Page 57 of Our Secret Summer

“Because she’s your friend and it would be rude?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah. Besides, we’ve waited this long.” She slanted her head. “Granted, you’ve waited longer than I have, but that’s your own fault.”

Dylan couldn’t get enough of this devilish side to Raffo.

“Let’s talk then.” She picked up the bottle of beer and held it up. “And toast. To my son.”

Raffo clinked the neck of her beer bottle against it. “To Connor Hart.”

“What did he say?” Dylan was dying to find out.

“Well…” Raffo held up her bottle. “We didn’t so much talk about it as we…drankabout it, if that makes sense.” She put down her bottle, a grave expression crossing her face. “There are some things that best friends simply can’t talk through and this is one of those things, but clearly Connor’s willing to make an effort to live with it because he wants us to be happy, even if it costs him something—well, more than something. It’s awkward and weird and all of that, but he knows me through and through and that’s why he knows that I wouldn’t have asked him if I didn’t feel like I had any other choice.”

Dylan’s heart was about to burst out of her chest. Not just because her son was becoming more amenable to the idea ofthem, but because Raffo had just claimed that she didn’t have any other choice but to be with Dylan—and go through the ordeal of asking Connor if he could find it in himself to be okay with that.

“Maybe nothing is really impossible,” Dylan said, even though it sounded a bit silly. But she was intoxicated by the situation and, in that moment, it truly felt like everything was possible. The relief coursing through her was overwhelming because everything that had seemed so thoroughly impossible was suddenly within reach.

Raffo shook her head, because that’s the kind of person she was—and that’s the kind of life she’d lived. “I don’t believe that, but I do believe in this, in… us. The potential of us.”

A grin spread across Dylan’s lips. “I guess this is our first official date.”

“Maybe, even though we’ve done plenty of things that don’t necessarily belong on first dates.”

Dylan’s mind flashed back to their last night together in Big Bear. Min-ji set down more food and left them alone.

“You’re looking very different than what I’m used to from you,” Raffo said after swallowing a bite of bulgogi. “Very corporate compared to those barely-there jeans shorts and see-through tank tops that you seduced me in.”

Dylan ignored the playful jibe. “I had a job interview before I came here.”

Raffo’s eyes lit up. “I bet you crushed it. Did they hire on you on the spot?”

“No,” Dylan said with a glance at Raffo. “They didn’t have an instant crush on me like some people at this table.”

“Don’t blame me. Blame your naked breasts,” Raffo said matter-of-factly.

Dylan nearly spat out the piece of shrimp she’d just popped into her mouth.

“Are you still not over that?” she asked.

“Scarred for life, but in the best way possible.” Raffo plastered on the most delicious grin. “Seriously, though, how did the interview go?”

“Good.” Despite feeling ancient and insecure, the interview had gone well, although Dylan didn’t really feel the spark for the job. “We’ll see.”

“You don’t want to talk about it?” Raffo read her so well.

“It’s not what I want to do, but I also don’t want to sell Big Bear, so it’s my only choice right now.”

“You’re not selling?” Raffo smiled widely. “Meaning we can go back any time?”

Dylan nodded slowly as memories of their time at the lake house engulfed her brain. It was more than enough to perk her up. Maybe, if she could date Raffo in her spare time, taking a job she didn’t really want would be a piece of cake.

CHAPTER 38

Despite having known Connor for years, Raffo had never been to his mother’s house. She didn’t have much time to study the decor—or take in family snaps—because Dylan all but dragged her inside with an urgency that revealed exactly what was on her mind.

Raffo gladly let herself be pulled in, not just inside Dylan’s house, but by everything. By simply being with Dylan. The delicious dinner they’d had, although they’d been too absorbed in each other, and Connor’s surprise move, to fully appreciate Min-ji’s culinary talents. But now that they could date openly, they had all the time in the world to return.

This was a date. It was nothing like a first date, however, because Raffo already knew so much about Dylan. She knew what she liked—she knew how she reacted when Raffo grabbed her wrists and pinned them above Dylan’s head. When Raffo did that, something came over her face that gave away, so very clearly, what Dylan liked. Raffo had missed that look so much.

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