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Travis: Yeah, that would be awesome. I’m actually free all day tomorrow, if you’re not too busy at the ad agency.
Parker: I can make it happen. I’ll go in late.
We arranged a location and time and I put my phone away, feeling like a giddy little kid again.
The next morning, I showered quickly and put on my favorite suit—Iwasgoing to work after our coffee date, after all. It was a fitted gray suit that had a slight sheen to the fabric and hugged me in all the right places. My ass looked amazing in the pants, and when I took off the jacket, my shirt clung to my arms for dear life. I loved it.
Not that it mattered. We were just going to meet as friends. Obviously.
If it was just as friends, why did my stomach feel so weird? It must have been the cheese plate I’d had for dinner, right?
We planned to meet at Lily, a brunch restaurant Theo and Nate loved, and which also served great coffee and mimosas. I left the house in plenty of time so I wouldn’t be late, even if I hit traffic, and made the short drive in what felt like record time, even though I wasn’t speeding. Of course, I showed up early—too early. I went inside and tried to keep myself from pacing as I ordered an Americano to sip while I waited.
I took a table, pulled off my suit jacket, and sat, positioning myself to watch the door for any sign of Travis. Instead of pulling out my laptop and getting to work, I’d grabbed a magazine from the rack by the door, paging through an older issue ofNational Geographicwhile I tapped my foot on the floor. After a few pages, I put the magazine back, knowing I wouldn’t be able to focus on the contents at all.
I couldn’t figure out why I was so fidgety. I was just meeting an old friend for coffee. Every time someone opened the restaurant’s doors, a rush of cool fall air hit me and I glanced up, my stomach in knots that tightened because it wasn’t Travis.
Just a few minutes before nine, the door opened and he walked in, tall, with wind-tousled brown hair and day-old scruff. He was wearing a gray and blue sweater that hugged his fit frame. He glanced around and as we made eye contact, electric heat coursed through me. I gave a small wave in his direction.
His eyes lit up. “Hey.” When he came to the table, I stood, prepared to shake his hand awkwardly or something, but he stepped in close and wrapped me in a hug. I hugged him back and tension drained from me, my body settling into his warmth and the smell of his soap. I didn’t want to let go, but I also didn’t want to make things weird. Travis didn’t seem in any hurry to separate, either. We hugged for what was probably a moment too long before we released each other and stepped apart. When I looked at him again, his cheeks were a heated pink.
Travis looked down at my coffee cup, brow furrowing in concern. “Am I late?”
“Not at all. I was just early and I figured I’d get a head start on my caffeine intake. Gotta feed the addiction, you know?”
He laughed and nodded toward the order counter. “I’ll be right back.”
My gaze followed him as he ordered, placing one hand on the counter and leaning forward, laughing and smiling at the cute blond guy taking his order. I gripped my cup tighter as my chest squeezed, tearing my gaze away and taking a sip of my drink. The warm, rich coffee slid down my throat and heated my stomach and as Travis turned and headed back my way, I relaxed a little.
“What did you get?”
He placed his cup on the table and sat across from me. “Just coffee. Two creams, two sugars. Nothing fancy.”
I nodded and watched him sip his coffee for the first time, his eyes fluttering closed in pleasure, and something in my gut twisted. “Good?”
“Yeah,” he said, groaning a little. “Very good. Especially because I was up way too late last night.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Couldn’t sleep?”
He laughed and shook his head, winking at me. “Some guy I met on a dating app keeps texting me and I was up late talking to him.”
“I wonder who that could be,” I said with a chuckle.
Travis smiled and sipped his coffee again. “Mom says hello, by the way. She wanted me to be sure to tell you she was thinking about you.”
“Tell her I said hi right back.”
He nodded and put his cup down. “I’ll do that. She’s been pestering me to go out with some guy she knows. Or he’s her friend’s son, I guess. She’ll be thrilled when I tell her we got coffee, even if I assure her it was just as friends. Mom’s praying I settle down soon. She tries to be cool, but the pressure is super difficult to deal with.”
“Same. Mom is forever asking me when I’m going to make her a grandma, as if my sister didn’t already do that.”
“Exactly,” Travis said. “Wait—Shelby has kids?”
I laughed. “Yeah, three of them, if you can believe it.”
“Wow.” He was quiet for a moment. “I can’t imagine Shelby with kids. I just keep remembering her as your older sister, the cheerleader all the guys wanted to date. Man, she couldn’t stand us.”
“Well, we were definitely annoying when we were eleven and she was sixteen and Mom kept making her drive us places in the minivan.”
