Page 91 of Getting Wrapped Up

He got several greetings and waves as he led Kate to a booth in the middle of the diner. It was the polite thing to do—it would make it easier for everyone to see her and give her the third degree.

“The usual?” Dottie asked Levi with a big smile as she appeared next to their table, blatantly looked Kate over and filled two coffee cups from the pot in her hand.

Kate looked across the table. “You have a usual?”

He nodded. “I’m not much of a cook.”

She laughed. She wasn’t surprised. The times they’d been together in San Francisco and DC over the past few weeks, they’d gone out or eaten at the parties they’d been to. The not-much-of-a-cook thing was true on both sides of this table and they’d figured that out standing in Joe and Phoebe’s kitchen talking about making Christmas cookies. Neither of them had had a clue.

“But I’ll take a number two today,” he told Dottie. The number two was oatmeal. None of the food at Dottie’s was amazing other than the French toast and fried tomatoes, but all of it was adequate.

Except for the oatmeal.

It wouldn’t kill them. It would keep them from starving. And it would definitely keep Kate from thinking that he loved having breakfast at Dottie’s.

“I’ll have the number two also,” Kate told Dottie.

Dottie looked from him to Kate and back again. “You want the number two?”

Even Dottie knew the oatmeal sucked. “Yes,” Levi said. “Two number twos.”

“The numbertwo?” Dottie repeated again.

“Yep. Two of ’em,” he said happily.

Dottie shrugged and headed for the kitchen.

Levi sat back in the booth and studied Kate.

She was so damned beautiful.

He’d dated beautiful women before. A couple even for longer than he’d known Kate. But he’d never had his heartbeat speed up just by looking at them across the table. Part of him really wanted to introduce her to the tomatoes. He wanted to share everything good and happy with her. So he had to stay strong here.

It was tough keeping something amazing from the woman he loved.

And he loved knowing that he definitely loved her.

He loved that he knew she had three tiny freckles on her left shoulder. He loved that he knew that licking just below her belly button would elicit a sound from her that nothing else did. He loved that he knew exactly what kind of hair conditioner she used and that she would go out at one in the morning to get more if she ran out.

Which was the perfect example of why he needed to move to San Francisco. She couldn’t even get that hair conditioner in Sapphire Falls—he’d looked—and she shouldn’t be going out alone at one a.m. anywhere.

Not that it was a habit for her. She’d grown up in the city. She knew how to be safe and take care of herself. But it was an example of the things he needed to keep in mind.

“I’m so damn glad you’re here,” he told her honestly.

“Me too.” Kate grinned at him and lifted her cup.

She grimaced a moment later and swallowed hard.

Levi took a drink too but he was prepared so he didn’t grimace—at least visibly.

“So the dance and everything starts at eight. I figure that means we can have sex in every room of the house and probably hit a couple twice before we need to get ready,” Levi said.

Kate paused in tearing open her sixth sugar packet to dump into her cup. She grinned at him. “Which rooms will we do twice?”

“Bedroom?”

She laughed. “Kind of cliché.”

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