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Thad started talking again, about the cat and mouse chase at the Bishikoffs’.
“Of course,” he said, “we all had to pretend we hadn’t noticed...”
Oh, of course not, Emily thought, with growing irritation. Jake wouldn’t pretend, if something like that were taking place right under his nose. He’d laugh out loud, if it were funny. Or he’d have gone to the rescue of the hapless mouse, which somebody should have done, if she was getting parts of the story right.
“That poor mouse,” she blurted.
Thad’s eyebrows lifted. “Mice are just mice,” he said gently. “Besides, what could anyone possibly do? It was the most undignified situation imaginable.”
As if dignity mattered, at such a moment. Jake wouldn’t think so. He wouldn’t be trapped by convention...
And he would not eat what was being placed in front of her right now. Creamy tendrils of pasta, laced with a strange, midnight-black liquid. Emily shrank back in her seat.
“That’s not mine,” she said quickly. “I ordered—”
“Pasta alla Gondola,” Thad said, leaning over her plate and inhaling. “Wonderful!” He looked up at the waiter. “I can never remember, Paolo. Is that ink from squid or octopus?”
Emily looked at her plate. “It must be octopus,” she said faintly, staring at the tiny, eight-tentacled creatures she’d just noticed delicately peeking out from under the pasta, “unless those are made of rubber...”
Her stomach lurched. The fork dropped from her fingers and fell to the floor. “I can’t—I just can’t...”
Thad put a sympathetic hand on her knee. “Can’t what, EmilyDarling?”
“Can’t eat seafood,” a familiar male voice said. “She’s allergic to it. Isn’t that right, Emily?”
Thad snatched his hand from Emily’s leg. She jerked her head around...and saw Jake.
“Surprised to see me?”
Stunned, she thought. Stunned and delighted. God, he was so handsome. So big and gorgeous. And so smart! He’d saved her from her fate with one quick sentence.
“A little,” she said carefully, and wondered if he could see the race of her pulse in her throat.
Jake sat down beside her in the booth. Thad shifted closer to the wall.
“It’s a good thing I came along,” Jake said, looking over Emily’s head at Thad. “She’s got this rare allergy to cephalopod mollusks”
Cephalopod what? Emily thought. “Oh, I certainly do!”
The booth was small; Jake was big and solid. Wonderfully solid, like an anchor in a storm, she thought as his thigh pressed against hers.
“Strange she didn’t mention it, when I ordered dinner,” Thad said coldly.
“Well, she was only recently diagnosed. Right, Em?”
“Oh, yes.” The lie sailed from her lips with ease.
“It’s terribly rare. Not many things contain cephalopod mollusks.” Jake reached under the table and took her hand. Her fingers lifted, wove tightly into his. “Well,” he said briskly, as he pushed her plate aside, “let’s order you something you can eat. ‘Pasta Amatriciana,’” he told the waiter, who’d come hurrying to the table. “For the lady, and for me.” He smiled at Emily. “No allergy problems with that, I promise.’
Emily smiled back. Her heart was still bumping against her ribs. It was so wonderful to see Jake, to have him with her. Only because he’d dug her out of a hole, of course. Why else would she be this happy to see him?
“McBride?”
Thad’s voice was icy. Jake smiled politely and looked at him. “Yes?”
“What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here, Jennett?”
“Having dinner, but—”
“What a coincidence.” Jake laid his hand, still joined with Emily’s, on her thigh. “So am I. At least, I was about to when I noticed you guys. You don’t mind if I join you, do you?”
“No,” Emily said. She blushed. “I mean, if it’s all right with you, Thad...”
Thad offered a taut smile. “Of course.”
“Great,” Jake said, and waved the waiter over again to order some wine.
The wine was delicious. So was the pasta. Emily dug into it with pleasure. Jake squeezed her hand and leaned closer.
“Good?”
“Yes.” She smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me,” he said quietly. “I like my ink to stay in ballpoint pens, and things with too many arms belong in nightmares.”
She laughed. Jake did, too.
“Did I miss something?” Thad asked stiffly.
