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“It was,” she whispered. He was still staring at her. His fingers now covering hers.
“Good.” He leaned back just a bit, and it took a second for Caroline to recover her wits. She was in so far over her head it wasn’t funny. He was going to own her heart and soul in a matter of days. He grinned and she almost went unconscious. No, make that hours. She’d be his in a matter of hours.
“Here’s the thing,” he said.. “That whole ‘sophisticated’ crap—what was that?”
“I just…I…”
“If we’re out together you have a right to expect my attention. That I be considerate.”
She nodded. “I’m working on the whole confidence thing. I don’t have a lot of practice.”
“I’m getting that. Why don’t you think you have a right to be treated with respect? I mean the way you went back at your sister the other day was long overdue. Meg is a good woman, but she walks on you a little. She always has.”
“I got so fed up with her telling me what to do. You should have heard the way she talked about you. God, you’d think you’d molested me when we had dinner.”
They both stopped and Caroline reacted first. “Okay, that wasn’t a great way to put it.”
“Probably not, but I get your meaning.”
“I’m an adult and I have a right to see who I want, when I want. But she did surprise me.”
“How’s that?”
“She apologized. Said you had my back. Then she told me she thought you liked me.”
Josh leaned in. “Did she now?”
“She did. She also wanted to know if anything happened between us.”
“Did you tell her?”
“No. It’s not her business. But we’re having dinner tomorrow night.”
“Uh-oh.”
“I’m a terrible liar. So I may just have to shock the hell out of her and tell her
everything.”
He laughed. “If you do, let me know. I’ll break out the body armor.” Josh took another sip of his drink and leveled a very serious gaze at her. “So what about the books?”
Her eyes fell away and she wondered what he was asking. Did he want to know what she was doing? What her goals were? About her writing?
“I love writing. It’s everything to me, and every day I have to go to work kills me a little inside. I should have fought harder for what I wanted.”
“So start now.”
“I’m working on it, but I’ve been pigeon-holed a long time; it’s going to take me a bit.”
“Start with one thing.” He picked up a fry and popped it in his mouth and Caroline started to see how Josh worked a problem. He did things one step at a time, dealing with each element separately.
“Like what?” She asked even though she knew what he was going to say.
“You have to come out of the closet about your work. Start doing something to get your name out there.”
That coming out of the closet thing was the tough part. “I know. There’s this contest I want to enter. I keep revising and procrastinating.”
“What’s holding you back?”
