Page 46 of Talk Birdie to Me

She must not have changed out of her work clothes yet. Unless she felt comfortable enough in her work clothes to hang out in them all evening. It wasn’t as if she took care of animals all day like him.

He was suddenly very aware of how he must have smelled going straight to her place in his zoo uniform.

Geena gestured for Cody to enter, and he held up both hands, each holding a plastic bag, as he walked by her.

“I took a guess again on what you might like.”

He easily could have asked her what she wanted when he texted he was picking up food, but he found the challenge of guessing her taste to be much more fun. And the smile playing at the corner of her mouth told him she enjoyed this little game, too.

“Let’s see if you’re right.” She followed him to the couch, where he sat emptying the contents of the bags onto the coffee table. “You’re one for one so far.”

“I hope you like Thai. I stopped at the little place in the strip mall about a mile from here.”

Geena raised her brow. “Another favorite spot. Way to go, Brasseaux.”

It was Cody’s turn to be surprised. “You remembered my last name?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Feels like an unimportant detail,” Cody said.

He was pretty sure he only mentioned it once, when he and Taylor explained how they both had ‘B’ last names and had to sit next to each other in a few high school classes.

“Names are like data points.” Geena shrugged. “I remember important ones to make sure the puzzle always fits.”

“So my name was an important data point?”

He swore her cheeks were slightly redder than they were a moment ago. More than anything, he wanted to make those cheeks of hers flush even more.

Nope.

Not an option.

“It’s your connection to my sister,” Geena said. “That’s what made it memorable.”

He grinned back at her. “Okay, Bourque.”

She laughed softly. It was such a soothing sound that Cody made a note to make her laugh again. At least once more while he was there. He got the sense she didn’t get a whole lot of opportunities to laugh lately.

“So that’s a thing we’re doing now?” she asked.

“You started it.” He gestured at the containers. “All right, Bourque. Ready to see if I guessed right?”

Her smile was playful. Something he could definitely get used to.

“Let’s go, Brasseaux,” she said.

He took the invitation to open the containers, pulling more from the bottom of the bags.

She looked at it all in mock horror. “Did you buy everything on the menu?”

“No,” he said, opening the last of the containers. “It’s a huge menu.”

“This feels like cheating.”

“Cheating how?”

Geena waved her hands at the endless options in front of her. “You stacked the odds in your favor, figuring if you bought enough stuff, there would be something in here that I liked.”

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