Page 122 of Storm in a Teacup
I sit down next to him, handing over his coffee. “Maybe we should make a significant memory on a bench with a better view,” I say before taking a sip of my hot beverage.
“I think the view here is pretty nice.”
I turn toward him to find just what I was expecting: his eyes on me. “Smooth,” I comment.
“Always.” He grins into his coffee cup as he takes a swallow. “Where’d you get this? It’s good.”
“I don’t remember the name of it. Somewhere Significant, maybe?”
“Huh,” Ben muses. “Sounds familiar. Was it perhaps Somewhere Special?”
“Ah, right. That’s it.”
“I hear the owner is hot.”
“The woman? Hell yeah.” His nose wrinkles. I laugh lightly. “Oh. The guy. Yeah, I’d say he’s pretty good-looking as well. Good kisser. Great pheromones.”
Ben snickers. “I have heard his pheromones are better than the rest.”
“They are to me, at least.”
Ben throws an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him and kissing me on the temple. “So, I have news,” he says.
“Do you? Me as well. Two bits of it, actually.”
“Well, you go first.”
“Mel is pregnant.”
Ben lights up. “You’re going to be an aunt!”
“I’m already an aunt. And technically, I will be this child’s…what is it? Second cousin? Your parents’ cousins are your second cousins. Then your cousins’ children are your first cousins, once removed.”
“Why do you know this?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Well, still exciting. She’s excited, I assume?”
“Oh, thrilled.”
“What’s your second bit?”
I grimace. “Atti is engaged.”
His eyebrows lift. “Poor lass.”
I chuckle. “Mel says he’s been”—I curve my fingers in the air—“‘working on himself.’”
Ben’s lip curls. “To each their own, I guess. How you feeling about it?”
“Neutral. He took her to Spain to propose. He took me to France.”
“Where do you want me to take you?”
I sip my coffee to hide my smile. “If you take me anywhere but this bench, I will say no.”
“Noted.”
