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“Why do you look like you just saw a gamma ray burst?”
“Huh?” Grace looked to the side to see Lou giving her a considering look. “What are you talking about?”
Lou clasped her hands in front of her and straightened her back like she was giving a book report.
“Gamma ray bursts are explosions that are the most energetic-”
Grace scowled at her friend. “I know what a gamma ray burst is, woman. I’m science adjacent, okay?”
“Sorry, I wasn’t sure how much was going on upstairs with that dumb look on your face.”
“I do not have a dumb look.”
“Do too.”
“Well, if I do, it sure as hell isn't my fault,” Grace hissed. “There isn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t have a dumb look on her face after my little run-in.”
Since her encounter with Anton she had set up camp by the fire, making s’mores. The spot by the fire had been perfect for a little brooding over her feelings for Anton, which had her twisted up five ways from Sunday ever since he’d opened his mouth to bark a coffee order at her.
She’d thought she hated him, but now? His apology put her off-kilter. She didn’t know how she felt—or what she wanted from him now. The way he looked at her, the effortless way conversation had flowed, the way she’d felt like a live wire beside him. It had made her want. Wanthim. But that wasn’t right...it couldn’t be right, could it?
Her eyes darted from the bonfire and landed on Anton. He held court amid the people who surrounded him, the bottle of Moët still dangling from his hand as he laughed with the group. She swallowed when he raised the bottle to his lips. Her thoughts had just begun to veer south of acceptable when he raised his free hand and wiggled his fingers in a wave. It took a full second of staring for Grace to realize he was waving ather.
“Fuck,” she groaned, giving him a jerky wave. Executing an about-face that would have made her middle school marching band teacher proud, Grace ran headlong into a smirking Lou.
“Does this little run-in have something to do with a certain visiting astrophysicist you were just daydreaming about?”
“I wasn’t daydreaming. I was just lost in my thoughts. I’m brooding. Very natural.” Grace reached over to the table beside her and grabbed a graham cracker. She took a bite and gave Lou a nonchalant shrug. “Anyhow, no idea what you’re going on about. How much have you had to drink, boss lady?”
“Not enough to miss your lecherous staring.”
Grace rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to retort, but the sound of Anton’s voice made her go still as a statue.
“Lecherous staring?” he asked.
Grace shoved the remaining graham cracker in her mouth and sent a silent threat to Lou to speak with care. She glared for all she was worth while she chewed, and grabbed another cracker for effect. If she was eating, then she couldn’t get into too much trouble, right?
“Sorry?” Lou stepped toward Anton with a quickness that showed she had, indeed, received her telepathic warning. Grace made a mental note to get the kind of pastries Lou loved for breakfast the next day.
“I heard you say ‘lecherous staring’. Who, or what, are we talking about?”
Lou waved a flippant hand. “This and that,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.
“This and that?” Anton raised an eyebrow and looked over Lou’s shoulder to Grace, who chewed her graham cracker with the intensity and focus of a chipmunk getting ready to hibernate.
“Hungry?” Anton nodded at the other graham cracker she still clutched in her hand.
“Grace has an insatiable appetite for graham crackers,” Lou said, prompting a glare from Grace. She didn’t want Lou to use the words insatiable appetite while Anton was within fifteen feet of them, probably twenty to be safe.
“What?” Lou raised a shoulder in mock innocence.
Grace scratched off getting breakfast pastries for Lou from her to-do list.
“Do you know the origin of the graham cracker?” Anton asked in a voice far too sensual to be used in polite conversation. Grace’s spidey-sense tingled at the simple question. This was a trap. She could feel it.But how?
“No. What is it?” Lou asked, walking straight into the trap Grace hadn’t figured out. She couldn’t tell if Lou knew this was a trap or if she was just that naive.
“These little culinary experiments were invented by a man who thought it could be used to stop lust.”
