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He couldn’t have said anything more certain to make me want to knowexactlywhat he’s doing in there.
“Huh. Okay. Do you like it?”
“No,” he says without hesitation, then pauses and squeezes the side of the kitchen island again. “The work is fine. It’s the kind of work I prefer, actually, but my boss is a prick. It’s hard to want to succeed when it means creating success for someone you loathe.”
I nod. “Been there. I was the night manager for this restaurant, and the owner was a real douchebag. He always told all the women to smile. Like, he’d expect us to smile while we were cleaning up puke. But do you really want to work in your bedroom? Delia showed me the whole apartment the first time I swung by, and no offense, but your room is teensy-tiny. It’s like…”
“Like the elevator?” he says with a wry twist of his mouth. “It just so happens that I like that elevator. Maybe even more now.”
I ignore the way his words quake through me. “To each their own. You know, I should have said so earlier, but we can totally switch rooms. It doesn’t make sense for me to get the big one.”
He shifts a little on his feet. “It’s like I said earlier. Routine is a powerful thing. I’ve lived in that room for ten years. I’m not going to leave it now.”
“Even for something better?” I ask in disbelief.
His lips curve, commanding my attention, and he plants his big palms on the kitchen island, leaning on it. “Bigger, not better. Not that anyone else has ever needed to tell me this, but they’re not always the same. I can see the mountains from my room. The trees. Yours looks out on the city.”
“Which suits me,” I say with a smile. “Let me guess. Are you one of those leaf peepers? You’ve already admitted you like pumpkin spice. I’ll bet you even have binoculars.”
“Guilty as charged. The leaves changed late this year, and they’re still out. There’s something about all those trees covered in red and orange and yellow. It’s amazing to see all colors that appear in nature. It fills me with a sense of wonder I’ll never get sick of.”
He’s intense about the things he likes, and I can’t help but appreciate him for that too.
“How about you?” He smiles as he says it. “Something tells me you like the summer.”
I smile back, but I’m disarmed. He’s right. I live for the sun on my neck and the smell of sea salt in the breeze—maybe a funny thing for someone to say when they’ve spent their whole life in the mountains, but I’m not the only one who’s ever wanted something I can’t have. “Try your drink, already. It’s like fall in a cup. This has to be your signature.”
“Okay,” he says in the way of someone who’s only humoring me. He lifts it to his lips, and I find myself watching as he presses it to them, remembering the way those lips felt on mine. He sets the cup down with a mute clink. “It’s good.”
But again, he’s obviously humoring me. “Good, but you like beer better.”
One corner of his mouth lifts, and his dark eyes meet mine again before focusing lower, on my mouth. “But I like beer better.”
“Pumpkin spice beer?”
His smile widens. “Sure, when the mood strikes.”
“I’m not giving up. We’ll get there.”
“Sure. But not today, okay? I need a little time to reset.”
“Not today,” I agree. “But Iamgoing to get you a new pair of glasses to replace the ones my ass destroyed.”
His mouth twitches. “Do I get a say in what they look like?”
“Nope. You’re my Patrick Dempsey.”
“This is like with Ruthie all over again,” he informs me.
We’re falling into a rhythm that feels natural and seductive, so I purposefully ruin it by asking, “When’s your meeting with Daphne?”
His face clears of expression, like a chalkboard rubbed clean. “The guys really did tell you everything, huh?”
“No, but Burke and Leonard tell their girlfriends everything, and my sister and Shauna told me.”
“It’s in a couple of weeks.” He rubs his forehead. “But she asked me to meet up beforehand. That Wednesday.” His forehead creases. “Actually, she wants me to meet her at Glitterati.”
A little shiver skates down my spine. Firstly, because that’s no business meeting. She’s interested in seeing the man she threw away. The one she famously, at least in Danny’s group of friends, called “basic.” Probably because she’s had eight years to realize there’s more to him than his pumpkin spice addiction.
