Page 32 of Mr. Dangerous

13

Naomi

After lunch,we headed back to Joe’s house for coffee and cake. Tough, grizzled Joe had been cultivating an interest in baking, thanks to the Great British Bake-Off, and I had to hide my smile behind my cup as he talked about it. There’s nothing quite like a tough military man who has ahobby.

Rob raised his cup in Joe's general direction. "This is so delightfully edible after the coffee I've had lately.Thanks."

I couldn't think of a playfully withering comeback for Rob, so I took a sip of coffee and pretended I hadn'theardhim.

"You two are a cute match,"Joesaid.

I swallowed wrong and, as I tried to choke back a cough, covered my mouth with mysleeve.

Rob leaned towards Joe confidentially. "Now you're inforit."

"We're not together," I said. "I'm helping Rob out while he can'tdrive."

"Turns out that's one of the few things we have incommon."

Joe's eyes flickered between us. "I don't know. Most people I know who talk like that are married, or headedthere."

"That's depressing,"Isaid.

"What?" Rob asked. "Marrying me would be depressing? Being married to me would beawesome."

"He obviously likes you," Joe said to me, his voice low and confidential, as if Rob wasn’t just on the end of the couch. "Or he wouldn't be soobnoxious."

"I know," I said. Of course, he'd liked me ten years before, too. But he hadn't liked me enough to do something about it. And then he'd frozen me out completely, just when I'd given in to wanting him. That night at prom, I’d felt so alone in the midst of my friends, trying to laugh and chat with them, even though Rob and Kate were smiling at each other as they spun around the country club dance floor. I went to bed as soon as I got home, pulling the comforter over my full tulle skirt. The bobby pins in my updo bit into my scalp, so I'd pulled them out one at a time, finally giving in to angry tears.Bobby pin.Sob.Bobbypin.

I wouldn't make that mistakeagain.

“We should get going,” Rob said, setting his coffee cup on the edge of the table. “Naomi and I have a hot datetonight.”

“Excuse me?” Iasked.

"This is strictly business, Naomi. We have a tasting. Caterer for thefundraiser."

"Oh.” I felt a jolt of surprise I tried not to show. I had thought that Rob was talking a big game, but would get bored before the fundraiser happened. "You wereserious."

"Of course I was,"hesaid.

"Well, I found a caterer who was willing to workwithus--"

"A caterer for a barbecue," he said. "A caterer who works out of a foodtruck."

"Food trucks are so fun," I said. "That's the kind of event I'm goingfor.Fun."

"Black tie can be fun,” hepromised.

Joe looked back and forth between us, grinning like he knew something that wedidn’t.

* * *

Half an hour later,we pulled up to the valet parking at thehotel.

Rob held out his hand as I pulled my overnight bag out of the trunk. "Let metakethat."

"I'll take it, sir," the bellhop offered, emerging from the hotel doors beside thevalet.

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