Page 5

Chapter Five

Garret

He saw the moment Kay clued into the fact that they would be sitting next to each other at dinner.

Consternation rolled across her expression, followed by softness and then maybe irritation. She was almost an open book with those feelings written on her face, and he had the feeling that if he got to know her better, he’d be able to read them as easily as one of her books.

And he wanted to know her better.

Whether or not she believed it, since that night he’d thought of little else aside finding a way to win her over, to prove that he wasn’t always a jerk, and to convince her to give him a second chance for a first date.

Garret pulled Kay’s chair out for her and waited for her to sit, feeling as though he were playing an intense game of chicken.

Would she cave and sit?

Or would he be relegated to the reject table?

Heather was on Kay’s other side. “Sit, please, everyone.” Kay, next to him, released a barely audible sigh, but did sit.

Heather glanced back at him and winked.

Garret plunked down into his chair, lest Kay change her mind about relegating him to the rejects.

“Did you like the journal?” he asked, not wanting to remind her of their disastrous first date any more than necessary, but also more than a little desperate to see if he’d picked correctly.

Her expression gentled, and he sent up a prayer that he might have actually chosen something right to say for a change.

“Yes, I did,” she said. “It was absolutely lovely.”

He shrugged. “The least I could do.”

She dropped her chin to her chest, sighed, and Garret’s stomach clenched. Shit . What had he done now?

And, fuck it all , but why did he care so much?

“Can we just start over?” she asked.

If he’d been hit over the head with a two-by-four, Garret wouldn’t have been more shocked. “Do you . . . do you want to?”

She glanced up at him from beneath her lashes, smiled shyly. “Yes.”

His heart skipped a beat, and he realized he was in the best type of trouble. The kind that led to monogamy and picket fences and, yes, it was way too fucking soon to even be considering that in the slightest . . . but—

There was something different about this woman.

Something he knew he wanted to explore further.

“Okay.”

Her smile widened. “Okay.”

The servers were coming around with salads and so Garret waited for their plates to be delivered. “Why writing?” he asked once the waiter had retreated.

Kay bit her lip again and that little flash of white against pink, the glistening of soft skin from the moisture left behind, the desire for it to be his teeth all contributed to making his cock twitch.

He hadn’t touched her, and he was at risk of embarrassing himself.

“I was super shy as a kid,” she said and shrugged.

“Stories gave me a way to get all my words out and onto a page without worrying if I was going to stutter or screw up or miss something.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a tiny notebook, along with a pencil and an eraser shaped like a fox.

“My weapons!” she joked. “The best part was that this one”—she made the little fox run across the tablecloth—“has magical erasing powers.”

“A marvelous feat of engineering.”

She smiled up at him. “Exactly.” Then shyness seemed to take over because her gaze drifted down. She seemed to realize her plate was still full and took a bite of salad.

He did the same.

“So,” she said a few moments later, “why rugby?”

Garret shrugged. “I loved watching it growing up. My dad’s Australian, and it’s obviously much more popular there. When my parents split up, I’d go there and visit my dad, and I sort of fell into it.”

One half of her mouth turned up. “Fell into it so well you were good enough to play professionally.”

“I got lucky, and I definitely was never the best guy on the team.” He speared some lettuce with his fork. “Do you know anything about rugby?”

Amusement played across her gorgeous face. “I know I like rugby romance.”

He tilted his head to the side. “That’s a thing?”

“Oh yeah, it’s a thing.”

“Well, damn.”

She grinned, pointed at his plate “Eat your salad before your jaw falls off.”

He snorted but shoved the bite hanging off his fork into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. “Where’d you grow up?”

They exchanged first date pleasantries, finding out that they’d both grown up in California, though Kay was born and raised in the Bay Area, while Garret had been in L.A. until his rugby career had taken off. He’d moved back to the States and up to Northern California just a few months before.

“Did you learn to surf?” she asked, after they’d both discovered they were only children.

Garret shuddered. “No. The guys tried, but I’m hopeless.”

Kay smiled. “I learned. The water was freezing, and I was freaked out the whole time that a Great White was going to attack me, but I managed to get up on a couple of waves at least.”

“Nice.” He raised his fist for her to bump, and their eyes met when even that tiny bit of contact made his nerves spark.

“Why does that keep happening?” she breathed.

“I don’t know.” A beat. “But I don’t hate it.”

Her laughter made his heart skip a beat—something that was starting to become a regular occurrence with this woman.

They talked about her books during the main course, laughed over a few of Garret’s rugby stories during dessert—an American rookie had led to no small amount of good-natured teasing and pranks.

She had him in absolute stitches as she relayed a tale about how she’d been so mad at a former boyfriend that she’d made him the impotent villain in an early book as the live auction was going on.

He clamped a hand over his mouth, nudged her with his shoulder. “You almost made me buy that trip to Maui,” he said with a mock-glare.

“I’d make you take me,” she teased.

He bent close. “Should I be worried you’re going to make me impotent in a future book?”

She leaned in conspiratorially. “I was going to kill you off.”

“What about now?” He turned, and suddenly their lips very close together.

“I’m considering my options.”

“I—”

Applause broke out around them and Garret blinked, trying to sort out the reason until he realized the first portion of the live auction was over.

Kay stood. “I’m going to hit the ladies room before they start bidding on these babies.” Her fingers traced over the centerpiece of books in the middle of the table. “I’ve had my eye on this one since I first gave Rachel the idea for them.”

He rose as well. “Do you want me to get you another drink? I promise I won’t spill this one on you.”

Her smile lit up her face, and Garret knew in that moment that he’d do anything for this woman.

“That would be great. Thank you.” And with a quick word to Heather—asking her to watch her purse—and a soft touch to the spine of one book in particular, a whispered, “I’ll be back for you,” she hurried across the room.

Heather glanced up at him, raised her brows.

“I’m an idiot, and you know all.”

Clay’s mouth quirked. “Words my wife loves to hear.”

“She’s amazing.”

“Of course, she is,” Heather said. “She’s my friend.”