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“Oh, she said no, of course. You know he sent her away that night, right? He told her he had an early flight to catch the next morning.”
I exhale. “Sounds like Drew.”
Sophie eyes me closely. “Have you ever used the ‘early flight’ excuse?”
I narrow my eyes playfully back at her. “No, I actually haven’t.”
Suspicion oozes from her expression.
I laugh. “I’m not saying I haven’t wanted to use it. But no, if I’ve initiated the deal, I’m riding it out until the morning…if that’s what she wants.”
She crosses her arms like she doesn’t quite believe me. “I suppose that’s respectable, I guess. Don’t be a Drew.”
“So, Leah totally blew him off?”
“Yep, and for good reason too, she’s got a third date this weekend with a guy she interviewed last month for an article. He owns three bagel shops in Manhattan.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
I laugh. “Well, he sounds like a catch.”
“Oh, he is. Just ask Leah.” She winks. “I’m gonna have to get me one of those.”
I close my mouth and swallow my smile as she begins digging into her bag.
She pulls out a book and places it on her lap. “Maybe he has a friend who owns like four ice cream shops or something.”
I’m silent as I watch her thumb through the pages to find her bookmark. Picturing her with some other lucky guy is unsettling in the strongest sense. But maybe our moment in the garden last week caused her to rethink her feelings. Maybe she isn’t afraid of losing me. Maybe she’s just afraid of losing our friendship. Maybe she wants to keep me around as her obligatory guy friend. I’ll be forever on the sidelines, only good for dating advice, punching creeps in the nose, and someone to call for lifting heavy objects.
I try to smile. “I hope you’ll be just as lucky.”
She purses her lips and then nods, pressing the pages of her book open.
I want to tell her she doesn’t need to look for the four-ice-cream-shop guy. Heck, I’ll buy four ice cream shops if that’s what it takes to win her heart. But I don’t say anything. I can’t tell her how I feel. Not yet. So, I lean in, trying to make out the words in her book. “What are you reading?”
“Julia Quinn. Leah let me borrow it.” She turns the cover down so I can see the title, which reads, ‘The Duke and I.’ “It’s sickeningly romantic and sappy. You’d hate it.”
I smirk. “What’s it about?”
“Regency London. Shy girl looking for a husband meets handsome duke who wants nothing to do with the prospect. They make a deal in both their favors to pretend they’re courting. The pretending doesn’t work. Girl falls in love with duke. Duke finally gives in and sweeps her up into a passionate love affair. They live happily ever after.” She pauses. “At least, I think so. I haven’t finished it yet.”
“That sounds like something you’d read,” I wink when she looks up at me.
She opens the book again. “She’s quite sweet, and I’m quite enamored by this Duke fellow. He burns for her.”
“Sounds like Elaine and William,” I laugh, leaning my head back and staring across the room.
“Sounds like us.”
My gaze snaps to hers. She’s watching me with wide, mortified eyes as though she immediately regrets what she’s just said. Has she really compared our relationship to the passionate, secretly yearning one of this steamy romance novel?
“I…um…” she stammers. “I have absolutely no idea why I just said that.”
I scratch my chin, letting a small grin play on my lips as she fumbles with her book again. “I suppose he didn’t have a promise to keep, then, if all that bodice-ripping ensues?”
She shoots me a look of shocked displeasure.
Shaking my head, I laugh. “Oh, don’t deny it. It’s clearly that kind of novel. I can tell by the hunk on the back cover.”
A rash of color spreads across her cheeks as she turns the book over to reveal the lifelike drawing of a shirtless, muscled man leaning in to kiss a beautiful woman in a pink dress. Sophie presses the book back down and tries to hide her blush by keeping her head bowed into the pages, but she fails to conceal it completely.
