Page 61 of Love In Hiding

“I don’t try though. It’s just a natural talent I’ve got.” The wiggle of her eyebrows said she was making this fun.

He laughed. “You know, like this, we get along well.”

“I do know. That’s why I pushed. If I waited for you, it might not happen. You know, that honor and all.”

“I’m not going to apologize for that. And I’ll still be cautious. I think that is just smart.”

“It is. And back to Paris. She knows we kissed. She thought it was funny. Not in a humorous way, just a good one.”

“Does she know about dinner tonight?”

“No. She left before I got your text. She came back from her meeting, finished a few things up and left early to get ready. Then your text came in. Faster than I thought too.”

“Good. I want to throw you off as much as you’ve been doing to me.”

“We’ve got that in common then.”

Their dinner was placed down five minutes later. “Do they always serve everyone this quickly?”

“They do. I picked it in case we get on the other’s nerves. It can be a fast date. See, I can be smart too,” she said.

“You know we are going to always get on each other’s nerves,” he pointed out, then picked up his knife to cut the massive chicken sandwich in half and lift it up for a bite.

“We are. I don’t have a problem with it. It keeps things spicy. Don’t you think?”

He nodded while he chewed and thought of the next words out of his mouth.

She was eating along with him.

“What’s the next step other than not letting anyone know we are here?”

“If we want to keep it too much of a secret then we shouldn’t have met here,” she said.

“You suggested it. So you don’t care?”

“Oh, I care. But if someone sees us they can think we are working. Since we just went away together recently, we could brush it off that way.”

He was good with that.

“What do you think your sister is going to say about this date tonight? I’m sure you’ll tell her.”

She shrugged, the smile still on her face as she chewed and swallowed. “She’ll think it’s a good thing. Neither one of us has had much of a personal life in years. It’s hard when you’re on the road. Then we knew for at least six months that this move was in the works. Why even bother trying at that point. What about you? You never said why or how long you’ve been single. Let’s have some common date talk.”

It wouldn’t hurt. They already knew more about each other than he would someone else on a date like this. Hesupposed this would be considered their first because the others were on a work trip.

Then he wondered why it mattered all that much to him.

It was guilt—that was why.

He needed to get it out of his mind that he knew better than to mix business and pleasure.

He’d seen enough other people do it and be just fine in the end. No reason he couldn’t be mature enough to navigate it.

It was whether London could be mature enough though. Which pained him to think, but he had to be honest with himself at the same time.

“I’ve been single for about three years. Work has played a good part in it.”

“You’ve not dated at all?”