Page 68 of Summer Ever After
I can’t help it. I lose it—like fall dead with laughter.
So does Marlyss.
How Jane is keeping a straight face right now, I do not know.
“Oh, my goodness!” Marlyss slows her laughs longenough to open the kitchen door and call out to her teenage daughter. “Hailey! Mr. Tolley is here to pick you up.”
“He just moved in. No one knows him yet, not even Marlyss, and her daughter is babysitting for him.” Jane eyes me and my laughter. “It could’ve happened to anyone.”
“But it happened toyou.”
Her resolve finally cracks, and my favorite smile of hers lights up her entire face.
Then she laughs too.
Jane
“I’m so embarrassed!” My face falls into my hands as I shake my head.
“About what, specifically?” Walker laughs. “Getting stood up by Serial Killer Brian or confusing Mr. Tolley for your date?”
I drag my hands halfway down my face, revealing my eyes so I can peek at him. “Both!”
“I was kinda wondering, when he said he expected you to be younger.”
“Me too!”
“How did you finally realize he wasn’t your date?”
“It took a minute, but I think it was when he said his wife arranged this whole thing.”
“Dead giveaway.”
I eye him, suppressing a laugh. “Yeah, it set off some alarms.”
“So now what?” Walker shifts his gaze to the clock above the bar. “What time was your real date supposed to be here?”
“About forty minutes ago.”
I expect him to give me the pity grimace, but instead, his lips lift, and his eyes soften. “Any guy who stands up Jane Hayes is an idiot.”
How does he do that? How does he melt my whole soul with a simple, cliche statement like that?
“You don’t have to say that. I’m fine.”
“Who says I’m just saying that?”
Right now, meeting his gaze seems risky for my heart, so I casually glance around. “I should go.”
“Nope. Here’s what we’re going to do.” He pushes his bag of food between us and starts unpackaging it. “We’re going to order a couple of drinks and eat my wings.”
“Is this your way of trying to get me to go on a date with you?”
“Is it working?” There’s a shot of playfulness to his smile.
“No.” I bite back my own grin. “I’ll eat your wings, but only because I’m starving, and I have nothing else to do, not because this is a date.”
“Deal.” He flips open the Styrofoam, and the smell of buffalo sauce wafts through the air. “I’m actually happy for the company. Today was the start of the U.S. Open.”
