Page 86 of So Steady

“Doesn’t matter. Want champagne?”

“I…yes.”

And he told the waiter rushing up behind her to bring them a bottle of Moet like it wasn’t anything. And when it arrived he didn’t look remotely out of place holding a long-stemmed glass. In their upscale surroundings, his size and tattoos had taken on a rebellious glamour. He might have been a football player relaxing in the off season with his overdressed girlfriend. She noticed a few women watching him with mixed curiosity and attraction and felt a prickle of jealousy.

He’s mine, she thought,we just had sex onmyold bedroom floor.

“Toast?” Noah asked, his green eyes glinting as though he knew what was on her mind.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“To you,” he said, tapping his glass to hers. “And your tattoo.”

Nicole looked down and was shocked to see the daisy chain looped around her wrist. She’d grown to…not hate it, butresent it. Resent its hippy-dippy prettiness, the way it made her a girl with tattoos who wasn’t remotely as cool as her sisters. For the first time she looked at it and thought maybe it suited her. She tapped her champagne glass to his and they both drank. Their waitress returned and Noah ordered them both deep fried, soft shell crab.

“That’s a bit old school, ordering for your date,” Nicole teased.

“You wanted something else?”

She didn’t, but she stuck her tongue out at him anyway. A thought occurred to her. “Oh my god, it’s getting late and we haven’t booked a hotel yet.”

Noah said nothing, but the look he gave her made her feel like her skin was on fire.

“I guess there’s, um, lots of places in town,” she corrected. “It can’t be that hard to find one. We can look after this.”

He nodded, his gaze like gleaming jade.

Nicole drank deeply from her glass, tasting nothing. A hotel room, a big blank bed where she and Noah could explore the hungry thing between them. Their waiter brought warm brown bread and a big dab of salted butter. She ate, letting the richness wash across her tongue.

Noah watched her. “Christ, it’s hard not to look at your mouth.”

She laughed. “So stop staring and eat!”

He smiled and did just that. Conversation between them flowed as quickly as the wine. They talked about the sports they’d played in school—football for him, netball for her.

“We’re so heterosexual,” Nicole said. Noah laughed.

When their waiter slid her crab in front of her, she saw the young man clocking her daisy chain. She nodded and Nicole knew what he was thinking; that she and the big tattooed guy shared a common thread after all.

And we do.

The wine she’d drunk bubbled inside her. She could have sworn she saw the same brightness in Noah. And here they were, eating a nice meal in a nice restaurant, talking and smiling, ignoring the heat that would have them tearing their clothes off later. Nicole looked down at her daisy tattoo and dredged up some of Sam’s courage. “There’s something real between us, isn’t there?”

Silence, but when she looked up, Noah nodded, his mouth tight.

“Can you…maybe say that? I’m sorry, it just feels like maybe you don’t mean it.”

Noah put down his knife and fork. “Nikki, if this goes places, you gotta know that…”

“You can’t talk about personal stuff?”

He inclined his head.

“Why?”

“Million different reasons.” He shook his head like he was getting rid of a cobweb. “Remember how you asked why I don’t show my paintings?”

“Yes.”

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