Page 55 of Crazy for You

“Hell of a thing to have in common, but there it is.” He tugged her in closer.

“Well, it’s nice somehow…to be able to talk about it with someone who understands. I don’t know, that doesn’t really make any sense, does it?”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” he said.

“I’m glad,” she whispered, holding on to him. She smiled against his chest. “Another advantage of this ‘friends with benefits’ thing…deep conversations we’d never have with someone we’d only been dating a few days.”

“Yeah.”

They lay there for a while, naked and entwined, talking about everything from her brother to his future plans at Off-the-Grid. It was nice, and comfortable, and…intimate.

“Hungry?” he asked as the sky outside her bedroom window glowed with the golden tones of sunset.

“Starved. Want to go to Rowdy’s?”

“Yeah.” Something in his expression loosened, as if it were a relief for him, too, that they could maintain the casual aspects of their friendship even while they were burning up the sheets together.

They dressed, and she tamed her sex-rumpled hair before they walked outside. “Um.” She eyed his bike, then looked down at her skirt. “How about I drive this time?”

“Deal,” he agreed. They chatted easily on the short drive into town, and she parked in the public lot beside the Town Square. “Any new ideas for the memorial?” he asked as they walked past its future site.

“I’m working on a new design that I’m kind of excited about.” Really excited about, if she were being perfectly honest with herself, which made her doubly nervous to show it to the Town Planning Committee.

“That’s great,” Ryan said, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Your little detour yesterday really worked. Thank you.”

“Any time.” They walked hand-in-hand through the door into Rowdy’s, passing Ethan on his way out, carrying a to-go box.

He broke into a wide grin, his gaze passing between them. “So the rumors are true then.”

“Fuck you,” Ryan said, flipping him off.

“Nah. I’ll stick with Gabby. You two lovebirds enjoy yourselves.” With a wave, he was gone.

Emma shook her head with a smile as the hostess showed them to a table. Not their group’s usual table, but a smaller one, near the back. It felt…odd. Like this table for two made the shift in their relationship real in a way all the sex somehow hadn’t.

Ryan looked shaken by it, too. “Huh,” he said as he sat across from her.

Okay, so there was definitely going to be an adjustment phase for them. “At least we know each other well enough to just say, hey, it’s weird sitting at a different table?” She tilted her head with a smile.

“Yeah.” He looked relieved. “That is good.”

“And you don’t have to ask me what I want, because you already know I want to share a platter of wings. And I don’t have to worry about getting wing sauce on my face and looking like a slob in front of my date because, well…you’re you.” She winked at him.

“Good to know.”

Their waitress approached, a woman named Tina, who often served them. She glanced between them, one eyebrow raised, as she took their order. Small town like this, they were certain to get plenty of raised eyebrows, but Emma didn’t mind.

“How’s Trent?” she asked once Tina had left. “I haven’t seen him around much lately.”

Ryan frowned. “He’s spending too much time at that damn club, if you ask me.”

“It’s not the best use of his free time, but really, there are so many worse things he could be doing.”

“Believe me, I know. I guess I just want him to be more mature than I was at his age. I want him to realize he’s making a dumb-ass mistake by not sticking with college.”

“College isn’t everything.”

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