Page 35 of Impulsive Saint
“You were off in la-la land.” She smiled up at him as she put the dispenser back down and picked up her spoon to stir. “What were you thinking about?”
“Nothing.” he said quickly, maybe too quickly because she quirked an eyebrow disbelievingly. He shifted uneasily in his seat and sighed. “Actually, I was wondering what all you have on that bucket list of yours.”
“Oh…” She pulled the spoon from the hot liquid and frowned, “Lots of stuff.”
“Afraid you’re going to have to be a little more specific if you expect me to help you cross items off the list, princess.”
She narrowed her eyes and pointed the spoon at him menacingly, “Stop calling me that.”
“Yeah, I know, I know.” He held his hands up in surrender, “It slipped.”
“Yeah, like I’m going to slip and stab you with this spoon.” She muttered through a saccharine smile.
He chuckled at her threat, “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Maybe murder is on my bucket list?” She teased back.
“I wouldn’t know. You won’t let me see it.”
“I don’t actually have it written down. Not with me at least. I have an old version written in a journal somewhere at home but it’s changed a lot since I started making it. New things get added and old things get taken off.” She shrugged as she took a sip of her coffee.
“Taken off when you complete them you mean?”
“Nah. I’ve never really tried to do anything on the list. It was more like I outgrew some of the possibilities I dreamed of over the years.”
He frowned, thinking that didn’t sound so much like a bucket list as a wish list but he didn’t dare say it. Something about the way her eyes turned downcast told him that he didn’t have to. She already knew the whole idea sounded silly and was just waiting for him to remind her of it, something he’d already promised himself he wasn’t going to do anymore.
“Excuse me.” He reached out as a waitress that wasn’t theirs walked past and she paused. “Can I borrow a pen?”
The waitress acted as if this was a question she got regularly and simply began to dig into her apron until she came up with one, “Sure thing, sugar. Here you go.”
“Thank you.” He smiled and the waitress winked at him before carrying on towards the kitchen. When he turned back to Ashtyn, she was smirking at him. He grinned, “What?”
“Sure thing, sugar.” She mimicked with a playful wink before she burst into a fit of laughter and shook her head, “God, have you ever had a woman deny you anything?”
“Nope.” Tyler popped the p on the word and chuckled with her when she only laughed harder, glad she knew that he was teasing.
When she finally got control of herself Ashtyn sighed, “At least you’re honest. I just hope you’ve been using your powers for good and not evil.”
“Always.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything else and he let the subject go happily. He was aware that he was a good-looking guy. He’d been told as much by many a woman over his lifetime but talking about women fawning over him simply because he smiled in their general direction with Ashtyn felt wrong somehow.
Maybe because she had never gone along with what he wanted, not from the moment he met her and that was one of the things he could grudgingly admit he liked about her most.
“Here.” He grabbed a napkin and pushed it and the pen across the table towards her, “Write down your list.”
“Seriously?” Her blue eyes went wide.
“Yes, seriously.” He pushed the items closer to her. “Write down everything you want to do on this trip and then we’ll make a plan for how best to get it all done before we hit Vegas.”
“You’re for real.” Ashtyn’s lips tilted up at the corners.
“Yeah.”
“You’re going to help me?”
“That’s what I said.” He shrugged, expecting her to smile or thank him but instead she only narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
