“That endless charm is going to get you into trouble.”
“I don’t really have a lot of charm for anyone but you.”
“Oh, I witnessed plenty of it during my shift today.”
“You were paying attention.”
I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “I didn’t have to. The crowd around you told the tale no matter where I was in the café.”
“Ah, but you still looked for me.”
I huffed out a breath. “You are incorrigible.”
“So my mother tells me. She’d like you.”
My gut twisted. I didn’t want to think about his family or the three brothers he’d mentioned. It seemed big and intrusive and…warm. I was used to my solitary life. I had a few friends, but somehow I’d never really gotten too close to anyone in the years I’d lived here. My mom had landed here when I was seventeen. By the time I was eighteen, she’d lit out with bum number twenty-three and left me behind. Not that she’d ever really been a mom. But once I was eighteen, she didn’t have to legally stick around anymore.
“Hey.” He slid his fingers into my hair and brushed his thumb over my cheek. “Where did you go?”
“Nowhere fun.” I brushed his hand away.
“I’m just asking for you to give me tonight. If you still think this is a mistake after that, no harm no foul.”
“What’s the point? You don’t even live around here.”
“But I’m not far from here either. Less than an hour.”
I sighed. “Might as well be five. I’m starting a new job on Monday, and I won’t have time for two-hour long booty calls. And that’s hoping it would be more than fifteen minutes.”
“Oh, it would be. Not sure I can go two hours, but I’ll give it a go.”
I arched my brow.
He frowned then tipped his head back. “Oh, you mean to and from.”
“Exactly.” I toyed with the buttons of his goldenrod and soot colored shirt. The plaid suited him. A little traditional, but somehow not. His gray eyes were darker now. Stormier and intense in a way that made me want to make those mistakes. To throw caution out the window and live a little.
Especially with that lure of more than a fifteen-minute one and done.
No. No, that’s not on the menu.
We could have a nice evening together without sex. It would be easier to walk away if I didn’t know exactly how we fit together. Some fun might be good for me.
Hmm, how much longer than fifteen minutes would be take?
“Isn’t it exhausting to think so much?” He played with the hem of my sweater, the backs of his knuckles brushing along the skin of my midriff. “Just jump in with me. Just for a few hours.”
I sighed. I really was tired of thinking all the time. “Gonna buy me a steak?”
“Is that what you want?”
I laughed. “Macy said I should make you buy me an expensive dinner.”
“I’d do it if that’s what you want.” He trailed his fingers over my hip to get to my hand and laced our fingers. “What do you want, Ellie?”
I let myself consider the possibilities. “I’d like to walk around the festival. I’m usually working and never get to enjoy it.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” He drew me closer to the couch and grabbed my coat. “Now aren’t you glad I had your coat?”