Page 17 of Sweet and Salty

could’ve paid.”

“I know you could have,” I say, knowing how successful she is. “But I wanted to treat you. Thanks for inviting me.”

“We're going to do it again, aren't we?” she asks.

My eyes flare at the question, the two interpretations flying through my mind even though Iknowshe means dinner. “If you want to, we will,” I answer, holding her door for her as she climbs behind the wheel, and I close it safely behind her.

I follow her back to her house. I wait to make sure she's inside with the doors locked, lingering on her street for a few minutes to ensure there’s nothing out of place. All the cars I've marked in my time since following her are familiar, those vehicles registered to the homeowners along her street.

Satisfied that she’s safe, I head back to the studio apartment I rented only five minutes away from her house.

I settle into the almost bare space, unable to shake how fun tonight had been and how Zoe is making me wonder more and more what it would be like to go home to her every night instead of somewhere I never really felt tethered to.

Because if there’s anything that’ll make me want to put down roots, it’s her.

CHAPTER 6

Zoe

“Hold on,” Luna says from where she sits across the table from me at Lyla’s Place. Anne and Lyla are on either side of her, the four of us taking up a table in the empty restaurant, a much-needed girls breakfast before the place opens up for lunch. “You're telling me that the man your father hired to be your security detail isSilver? And he’s outside right now, just watching the place?”

“I am,” I answer, taking in all three of their looks of shock.

“And you're also telling me it took you almostthreeweeks to tell us that?” Luna continues, looking completely taken aback.

“I know, I know,” I say apologetically. “But can you blame me? I mean, what are the odds? It’s not like I was expecting that.”

“No onewould expect that,” Anne says, shaking her head. “I know you had physical chemistry with Silver despite the full facemask situation that night, but after seeing him in the flesh?” She fans herself.

We all chuckle at that, taking bites of the breakfast Lyla prepared for us.

“I was wondering who that new gentleman was,” Lyla says. “He certainly stirred up a lot of conversations after y'all left the other night.”

“I can only imagine,” I say. “He's as inked up as Ridge, and we all know how this small town talks about our resident tattoo artist.”

Lyla blushes at the mention of Ridge, and I curiously note the reaction she tries to hide behind a sip of coffee. Ridge and her are always in some sort of ridiculous argument or another, the most common one being Ridge saying she forgot something in his to-go orders, but I always wondered if there was more going on there. It’s hard to turn off my body language radar sometimes, and the two of them had that crackling chemistry in spades.

“So have there been any new developments with Silver?” Luna asks, grinning at me.

It's my turn to blush, and I do my best to hide that behind a bite of my eggs.

“Oh my gosh, there has,” Anne says enthusiastically.

I wave them off. “It was just a kiss,” I assure them. “That's it. That's all we agreed to since we hadn't been able to before because of the masks.”

“From the look on your face, it’ssonot just a kiss,” Luna says, my best friend able to read me wholeheartedly.

I take a sip of coffee, setting down my mug. “Okay, it was the best kiss I've ever had in my life. Which I can now add to his name, right next to thebest sex of my life. But no, we can't cross that line again, so we haven't done anything else.”

“What?” Luna asks.

“Why not?” Anne asks.

I glance at Lyla, who just smiles and shakes her head at me with nothing to add.

“I don't know,” I say. “He's been hired to protect me. As much as I'd like to brush off the situation with Spencer, I can't. So IneedOwen. In a totally different way than I needed the mysterious and fun flirtation we had before things changed. If we got intimate like that again? Don't you think it would complicate things?”

“Maybe,” Anne says a little more seriously. “But maybe not. It's not like this is a common situation. You two already had a sort of relationship before you knew your father was going to hire him for this job. Doesn't that factor into anything?”

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