AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Janie looked confused, but she wrote it down. “And what would you like for your soups?”
“Lobster bisque with poppyseed crackers,” I said.
Paul nodded. “Same.”
Janie wrote that down. “And your salad?”
“The roasted beet with ricotta, arugula pesto, and balsamic pearls,” I told her.
“Uh, what are balsamic pearls?” Paul asked Janie.
“Just balsamic vinegar, but in little ball shapes so it looks like caviar,” she replied.
Paul and I made grossed-out faces at each other and I held up a hand. “On second thought, I’ll just have the Caesar.”
“Me too,” he added, then pointed a finger at me. “I just saved you from eating faux-fish eggs.”
“You sure did,” I said with a laugh that turned into a shudder. “Sorry, Janie, we’re new to fancy five-course meals.”
“It’s okay, you’re not alone,” she said. “Okay, next up is your main course.”
“Okay, this is an easy one. I’ll have the red snapper with garlic shrimp, mango salsa, and chipotle sweet corn puree,” I said with a grin. “They had me at the shrimp and mango salsa.”
Paul shook his head. “I’ll have the steak. They had me at the steak.”
Janie took our menus with a grin. “Good choices. There’s only one dessert for this evening and it’s big enough to share. It’s an apple fritter with Bavarian cream, lemon wafers, and edible rose petals.”
“Don’t tell Ms. Hattie,” Paul said under his breath, making me laugh again.
Janie looked between us with narrowed eyes. “You guys are really cute together, you know that?”
I blushed as Paul’s eyes twinkled from where he sat, looking devastatingly handsome in an all-black suit. “Thanks, Janie.”
“I felt really bad for you when I saw the proposal video, but I think you leveled up,” she said cheerily. “Do you guys need anything else, or should I go put this in?”
Paul was busy biting his tongue as he looked at the sky over our heads, so I shook my head. “No, thanks, Janie.”
“I’ll be back with your appetizer shortly.”
When she was gone, I nudged Paul’s foot under the table. “Don’t worry, someday people will forget all about that video.”
He grunted. “Here’s hoping.” He took my hand across the table and gave it a quick squeeze. “But she’s right. I definitely leveled up.”
Throughout the meal, we talked and laughed like we always did, but it was laced with a delicious tension that I was becoming incredibly addicted to. In all our years of friendship, I refused to let myself believe that Paul could ever be attracted to me. Sitting in front of him now—in the red lacy dress I’d bought yesterday with him in mind—I was by no means blind to his attraction. It radiated from him as he lazily appraised me from across the table.
At one point, his gaze had roved over my face and down to my neck and chest before making the same path again. He might as well have been trailing kisses there by the way my body responded to the hungry look in his eyes, and I found myself questioning my sanity for keeping this gorgeous man in the friend zone for so many years. In my defense, he had lived in other places the entire time, so this chemistry was easily hidden.
Once dessert was on its way, I picked up the small clutch that held my phone and a few other things and stood up. “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room.”
“I’ll be here.”
I started to turn away, then slipped over to him and placed a quick kiss on his smiling lips. “Sorry. One for the road.”
“Don’t take too long,” he said in a low tone.
I grinned, reveling in the way my stomach fluttered as I walked through the pavilion full of diners and headed for the main house. The brick steps that led to the back door were uneven and hard to navigate in my heels, but I made it without incident. Just as I turned toward the bathroom on the first floor, Aria came flying around the corner, her face red and splotchy.
“Hey, whoa, what’s wrong?” I asked, reaching out and grabbing her arm.
