AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Arch grins. “I don’t. Maybe that’s why I am the way I am.”
“Always pushing the limits?”
“You know it,” he drawls, his foot nudging mine beneath the table. “Unlike you. My little rule follower.”
“I’ve never felt the need to push the limits.” I shrug one shoulder. “Though I’ve been doing it more since I started spending time with you.”
He’s grinning, extremely pleased with himself. “Isn’t it liberating?”
“Maybe.” I tilt my head, studying him. “Is that your issue? Do you feel caged in?”
“Being a Lancaster means there are certain…expectations put upon me.” He leans back in his chair, his foot still resting against mine. Like he needs to maintain contact. “Especially since I’m the oldest.”
“There’s Edie and who else?”
“There’s me, Edith, Jameson and Aidan.” A sigh leaves him. “We’re all given old family names and we all sort of hate it.”
“Like Archibald?” I lift a brow.
“Don’t make fun. We’ve already had this conversation,” he warns, his tone fierce, though he’s still smiling.
I like it way too much when he teases me.
The server returns yet again with our appetizers and Arch plucks a stuffed mushroom off the plate, shoving it in his mouth and immediately exhaling, his lips parted. “Hot.”
“That’s what you get.” I fork up a mushroom and set it on my tiny plate, letting it cool for a moment. “I’m guessing you’re hungry?”
He gulps the mushroom down. “Starved.”
We eat for a while, the mushrooms and the cheesy garlic bread Arch also ordered absolutely delicious. I listen to him talk about his favorite foods. The list is long. The guy is fixated on food, and I suppose I can’t blame him, especially since he’s traveled all over the world and has sampled some of the best cuisine out there.
“Italy?” I ask after he mentions the Amalfi Coast. “You’ve been to Italy?”
“A few times. I’ve been all over Europe,” he says.
“I would love to go there someday.” A dreamy sigh leaves me and I let my mind drift. Images I’ve seen on the internet flit through my mind. I even have a European travel dream board on Pinterest. “I’ve always wanted to see Europe. Especially Italy.”
“It’s gorgeous. You’d like it.” His smile is small, his gaze never straying from mine. “Maybe someday I could take you.”
I nod, dropping my gaze to the plate in front of me. He—we—shouldn’t talk like this. I have no idea if we’ll be in each other’s lives later. Everything is still so fresh and new between us.
But I love the idea of traveling all over Europe with Arch as my tour guide. Money would be no object. He could take me anywhere, everywhere. Maybe we could take a gap year and travel the world. My dad would be so angry but that sounds…
Fun.
Okay, I need to calm down. I am getting way too ahead of myself.
When dinner finally arrives, I’m worried I won’t be able to eat another bite thanks to the stuffed mushroom appetizer and our salad, but the second I take a bite of the steak, it melts on my tongue, making me moan out loud.
“Good?” Arch’s eyebrows are high enough to hit his hairline and I realize I probably moaned a little too loud.
I nod, swallowing the bite down. “Delicious.”
Throughout the meal, I can’t help but feel like a grown up, which is silly. To feel like one means I’m not one yet and I suppose that’s okay. But going out with Arch, ordering an expensive dinner and making conversation with a handsome boy, who keeps looking at me as if he wants to eat me alive, is definitely the sort of night that makes me feel very much like an adult.
It's when the server clears our dinner plates and leaves behind a dessert menu that Arch sets something in the middle of table, causing me to look up from what I was reading. My gaze snags on a small box wrapped in gold paper, a white bow on top.
“What’s that?”
