Page 15 of Before I Knew

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. If I had someone looking at me like that, I’d stand there too,” the stranger said before she waved her fingers at me and him and moved back.

I moved to the side then, as Aston came forward.

“Hi,” I whispered.

“Hi,” he said right back, his voice deep, intoxicating.

What was with this? We hadn’t even said anything.

When his lips quirked into a smile, I blinked, telling myself to snap out of it.

“I see you also Googled me,” he said softly.

“I’m sorry. Hi, I’m Blakely,” I said, awkwardly holding out my hand.

Aston looked down at it, that smile still on his face, and slid his hand over mine. “Aston. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

“That would be lovely,” I said with a laugh, and then he did the silliest and most attractive thing ever, and lifted my hand to his lips, and I knew there was a problem.

“Oh wow,” another woman said as she walked by, fanning herself.

I blushed and took my hand back. “Now that I’m done making a scene. I’d love coffee. Though I am more of a latte girl.”

“We can do a latte.”

“Should I ask if you do this often? I feel like I should ask if you do this often.”

“I have never asked a wrong number out for coffee before. Though I have been here before. Not with another woman though.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

“It is.”

We ordered our coffees, talking of weather and sports like we were good at, and I had to wonder if we would talk about anything else.

But it was just coffee after all.

The place was full, so we ended up sitting outside at a little table, nerves running through me.

“So. I would ask what you do, but I sort of know what you do.”

“My brother who works in security would probably want to know if you knew that before you Googled me.”

I blinked. “As in I somehow entered myself into your life through a random text message? Like I’m the one who typed it in?”

“That’s what he would want to know. I assumed that you didn’t somehow secretly break into my other brother’s house to type in your phone number.”

My lips quirked, my shoulders immediately relaxing.

“Yes, it was all an accident. And I actually didn’t Google your name until this morning.”

Heat crossed my cheeks, and Aston leaned back and blinked at me. “Really? So you didn’t know my name this whole time?”

“It was an oversight. But you didn’t ask why.”

“Because I Googled you that day,” he mumbled, looking a little contrite. “Should I have waited?”

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