Page 97 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“Yup,” he answered and ducked behind the curtain to his side of the room. “It’s time to get up. We have a lot of driving to do today.”

“I know.” He heard her sigh and shift in the bed. “I’m afraid I’m not a morning person.”

“Really?” Jared asked, thinking of yesterday morning.

“Can I shower first?” she asked, poking her head around the curtain.

“Go ahead, but hurry. We don’t want to fall behind on your schedule,” he warned.

“Are you mocking me?” she asked.

“Me?” Jared blinked with innocence and then grinned.

“Oh...you,” she said. “I’ll be five minutes.”

Jared watched her disappear into the bathroom. The attraction he felt for her was getting stronger with every moment they shared. He didn’t want to know how soft she looked when she slept, or how her eyes snapped fire when she lost her temper, or how her body looked when it was next to naked.

Pulling down the makeshift curtain, he eyed the puppy, gleefully investigating his open duffel bag. “What am I going to do, Lucy?”

Twenty minutes later, Jared and Cat entered the nearby diner freshly showered and starving. The van was packed with Lucy playing guard dog and all that was left to do was eat.

“Do you think she’ll be okay in there all by herself?” Cat fretted her lower lip and glanced at the van worriedly.

“She’ll be fine,” Jared promised.

Jared steered Cat to a well-worn, red vinyl booth beside a large window that allowed them an unobstructed view of the van. A waitress approached them as soon as they opened their menus.

“Morning, Jared.” The brunette smiled invitingly, and Cat could see where her magenta lipstick had smeared across her teeth. “Is this your wife?”

The waitress turned to smile at her, and Cat instantly regretted her unkind observation. Jared was gazing at her in amusement, and Cat felt herself blush at the waitress’s spousal reference.

“We’re not...that is, I’m not...”

“We’re not married,” Jared explained, taking pity on her.

“Oh, sorry.” The waitress cast Cat a sympathetic glance and quickly turned away, muttering something about bringing them coffee.

Cat cleared her throat and said, “I suppose it was a natural mistake.”

“Yeah,” Jared agreed, hiding his amusement behind his menu.

That the waitress’s assumption had rattled Cat so badly, that her kaleidoscope eyes were gray with guilty embarrassment, made Jared wonder if perhaps his attraction was returned in equal measure. The thought made the already warm morning grow hot. Shoot, it’d be hard enough to spend the next week resisting his own temptation, it’d be impossible for him to fend off hers.

The unhappy path of his thoughts made Jared grow silent and not a little surly. He all but growled his order to the waitress, while mentally cursing his longtime friend for getting him into this.

“Jared, is something wrong?” Cat asked, breaking the strained silence that had fallen between them.

“No,” he answered, unconsciously making his face blank.

“If you don’t want to tell me, just say so.” She glared at him. “But at least do me the courtesy of not lying to me.”

“What are you talking about?” He blinked.

“You aren’t even aware that you do that, are you?” she asked thoughtfully.

“Do what?” he asked in exasperation.

“You shut down.” Cat gestured, waving her hands in front of her face. “It’s like an impenetrable wall.”