Page 179 of Dead Man's List

“At squash? Not awful. Not in Connor’s league, but I can hold my own. Why? You want to play with me?”

She lifted one brow. “Are you flirting with me right now?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

She smiled at him then, a sweet, shy smile that made him warm all over. “Yeah. It is. We had a date tonight, but we missed it.”

“We’ve been a little busy. I figured we’d go next week.”

“Or tomorrow night.”

Sam reached over, trailing a fingertip over her cheek. “Tomorrow night.”

“Your place. I don’t want to go to a noisy restaurant, and Mom and Pop’s is going to be crazy for a while.”

“You want me to cook on our date?”

“No. I’ll bring the food. I won’t cook it either, so you’re safe.”

He swiped nonexistent sweat from his forehead. “You had me worried there for a minute.”

Still smiling, she shook her head. “Take me back to Mom and Pop’s, please. I need to help with the newgirls.”

Epilogue

San Diego, California

Sunday, January 15, 7:00 p.m.

“This is nice,” Kit said as she set her bags down on Sam’s kitchen counter.

He’d hoped she’d think so. “I thought we should have a nice table for our date.”

He’d set the table with his grandmother’s china, his own crystal, and a vase with a single small sunflower. Kit didn’t seem like a roses kind of woman. And the sunflower had made him smile.

She beamed at him, and for a moment he was thunderstruck. She was genuinely happy to be here. He’d been scared that she’d insisted on this date out of obligation.

“Thank you,” she said. “Dinner is compliments of Akiko. She caught the fish and cooked it.” She started unloading the bags, releasing amazing aromas. “Bluefin tuna. There’s some rice, too. And green beans almondine. We’re going fancy tonight.”

Sam sat on one of the bar stools and watched her move. She was fluid, graceful. She’d left her blond hair down and it was soft and framed her face perfectly.

And he was totally biased. But that was okay. She was here, in his home, and he’d been a nervous wreck all day. Every surface had been cleaned and recleaned and sanitized. Every pillow plumped at least twice.

He’d even made his bed with clean sheets, even though he was certain they were far from that point. But a man could dream, couldn’t he? Nine months ago, she’d told him they couldn’t even be friends and now, here they were. Having dinner. Together.

A real date.

“I didn’t think bluefin tuna were biting right now,” Sam said, taking an appreciative whiff of the dishes she was setting on his counter.

“They’re usually not, but Akiko took this charter group really far out. One of the clients caught a super cow.”

“What’s a super cow?”

“A fish over three hundred pounds. It was pretty exciting, honestly.”

“You were there?”

Kit nodded, her smile going a little tense. “Yeah. Akiko is…well, she’s a little on edge lately. Hasn’t been comfortable taking charters out alone and her usual first mate still has the flu. I didn’t want her to have to cancel another charter, so I went with her.”