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Rolling her eyes at him, she said, “Didn’t mean to offend your manly palate. I’ll just enjoy this myself then,” as she speared a sliver of portobello mushroom and popped it into her mouth.
When he moved his fork toward her plate, she shooed him away with her hand and said, “No. No. I won’t force you to try it.”
After a moment, she heard him sigh deeply then ask, “Please can I have a bite of your awesome pasta, Chloe?” in the most dry tone he could manage.
Chloe twisted a bite of fettuccine on her fork and stabbed another mushroom, then held it up for him. After he’d taken the bite, she heard Deacon snort across the table.
Flipping him off without even breaking eye contact with Chris, she said, “Good, right?”
Chris chewed and said, “That’s really good. What is that again?”
Chloe smirked and said, “Puttanesca.”
The rest of the meal continued without incident. Excusing themselves, she and Sara made a pit stop in the ladies’ room as they were on the way out of the restaurant. Chloe fixed her lip gloss in the mirror, and ran a brush through her hair.
Sara stood at the sink next to her and said, “I don’t even have to pee. I just had to get you alone for a second. Things seem to be going really well with you guys. You’re really cute together!”
Smiling, Chloe admitted, “They are going really well. It’s strange how much I’m learning about him even though I’ve known him for so long.”
“You guys are adorable. I can’t wait to hear what Deacon has to say about all this!”
Rolling her eyes, Chloe dryly said, “I can probably do without it. Feel free to not share.”
Both of them laughing now, they left the bathroom.
After agreeing to meet at the entrance to the promenade, the two couples split up and went back to their respective vehicles. The drive was relatively short, but took a few minutes so Chloe had time to think about the conversation they’d had in the car before dinner.
She’d only been kidding with him about the lip gloss, but his response had been incredibly sweet. Mostly, because she knew it was completely sincere. She smiled when she thought about it. They had been pretty casual about things so far, but Chloe was beginning to suspect that maybe Deacon was right. Chris seemed to have some hidden depths. It would be interesting to explore them.
Chapter 16
By the time they pulled into the hotel on Thursday night, it was just after midnight. Traffic had been a nightmare, so the drive had taken twice the time it should have. After he had parked the car, he looked over at Chloe in the seat next to him. She was sound asleep.
Smiling, he reached out and touched her shoulder gently. She stirred immediately and asked, “We’re here? What time is it?”
“Midnight?” he said, not entirely sure.
“Oh god. Really? You should have woken me up.”
“No. You looked so peaceful, I couldn’t. Let’s go inside though. I want to stretch my knee,” he said, grimacing.
Chloe’s eyes widened and she said, “Crap. I didn’t even think about that. I would have driven.”
An alarmed look must have passed over his face because she gave him a dirty look and said, “I haven’t been in an accident since I was seventeen, jerk.”
His lips twitching, he turned the car off, and popped the trunk. Opening his door, he sighed deeply and said, “You can drive on the way home. You know how to drive stick?”
Grinning, she said, “Yep,” as she opened her door and exited the car.
Walking around to the trunk, she reached in to grab her suitcase. When he’d taken his out and they wheeled them to the exit of the parking structure, he heard her say, “It feels so nice to be out of the car. How long does it normally take to drive to San Diego?”
Turning, he looked at her and said, “Like half that time. There was a huge accident about halfway there. They were still cleaning it up when we made it past.”
As they walked into the lobby, she said, “Uh. This is much fancier than I was expecting. I figured we’d stay at a Holiday Inn or something.”
Chris made a face and said, “No way. This was a condition of my agreeing to travel so much for work. I got to pick the hotel. Normally I pick something a bit more modest, but under the circumstances…”
Giving her one last unrepentant grin, he approached the desk to check them in. After retrieving their room key, he turned around to look for her. Finally he spotted her at the back edge of the lobby.
