Page 26 of The Very Naughty List

He shrugs at my compliment as the waitress comes and drops off some menus, and I chuckle when I think about yesterday.

“Sebastian seems to take pride innotbeing a gentleman,” I say jokingly.

Reid rolls his eyes, clearly unsurprised that his brother said that. “There’s nothing wrong with treating a lady right.”

I nod at that, remembering vividly how I used to sometimes notice Reid with his ex—Sutton, a girl he dated semi-seriously for a couple of years. She was gorgeous, of course, and it always made me a little jealous to see how Reid treated her like a queen.

“Are you always a gentleman?”

I blurt the question out with genuine curiosity, but I’m not prepared for the heated look he gives me in return.

“Well now, not so fast, trouble. I didn’t say all that.”

His eyes blaze with a cold blue-gray flame as he speaks, and my body reacts to the implication in his words.

Shit. Yeah, that heart to heart I had with my pussy earlier definitely didn’t work. I need to remind myself all over again to calm down. None of this is real. This is all just a fake game that the four of us are playing in order to gain the upper hand on the town gossips. Once we get through the holidays, none of this will even matter or exist anymore.

My brain tries desperately to convince my body of that fact, but neither my body nor my heart are listening to it. It feels like there’s a war raging inside of me, with conflicting emotions jostling for dominance. Currently, level-headed rationalization is on the losing end of things.

“Do you know what you want to order?” Reid sets his menu down on the table as if he’s ready, but I haven’t even really looked at the choices yet. Sure, I’ve been holding the menu up to my face, but my eyes may as well have been staring right through it.

“I’m not really sure. I can’t decide what I want.”

The waitress walks back over at that exact moment. She plucks the pencil from behind her ear as she tells us about a few specials, then she pauses and looks at us expectantly. Reid glances my way, probably seeing the panicked look on my face as I try to make a last-minute decision, then turns back to the waitress.

“Can you bring us one of each of those specials that you described, please?”

The waitress gives him almost the exact same look that the server at The Old Oak gave Nick the other night—although thankfully, Reid restrained himself a bit and didn’t order the entire menu like Nick did.

“That’s like five different dishes,” she points out. “Are you sure?”

Reid nods. “And two sets of plates and silverware. We’ll share everything.”

After she turns to leave, he smiles across the table at me. “There, that ought to take care of it.”

I pretend to mull it over. “Yeah, probably. If we’re still hungry afterward, we can always get more.”

He bursts into laughter, the sound warm and low.

“Seriously,” I add in a quiet voice, shaking my head. “You and your brothers have to stop spoiling me like this. It’s going to make my expectations way too high when I actually get back into the dating pool.”

The smile on Reid’s face slips a little, but he doesn’t respond to that and I can’t quite tell what he’s thinking.

The food arrives pretty quickly, and we dig in, sharing all the dishes between the two of us. It’s so much food that I’m floored not only by the spread but also by the gesture. I meant what I told Reid. I haven’t been treated like this on a date before, not even when I was with Dylan. He would never spring for more than a burger and fries, even though he has more money than most of the town put together.

“My brother would be in hog heaven right now with all this food,” I say, covering my mouth as I take a bite.

Reid laughs and nods. “Yeah, Lucas could always pack it away, that’s for sure. But now that he’s coaching the Chestnut Hill High football team, I’ll bet those kids have him running around burning calories right and left. Hell, he’s probably in better shape than any of us, thanks to them.”

“I don’t know about that. You guys are in good shape too. You were always working out at our house, remember?”

A flush heats my cheeks as I realize what I just said. I have more vivid memories than I’d care to admit about all the times I ran into a half-naked Cooper brother in the hallway after they came out of Lucas’s small home gym following a good workout. Sometimes they had a shirt on, sometimes not. And once, Sebastian even came out wearing nothing but a towel on his way to shower after a particularly intense leg day.

I have a vague memory of Reid having a tattoo on his chest, although I think my brother might have mentioned at one point that he had more ink done since high school.

“I mean, you were over at our house doing a lot of things,” I correct quickly, hoping my face isn’t as red as it feels. Thinking about whatever ink Nick might’ve gotten in the years since I left town isn’t doing anything to lower my internal temperature. “I know my parents were always happy to have you over.”

Reid grins, a warm look passing over his face. “Yeah, they’ve always been super welcoming. It means a lot.” He nudges my foot with his. “I’m sure they’re on cloud nine about having you back in town.”

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