Page 70 of Cream and Punishment
Brooding, almost. And Max was not abrooder.
“You” —his voice came out gravelly until he cleared his throat— “you really like that flavor, don’t you?”
I shrugged and curled my knees up closer to my chest. The couch creaked in protest. “Well, yeah. I like all ice cream flavors. This one just happens to be my favorite.”
He nodded and cleared his throat again. Even so, his voice was a touch constricted. “I can tell.”
My pulse picked up its pace. I wanted to read into his behavior, assign meaning to it. Meaning he’d never once confirmed and that would be unreasonableandpresumptuous. And yet, that didn’t stop the stupid little organ in my chest from beating harder or thinking he might be attracted to me.
See? Presumptuous. Especially knowing about his dating hiatus.
So I played it as cool as my zero acting skills allowed. I took another bite of my ice cream, grinning inside when he tracked the movement. But there were a myriad of reasons why he’d do that, right? It would be embarrassing to assume he did it for the same reasons I did when he teased me with his spoon, especially if I really just had something on my face the whole time. Or maybe I ate ice cream in an unnatural way. At this point, anything was possible.
“So did you do it?” I asked, already scooping my next bite.
“Huh?” He blinked and tore his attention away from my mouth. “Did I do what?”
“Get all three swirls in one bite.”
“Oh. Uh.” He looked at his pint as if just now remembering he still held it. “Yeah. Yeah, I did. It took some cosmetic surgery on the ice cream to do it, but I managed.”
“Cosmetic surgery?This,I’ve got to see.”
I shifted until my knees were under me, abandoning Debby to join her friends on the floor. The couch complained. I leaned forward until I caught sight of his pint, the ice cream torn up and holey in random places. Smears of red and white and tan broke up the chocolate color like remnants of a crime scene. It looked nearly unrecognizable from the elegantly swirled tub it had started as. Like he’d unleashed a tornado on the unsuspecting dessert.
“What did you do to it?” I accused through my laughter.
He chuckled and poked some of the slabs of upturned ice cream with his spoon. “I told you. Cosmetic surgery.”
“Isn’t cosmetic surgery supposed to make something lookbetter?”
“That’s assuming the surgeon actually went to medical school.”
“Fair point.” I settled back on my haunches, putting a little more space between us again, and offered my pint to him. “You want any more? I think I’m good for now.”
His eyes dipped to the ice cream, and he swallowed so hard my Adam’s apple senses tingled. “No, uh, I’m good, too. Thanks.”
I shrugged and put the lid back on it before setting it on the coffee table.
“You want more Triple Ripple?” he asked, grimacing as he looked at the terrorized remains of the ice cream. “It probably tastes fine. Just looks dead.”
I snorted at his accurate assessment and leaned in with my spoon in tow again. “Only one way to find out.”
I never found out.
The couch let out a shuddery groan I felt through my legs up to my nose. And with an ear-splittingcrack, the couch snapped. The broken center fell to make a V, and my spoon and I tumbled inward. Max slid the same direction until I smacked into his chest, the two of us sandwiched in the sagging middle.
Stunned silence echoed in the aftermath of the couch’s final stand, interrupted only by thethump-thumpof Max’s heart under my ear. Then, seemingly in unison, our shoulders started shaking with laughter. It bubbled up from my belly until it threatened to explode out of me. The sheer absurdity of it all was too much.
Max’s chuckle rumbled through me, and we pulled away from each other enough for me to look at him without getting three chins.
He held his arm with the ice cream up and off to the side. Likely the only instinct he could call upon before the couch swallowed him. And, blessedly, he’d kept us both from getting Triple Ripple splattered all over.
“Are you okay?” he asked, scanning me for injuries.
I nodded and did the same for him. “You?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m good. This wasn’t what I expected to happen, but I can’t complain.”
