Page 17 of What Started In Deception

“Anytime we can grab one, we should.”

She swallowed as she held his gaze, setting down her napkin.

“Come on.” He gave a nudge of his head as he opened his arm to her. “We need to start filling up our phones.”

She exhaled a quiet sigh and got up, heading around to his side of the table, sliding in next to him.

He wrapped his arm around her stiff shoulders, feeling her silky soft skin against his as he held up his phone, framing them in the shot. “Smile.”

He snapped the picture, bringing the phone back down, wincing as he examined his screen. “Yikes. Maybe you could look a little less kidnapped.”

She laughed—the same rich sound he remembered from the flower shop.

He chuckled as he held her gaze—as she composed herself quickly—knowing he’d just made his first official crack in her armor. “Let’s do it again,” he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, waiting for her to relax. “Smile.”

He brought his phone down and nodded as he studied the new picture, pleased that they’d both grinned—that they looked like any other happy couple. “Much better.”

She looked at the picture as he did. “I imagine I should probably have that on my phone, too.”

He nodded. “You should.” He texted it to her, hearing her phone ding on the table.

“Thanks.”

He nodded again. “You’re welcome. Should we think about wrapping things up for tonight?”

She reached for her glass, taking another drink of her water. “Yeah, I have some things I still need to do before tomorrow.”

He pulled a fifty from his wallet and set it on the table. “That should cover us.”

“Thank you. For the nachos.”

Polite, even when she didn’t want to be. “You’re welcome. Thanks for meeting me.”

She nodded as she stood, grabbing her phone and her purse.

He slid out of the booth next, walking with her outside, heading toward her vehicle in the still-bright summer sky. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She stopped by the hood. “You’re not going to follow me?”

He shook his head. “I don’t really need to. It’s Thursday, so I imagine you’ll swing by your grandparents’ place to check on things. Then you’ll head home and water your flowers out front before you call it a night.”

Her lips twitched. “I’m not that predictable.”

“Are you going to swing by your grandparents’ place, then head home and water the flowers out front?”

She lost her battle and smiled as she rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

He chuckled. “There you go.”

“I guess I need to shake things up a little.”

He chuckled again as he shrugged. “You’d be a serial killer’s dream target. Any criminal’s dream target. There’s not a lot of guessing when it comes to your schedule.”

She struggled not to smile again. “I like a routine.”

“Clearly.”

She adjusted the purse strap on her shoulder. “I should get going.”