His smile reached his eyes. "Just coffee."
She nodded toward the front of the room. "I need to go tell my friends," she said, then hurried that direction.
"He is so hot," Hannah said, starting to rise with an obvious intent to hug.
"Don't you dare," Shelby said. "He's watching."
"We're all so proud of you," Hannah said, still seated. She pretended to dry a tear. "Our little girl's all grown up."
Shelby rolled her eyes and focused on Celia. "You really think it's okay? I mean, leaving with a strange guy?"
"Oh, please," Celia said. "He's Nolan Wood."
"Yeah, but--"
"Hang on." Celia lifted her hand to signal to one of the servers, and a pretty girl with wavy hair hurried over. "Hey, Tiffany," Celia said. "Question for you. That guy over there. Is he a regular? I mean, is he okay for..." She trailed off, glancing meaningfully at Shelby, who was pretty sure she was going to melt into the floor from embarrassment.
"Coffee," Shelby said. "We're just going for coffee."
"Uh-huh." Celia waved the comment away, her attention still on Tiffany.
"Nolan?" Tiffany said. "He's a regular, so I see him around here a lot." Her attention shifted to Shelby. "He's a nice guy. And he's friends with Reece and Brent, and I don't think they'd hang with an asshole."
Shelby started to ask who Reece and Brent were, then decided it didn't matter. Nolan had the earned his seal of approval. Which meant that now it was all on her.
She looked at her friends in panic.
"Go," Celia and Hannah said at the same time. "And tell us everything in the morning," Hannah added.
Shelby made a face. "Um, no. In the morning I'll be sober, and I really won't be talking about it."
"Maybe not," Hannah said, smiling wickedly. "But tonight, you're going to have one hell of a good time."
* * *
It wasn't until Nolan saw her start back toward him that he realized he'd been holding his breath. He exhaled, ridiculously relieved that he'd passed whatever test her friends had set for him.
Her. His dark-haired paradox. The woman who'd so unexpectedly grabbed him by the balls.
And, he realized with a start, he didn't even know her name.
"Nolan Sebastian Wood," he said, extending his hand as she returned.
"Um, yeah. I know. Well, not the Sebastian part. It suits you."
He kept his hand extended. "And you are?"
Her eyes went wide, and although she was clearly mortified that he didn't even know her name, he thought she looked absolutely adorable.
"Shelby," she finally said. "Shelby Drake." She slid her hand into his, a simple, polite gesture that shot through him like a goddamn rocket. He wanted to never let go--and at the same time he wanted his hands free so that he could explore every curvaceous, sensual inch of her. He wanted to lose himself in her--in this woman who'd managed to erase his shit day with nothing more than a few heat-filled looks, shy glances, and the sweetest smile he'd ever seen.
But first, he wanted to buy her a coffee.
"Halcyon's still open for a few more hours," he said, once they were standing on the sidewalk in front of The Fix. He ran through his mental Rolodex of which downtown coffee shops stayed open late. Frankly, there weren't many. "It's a short walk, and we can sip coffee and cook s'mores at the table. What do you say?"
"Um, sure."
"Not a fan of s'mores? Because I'm not even joking. There are little fire pits at each table, and--"