Page 33

I adjust my glasses and glance down briefly. “We do laugh a lot. And for the record, I enjoy your company, too.”

“Phew.” He grins. “Glad we got that settled.”

“You know we should talk about the Drake thing,” I blurt. Not that I want to talk about him, but it was kind of a big deal last night.

His eye gaze lifts from the menu as well as one eyebrow. “What’s to talk about?”

Clearly he doesn’t share that same big deal sentiment as me.

“What if he presses charges?” I whisper.

Cole shakes his head with confidence. “I don’t think so,Shorty.You worry too much.”

“Maybe.” I tug on my lower lip with my teeth. “Should we talk about the umm?—”

“Snowball fight?” he asks when I cut off my own sentence because I don’t know how to articulate what I’m trying to say.

I stifle a small laugh. “No, I was going to say the kiss thing,” I whisper.

That seems to pull a favorable smile to his lips. “Ah, the kiss thing.”

My throat suddenly feels dry at the intense way he’s looking at me. He doesn’t appear to be interested in the menu anymore. “It was pretty intense,” I manage. My eyes are busy studying nothing in particular on the menu. I can’t concentrate on anything with his heated stare.

“Which one?” his lips quirk, “they seem to be stacking up now.”

“I meant the dance situation, and when I kissed you suddenly. Then we kissed again in the—” Oh god, am I babbling?

“What about the parking lot just now?” he muses, then adds, “maybe you just can’t stay away from me.”

My eyes flick up at him and I can’t help the heat that rises in my face as we stare at one another. “There is that. You might just be right.”

He studies me intently for a moment. “Did you like it?”

I press my lips together, and little does he know, I’m clenching my thighs too, under the table. “Yes.” It leaves my lips in almost a whisper.

“I did too. So, what’s the problem? Are you still worried about your ex?”

“No. But he was so mad. Do you think us playing at dating was really believable?”

“I think our little display behind the lemonade stand did the trick,baby girl,and if he bothers you again, you need to let me know.”

“You can’t go punching people every time I have a problem.”

He thinks for a moment, then pops a shoulder, closing the menu. “Not everyone, just that asswipe.”

The words are on my lips. I want to ask him if we’ve gone beyond the fake dating pretense — does he want more? And if he does, why isn’t he saying so? But before I can ask him anything else, the server interrupts us for our order.

“Hey, Cole,” she purrs. When I glance up, I see it’s not the first server who seated us. It’s Cassie Middleton, a pretty little blonde with a wide-eyed smile for him, a knockout body and bejeweling blue eyes. She’s tapping her pen on the order pad, never taking her ultra long eyelashes off him.

“Hey,” he replies, but I notice he’s not even looking at her. In fact, his eyes are on me again. “You ready to order, babe?”

Babe?

At the same time my heart flutters with Cole calling me that in front of her, Cassie’s eyebrows raise in obvious surprise. It’s only then that she glances at me with an equal amount of shock and interest on her face. Her mouth even parts with a silent ‘O’ that’s nothing short of gaping. Rude. Her pen immediately stops tapping, and I don’t know why that makes me feel both smug and satisfied. It’s like he just kissed me in front of the whole cafe. It seems Cassie is having a harder time than me believing he’s into me.

“Ainsley,” she says under her breath. I’m not sure if it’s by way of greeting, acknowledging I’m sitting here with him, or if it’s a question she can’t quite fathom.

Don’t worry, Cassie, I can’t quite fathom it either.