Page 35

You’ve gotten me into a bad habit, Stace.

I smiled so hard I thought my face was going to crack.

You need some company? I was so excited to answer her that I almost dropped my phone in my hurry to answer.

I suppose. How long will it take you to get here?

I checked the time and calculated.

Gimme 15 I responded.

It only took me twelve minutes before I was entering the diner and looking around. Hunter was at the counter, since she was alone.

Her back was to me, so I sent her a message.

Turn around.

She did, and her face brightened. Not a smile. Not yet. But I’d take this. It still hit me with the power of a smile. Beautiful. She was just beautiful, even with her hair a little messy and her clothes sweaty. I’d take her any way I could get her.

I slid into the seat beside her and inhaled her sweat and her perfume. It had to be something expensive. Floral, but with a little bit of a spicy bite to it that managed to cut through the other smells of the diner.

“Gonna share that pie with me, princess?” I asked, mostly to see how she’d react.

Hunter’s eyebrows went up, but her eyes flickered at the nickname. It had just slipped out, but I liked it for her. She did look like a princess with that blonde hair always done and those big eyes and cheeks and the rest of her. A princess straight from a fairytale.

I’d slay a dragon for her. Or tame a dragon as a pet if she wanted one. Either way.

“Get your own,” she said, sliding her plate away from me.

“Oh, I see how it is. I turn you on to this place and now you’re not even going to give me a bite? Cruel woman.”

Hunter let out a little huff. “Dramatic much?” But she cut a bite and held her fork out to me.

Oh. Okay.

For a second I thought she might yank the fork away again, but she held it steady for me as I leaned forward and put the bite in my mouth. Lemon meringue again. It was heaven, just like always.

This particular bite of pie was extra delicious, because it came from her.

I licked my lips and it wasn’t my imagination that she watched me do it. Heat pulsed between us.

“What can I get you, hon?” A server said, bursting the moment like a bubble.

“One piece of lemon meringue and a Sprite, please.”

Once my order was in, I turned my body to give Hunter my attention.

“How was your class?”

She had another dainty bite of pie, as if she wanted to make it last. I was going to order a second piece to go for her before we left.

“It was good. No Tor or Micah, so nothing to report there.”

I sighed. “Tor is being weirdly tight-lipped about it and pretty much told me to lay off so if the two of them are in class together, you have to tell me what the vibe is. Because if he got shot down, then I want to know. He might not seem like it, but he can get really sensitive when he likes someone.”

His first few crushes had absolutely crushed him, as the name suggested. Whenever he’d had a relationship that ended, he’d sunk into a dark mood that took him a while to get out of. He hadn’t had many relationships, but those he’d had were serious and intense. When Torrin fell, he fell hard. He just needed to find someone who’d fall with him.

“He doesn’t look like a sensitive guy,” she said.