Page 125 of Rebel Summer

Jane bit back a laugh as I looked at them both in question.

“You’ve already put in her order,” Jane said, smiling. “We just want to see how things are going with Dax. Though, by the looks of you, I think we could guess.”

I opened my mouth to say something when a jingle at the door to the cafe drew my attention. I’d been looking up at the sound all afternoon. And every time, I’d been disappointed.

This time, however, a man with dark, rumpled hair and wild and sweet brown eyes, wearing a delicious pair of jeans and a black t-shirt strode inside. He scanned the cafe until his gaze locked on mine—where it stayed, swallowing me up. My heart came to a stop as I watched him. Feeling shy, all of a sudden, I tucked a loose curl behind my ear, waiting for him to tell me I had misread a few signals.

I wasn’t crazy. I hadn’t imagined it all. But…what if?

And then…the tiniest tug of his lips started my heart up again. From across the room, he began making his way toward me.

I heard the girls sitting in the booth gasp and whisper, but all I could think about as he approached was the gleam in his eye that made my insides quake and my hands clench together.

He stopped in front of me, a pace away.

“You staying, Caroline?” His low voice caused goosebumps to scatter across my skin.

“Do you want me to?”

He reared back slightly at this, confusion etched in his brow. “What?”

I fingered the tie on my apron. “I just…want to make sure… I was pretty bold in the judge’s…” I trailed off helplessly, tangling my words. I didn’t want to put any pressure on him, so if he didn’t want me, I was going to give him an out.

Dax looked down at Cat and Jane, who weren’t even pretending to hide the fact that they were watching this discussion with rapt attention. He held his hands out as if to have them explain something.

Cat shook her head, giving me a look. “I’m so sorry, Dax. She’s into math and stuff. Some things she’s pretty clueless about. But she’s been messing up our orders all morning because she can’t stop thinking about you.”

His lips tugged upward at that and he turned back to me. “Can you go on break?”

I glanced around the busy cafe, not seeing Jean anywhere. “I don’t kno?—”

“We’ll watch her tables,” Jane said, grinning, her eyes dancing. “You go show her what’s painfully obvious to the rest of us.”

“Great.” Dax grabbed my hand and whirled me around to follow him as he strode toward the kitchen in the back of the restaurant.

“Dax!” I pulled on his hand. “I can’t just leave them to watch my tables!”

“Yes, you can,” came his obstinate reply. “You just got out of jail. You’re a wild woman now.”

A chorus of delighted catcalls from the restaurant regulars followed us as we burst into the kitchen.

“She’s going on break!” Dax called out as we flew past Jean and a laughing Marco, and out the back door.

By the time he released my hand and pushed me gently against the back wall of the cafe, I was blushing and laughing and completely head over heels for Dax Miller.

He stepped closer, one arm around my waist and one hand behind my neck, pulling me into him as he kissed away every doubt. He was very thorough about this business, to which I could only feel grateful.

“Where were you?”

He leaned in, nuzzling my neck as though this wait had been too long for him as well.

“I forgot my phone in the holding cell. And then I took Beau with me, and he wanted to exact his revenge by keeping me away from you as long as possible.”

I laughed, throwing my arms around his neck to drag myself even closer to him. “I’m sure you were just miserable, driving that old bucket of rust up and down the highway.”

His arms tightened around me. “It was the worst. And actually, Beau wasn’t planning to torture me quite so long. The car got a flat tire down the highway. I didn’t have a spare, so we had to get towed into a tire shop and wait forever to get it put on. Then the ferry was late. Then I couldn’t find you. It was like the universe was trying to punish me for letting you take the car out last night.”

I leaned up and kissed him, slow and sweet. “If this is being punished, you better lock me up.”

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