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I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Good.” He kept his hand on mine as we followed the hostess to a small table near the center of the restaurant. Even with the table between us, Grant’s masculine scent left me too distracted to look at the menu because all of my focus was on his rugged features and full lips, and that dimple that made an appearance every time he bit his lip, twisted his mouth left or right, and most of all, when he smiled. “That all right with you?”
“What? Sorry.”
He smiled like he knew I found him far more interesting than anything on the menu. “I just asked if you know what you want?”
You. “I’ll have some soup and the tempura platter.”
“And you’ll try some of the sushi, if I ask really nicely?”
My mouth opened to say no, but instead curved into a smile. “How nicely are we talkin’?”
Grant’s grin lit up the whole restaurant. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”
I did my absolute best to stop the knife of electricity that zipped through me at his words and the heated look he sent across the table, but that tiny twitch of his lips told me I’d failed. “We have to start with sake, right? When in Rome and all that.”
The sake arrived at the table in a decorate carafe with two small matching glasses. Our waitress poured the first two drinks, all fancy like, and I sat back and enjoyed the process, kind of like the first time I watched my instructor give a girl highlights. Grant held the small cup in the air, a panty melting smile on his face. “To new friends and trying new things.”
“I’ll drink to that.” The sake was pretty good, better than I remembered anyway, then again, I tried to block that date out of my memory completely. “So Grant, tell me something about yourself.”
“What would you like to know, Brenna?” The way he said my name, like it was the name of some exotic princess from the romance novels I read when I had a chance, never failed to produce a physical reaction.
I wanted to know everything right up front to see if Grant Lopez was as good as he seemed, but that was bad date etiquette, so I started with the easy questions first. “Tell me about your family.”
His smile brightened at the mention of his family and dammit, who could find fault with a man who lit up when he thought of his family. “I have two brothers, twins and older than me by about six years. Casper is an ER surgeon and Vance is an environmental lawyer. They both live in Boston, not too far from where we grew up.”
“Holy crap, talk about a family of high achievers. Your folks must be pleased as punch with how you all turned out.” It was kind of disappointing to learn he was out of my league, but that fact also allowed me to relax a little more.
Grant shrugged it off like it was no big deal. “Being in the military isn’t quite the same as emergency surgery, or suing big corporations who pollute local waters, is it?”
It wasn’t all that ladylike, but I had to snort at his ridiculous statement. “You’re kiddin’ me, right? Navy SEALs are like a military Ph.D., aren’t they with all that specialized training? You guys are the baddest of the bad asses.”
“Wow. Been doing your homework?” Before I could answer, the waitress arrived with enough food, it seemed, for five people. My soup and tempura came along with two long plates filled with sushi. “So, tell me what else you learned to impress me, Brenna.”
I laughed and kept my gaze trained on the sushi while he added green gloop to the soy sauce with his chopsticks. “Not to impress you, actually. I love romance novels and romance writers love sexy military guys and apparently none are sexier than SEALs.” He laughed again and I glared at him. “That’s not me saying you’re sexy or anything.”
“Of course not.” He held up a piece like an expert with those little wooden sticks, about two inches from my mouth. “Open up.”
“What is it?” It looked like bacon and smelled like barbecue sauce, but neither of those were likely.
“Unagi roll,” he said simply and brought the roll closer. “You know you want to open up.”
I debated it for a long moment before I relented. “What the hell. Won’t be the first time I embarrassed myself on a date.” I closed my mouth around the bit and chewed slowly, hesitantly but deliberately until it was gone. “Not bad. What is unagi?”
“Eel.”
I quickly reached for my sake cup and drank the whole thing, inelegantly but it was enough to wipe the image of a slithering black eel from my mind. “It was…good, but eel? Seriously?”
