Rory took the tray and secured it under her seat and then, noticing her cousin walking toward them with his tray, leaned over and kissed Kit. She took her time with the kiss and after a moment Kit did, too. Putting his hand on the side of her neck as he deepened the kiss.
He lifted his head just as Conrad arrived at their table and set his tray down forcefully. She looked over at Conrad.
“I’m glad you met my boyfriend, Kit.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Con grumbled. “So you’re having a party?”
Rory almost smiled at the way Conrad said it. As much as he might not be sure of Kit, one of the things she loved about her cousin was that he was never going to be difficult unless the situation called for it.
“We are. I can’t wait to see your costume,” she told him.
“We’re going to go as Beauty and the Beast,” Indy chimed in.
Conrad looked over at her and she smiled at him and Rory saw her cousin’s expression change into a look of pure love. Rory almost sighed. That was how she wanted Kit to look at her. Which floored her because she’d felt so flawed and like her life was still so much in flux that love wouldn’t be right for her. But she knew that was what she wanted now.
“I guess I can wear my chef whites,” Con murmured.
“Uh, no. A tux as you’ll be the beauty and I’ll be the beast,” Indy said.
“Or we figure something else out,” Conrad grumbled. “What about you two?”
Kit looked over at Rory. A couples’ costume would be fun but he wasn’t sure he had any good ideas. “Thoughts?”
Rory took a bite of her chili, he guessed to give herself time to think. She had her free hand on his leg and he was still turned on from the kiss she’d planted on him a few moments ago.
Working from Gilbert Corners had been a strategic move to give himself space from his aunt Mal and to try to piece together what had happened the night of winter gala.
But it had turned into something different. He’d practically given up his motive for revenge, spending more time with Rory with each passing day. It made him want to leave the past alone and start to think about a future.
The funny thing about revenge was that it never let you dream of anything other than someone else’s downfall. It was a negative place to be for most of his adult life.
“Well, we could do classic monsters,” Rory mused. “I’ve always liked Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.”
“Uh, not sure about that...”
“That’s right, you don’t like monster movies,” she teased.
Kit didn’t like being scared, so he’d been surprised when Rory had tried to get him to do a movie marathon of her favorite scary movies likeHalloweenandNightmare on Elm Street.
“How about Rick and Evie fromThe Mummy?” Rory said.
He nodded. “You’ll make a great Evie.”
“And you a good Rick. Glad that’s settled,” Rory said.
“I think we should be Imhotep and Anck-su-namun,” Indy murmured. “That would be fun and you’d be shirtless, which I always love.”
“Not sure about that. We don’t want Elle and Dash to feel left out,” Con said. “We’ll do Beauty and the Beast.”
Kit couldn’t really square the guy sitting across from him being sweet and tender with his fiancée to the man who’d glared and tried to intimidate him in the coffee shop. “So how’d you two meet?”
He felt like the more that Conrad talked to and about Indy the more he relaxed, and it wouldn’t hurt to get to know him better. Conrad had been at the party the night of the crash and it might be easier to talk to him about that than Dash.
“I challenged him on his cooking show,” Indy said.
“Who won?”
“The Michelin-starred chef,” Conrad stated drily.