Page 43 of Unbelievable You

Once again, she was paying for me.

“I’ll get our pastries and drinks,” I told her, ready to fight about it.

Stace just shoved all the books in a tote bag that the guy handed over that had come from a grocery store and nodded. “Okay.”

That was a first.

Stace wanted to drop the books off in her car, so she did, and walked down the street to a funky hole-in-the-wall coffee shop that was known for their pastries. They’d won awards for their food and drinks, but their prices were totally reasonable compared to some of the fancier places that weren’t as good.

“Get whatever you want,” I told Stace as she stared at the pastries in the case. They looked like works of art.

“What if I want everything?” she asked, practically pressing her nose to the glass of the case.

“Then get everything.” I could afford it. Stace still didn’t know that I had a trust fund and I wanted to keep that information to myself as long as possible. People got weird when they found out about things like that, and I didn’t want things to change with her.

In the end, Stace got three items and I got two, along with frothy lattes that had designs created with the foam.

“I’m going to have to come back here for sure,” Stace said, staring at the pastries on her plate. She dove in, biting into the Nutella-stuffed croissant and moaning. Stace never enjoyed anything halfway, I was coming to understand. Everything she did, she did to the utmost degree. Stace experienced life in a way that almost took my breath away.

“Good?” I asked. I’d also gotten the Nutella croissant, along with a delicate little apple and cherry galette. Stace had also gotten a slice of baklava and a small berry tart.

“Heaven,” she said, savoring. I took a bite and had to close my eyes. Oh, it was heaven. There was almost nothing like a perfect light and flaky croissant filled with rich, slightly warm Nutella.

“So, has it been a good day?” Stace asked me after she’d demolished the croissant and sipped at her latte.

“It has,” I said. Surprisingly good. I’d laughed and now I had new books and was eating chocolate. This morning I’d gotten up early so I could finish everything on my list so I wouldn’t have anything hanging over my head while I was with Stace. It wasn’t something I normally would have done, but I’d wanted to have this time with her without thinking about what else I should be doing.

“Think we can do it again? Not necessarily the bookstore, but we could do something else. I know our schedules are messy, but I want to keep spending time with you, Hunter. I like being with you.”

There it was. That thing she did when she just said whatever she was thinking and feeling. I was still getting used to it. Would I ever?

I wanted to snap at her and tell her to stop saying things like that, but I also didn’t want to be a bitch. Being around someone so upbeat was showing me how negatively I saw so many things. That I always thought the worst out of every situation. Life had shown me that a lot of times, the worst did happen, and it was best to be prepared. But you could go too far thinking that and end up only seeing clouds and rain, and you missed out on the sun even when it was shining in your face.

“I like being with you,” I blurted out and then felt my face go up in flames.

“You do, huh? So I’m wearing you down?” She grinned and her expression was so smug that I wanted to throw something at her.

“Shut up,” I said, trying to glare at her and failing.

Her smile deepened and did that thing where her eyes crinkled at the corners making my heart thump too hard in my chest and my skin tingle with awareness.

Awareness and arousal punched through me and the pastries weren’t my focus anymore.

I looked away from Stace and down at my plate as I tried to talk my body down from flipping out about her smile. I’d never been this attracted to a smile before.

Hoping Stace couldn’t see the war going on in my body, I shoved nearly half the Nutella croissant into my mouth, which caused Nutella to drip down my chin, and I only saved it from going on my shirt at the last minute.

Stace reached across the table with a napkin to help clean off my face.

“I’ve never seen you make a mess before.”

“It doesn’t happen very often.” That was true. Attraction like this did not happen to me. Most of the time I moved through the world and didn’t think about what other people looked like. I was too busy with work and my friends and doing other things. Yes, I would see beautiful people and think about being with them, but it never went further than that. It had been at least a year since I’d even hooked up with anyone and that night had been fuzzy. Someone I’d met at Sapph. Couldn’t even remember her face.

I’d never felt the lack of sex in my life when I had plenty of vibrators that wouldn’t take up space in my bed or ask if we were going to hook up again.

Stace had disrupted all my regular routines.

We stayed quiet as we ate the rest of our pastries and drained our lattes. My body throbbed with awareness as I did my best to pour cold water on the inferno inside me.

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