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Logan choked and swallowed. “What is that?”
Her perpetual frown—perpetual when she was around him at least—returned. “A smile.”
“No way. It was…I don’t even know. A grimace? A grit? Can you think of nothing that makes you happy, or does your skepticism of me overshadow everything else?”
Jeni considered that. A lot of things made her happy—Broncos football. A foster child finding a forever home. The sound of a softball hitting the catcher’s glove when she threw a strike or three.
Damn, she missed playing and made a mental note to look for a rec league around here.
In the corner of her eye, Logan’s countenance changed. She lifted her gaze to his face and found him smiling. White, straight teeth and a dimple filled her vision, with a slight wrinkling of skin near his eyes. Her heart paused in its pumping duties, and she suddenly knew what all those women saw in him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Her voice sounded a little breathless.
“You’re smiling at me.”
She took stock and immediately shut it down. “Was not.”
“Was too.” His smile widened.
Jeni snorted. “Whatever. One of your eyes is smaller than the other.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s like the left one is kind of squinting.”
Logan gaped at her, tilting his head a little to the side. Probably trying to hide his weird eye.
Jeni grinned.
“You’re smiling again. Are you laughing at me?”
She lifted one shoulder. “It’s nice to find something imperfect about your appearance.”
“It’s nice to…hold on. Are you saying you find me attractive?”
“I might have. Before,” she said. “And just for a second. Now I think I’ll start calling you Squinty.”
He grumbled something under his breath, just as Sam came by and took their orders.
Logan went back to the subject at hand. “Why do you have to make this so hard?”
“Come on, I was just teasing. Isn’t that what friends do?”
“I guess. Your brother makes being his friend the easiest thing in the world. So far, I can’t say the same for you.” He was right, Andrew was one of those guys who could befriend a brick wall.
“Andrew lets people in easily. He’s an open book. Just because I don’t lay all my cards out there when I first meet someone doesn’t mean I don’t want to be friends. I just…I don’t know. Things have been different, since…” She trailed off. She used to be good at friendship and meeting new people. In high school she’d been energetic and outgoing and could strike up a conversation with anybody. She knew exactly when and why that had changed, but she wasn’t going there. “I’m just more reserved than Andrew, I guess.”
“Says the girl who marched up to a stranger on the sidewalk and demanded he give her his lunch.”
“I can be reserved and get hangry. They aren’t mutually exclusive. I wanted that hummus.”
Logan lifted one corner of his lips and let out a small sound of pleasure that sent a zing straight to her core. “One of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.”
“That’s what she said.”
He threw back his head and laughed, and Jeni found herself smiling for the third time. Maybe she could do this. She smoothed a hand down her hair, pulling her long ponytail over one shoulder. He watched her, and for a second, she met his striking blue eyes before looking away.
“What do you think of Kansas City?” Logan asked.
