Page 39 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

“Too tall.”

He pursed his lips, holding them up. “I like them.”

She absolutely refused to laugh and shifted over as one of Seraphina’s workers carried out a stack of boxes for another customer.

“Did you find anything you like?” Seraphina asked, returning from the back.

Laney pointed to a beige suede pair with a chunky, low heel.

“Love those,” Seraphina said. “Really comfortable because of the wide toes. What size are you?”

“Nine and a half.”

Seraphina held her finger up. “Be right back.”

“Nine and a half, eh?” Ethan licked an imaginary pen and pretended to write it down on an imaginary pad of paper.

“You’re too much,” Laney said as she accepted the box from Seraphina. She tried them on and walked to the mirror, checking them out, side to side. “What do you think?” she asked Ethan, eyeing him in the reflection of the mirror. “Of the boots, I mean.”

He lifted his attention from her butt. “I love ’em.” He waved his hands up and down her body. “Love the whole package.”

She rolled her eyes at his compliments. She only wore skinny jeans and a thin cream sweater, nothing spectacular, but with how he had that silly tongue-hanging-out-of-his-mouth expression, she might as well have been wearing nothing.

“Getting them?” he asked, staring at her legs.

“Yeah.”

“Good, they make your legs look…” He gave her the OK sign, not even bothering to finish his sentence. She may not have been ready to make this a “thing” between them, but she couldn’t deny she liked that goofy face and how easy it was between them.

She paid for the shoes and wore them out of the store with a promise that Seraphina would be in touch soon. Back outside, Ethan tucked his hands into his pockets, elbowing her lightly. “Are you hungry?”

It was almost six. “I can eat.”

“Anything in particular?”

She spotted a red-and-white sign lit up at the end of the strip mall. “Pizza?”

He seemed like he wanted to suggest somewhere else but held his arm out, allowing her to step ahead of him to the pizza joint. After getting their food, Ethan carried their tray to open seats by the window.

“Thanks for paying,” she said, grabbing her soda from the tray.

“You’re a cheap date.” He handed her a few napkins from the dispenser in the middle of the table. “I have to admit, this isn’t the place I imagined our first date would be.”

She knew he was trying to goad her, charm her. But it wouldn’t work. “We’ve been out plenty of times before.”

“Sure, we hung out a lot when we were in high school, but I never got to take you out on a real date.”

She thought back on it. He was correct, yet this right here wasn’t a date, and she told him that.

“How do you suppose it’s not?” he asked in between munching on a bite of his pizza. “We’re out, having dinner at Big Slice, and I paid. Grade A date, if I do say so myself.”

She choked on the sip of her soda when she snorted a laugh. “Yes, the seventeen-year-old in me is swooning.”

“I hope so. I’m looking forward to my goodnight kiss.”

She clenched every muscle in her body to keep from responding with “me too” because this wasn’t a date.

It wasn’t a date.

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