Page 21 of Just Keep Driving

He grins. “We just got here.”

“They got tacos?” I ask, dead serious.

He shakes his head, laughing. “You stuck on them tacos, huh?”

“They changed my life,” I mumble as he gives the host our names.

They flow together: Champ and Lydea.

We get seated in a booth, and he slides in next to me instead of across. I raise an eyebrow at him.

“You don’t believe in personal space?” I ask.

He leans back, arm stretching along the back of the booth behind me. “Not with you, no.”

I try to play it cool, but my lips twitch. I pick up the menu, but I’m not reading a single word on it. I can feel him close to me, almost touching, but not quite

So I lean.

Just a little.

His hand drops from the back of the booth to my shoulder, fingers brushing along my arm.

I swallow and finally glance at the menu for real. “So what do you actually want?” I ask, tapping the edge of it against the table.

He looks over at me. “Right now?”

“Yeah.”

He leans back a little, thinking, but not too hard. “My shop. Open, running the way I see it in my head.”

“That’s it?” I raise an eyebrow. “No secret second life? No five-year plan with a yacht involved?”

He laughs. “Nah. I just want something that’s mine. Something I don’t wake up and dread.”

I nod slowly. “That’s real.”

“What about you?” he asks. “What do you want, for real?”

The question hits different than it should.

I shrug, but it’s not as easy as I want it to be. “Peace,” I say finally. “And to not feel like I’m wasting my time.”

His eyes stay on me. “You feel like you have been?”

I let out a small breath. “Yeah. Dating especially. Sitting across from men I already know I don’t like, just to say I gave it a shot.”

He smirks a little. “You definitely gave it a shot.”

“Don’t start,” I warn, but I’m smiling.

“I’m just saying,” he shrugs. “You stayed longer than I would’ve.”

“I know,” I admit. “That’s the problem.”

There’s a small pause, but it’s not awkward. Just...real.

Then his hand shifts on the table, brushing mine like it’s nothing.