t miss his wedding.”
Fair enough, he thought.
“A couple of months ago, you asked me out on a date,” Josh pointed out.
“I was feeling brave at the time.”
“Are you canceling?” he challenged. If she said yes, he’d kiss her again. Maybe not today, but one day soon. And he’d reminder her why she’d summoned the courage to ask in the first place. He’d caught her looking, her eyes roaming over his biceps with a flicker of something more than friendship in their green depths. And if given the chance, he would let her run her fingers over his T-shirt, mapping the muscles beneath . . .
“No, I’m not canceling,” she said thoughtfully. “I’m still working out the details.”
“Be my date to the wedding.”
