Page 52 of Losing an Edge

“Shari’s,” she said, grinning. “But only if you agree to the coconut cream.”

“It’s a deal.” And a date.

She hurried over to fill in Jonny and Sara about our plan, and then we headed out before anyone could stop us.

“I WISH WE didn’t have to head out on the road so soon,” Levi said, taking another bite of our shared pie.

“But you do. It’s part of the job.”

“I know. But I don’t like the idea of your brother and me both being gone right now.”

I fought to keep from rolling my eyes, but I barely succeeded in that battle. “It’ll be fine. Sara and I will be careful. We’ll call the cops if anything fishy happens. Anthony and Ellen are both fully aware of the situation, and they’re going to be looking out for me, too.”

“But what if it isn’t enough?”

I started counting items off on my fingers. “I’ve got pepper spray. I can kick a guy in the balls. I’m signed up to take Krav Maga classes starting in a few days. The security guys for every facility I’ll be spending much time at have been informed.”

Levi grabbed my fingers to stop me, and I shot my eyes up to meet his.

“I know all this,” he said. “But I’m allowed to worry.”

“You are?” The knots of annoyance in my belly gave way to butterflies because of the look in his eyes.

“I am. Because you said I’m your man, right?”

I wasn’t sure I’d said it exactly, but I might as well have. “Right,” I croaked.

“I’m your boyfriend.” He sounded a lot more confident about it than I was.

“You are.” My heart squeezed when the words came out.

“So you’re my girlfriend. I’m allowed to worry about my girlfriend when I’m away. That’s part of the deal.”

“Who made up these rules?” I asked, cutting off another bite of pie to try to hide the fact that my face had rapidly filled with heat.

“Someone, somewhere, a heck of a long time ago.” He speared most of the bite I’d been going for.

I gave him the evil eye.

“You snooze, you lose.” He popped my pie in his mouth and winked at me.

“You’re as bad as Anthony.”

“Are we as adorable as Anthony and Jesse are together?”

I laughed. “You think they’re adorable?”

“What, you don’t?” He raised a brow. “Come on. The way they were at ChocolateFest…” He reached for the last bite, but I snagged it before he got there.

“Speaking of Anthony and Jesse,” I said, popping it into my mouth, “they’ve finally set the date. Valentine’s Day. I can bring a date.”

Levi scraped up the last dregs of the coconut cream. “Does this mean you’re asking me?”

“I suppose so. If you want to come.”

“I can think of worse ways to spend my day.”

“Gee, what a compliment,” I said, laughing.