“No way.” She shook her head. “If I tell you, you’ll look, and then she’d know we’re talking about her.”
“It is better if she knows,non?” Didier asked. “In love, it is better to be bold.”
Her cheeks flushed, thinking about how bold she’d been this weekend. She blushed harder when Jamie squeezed her shoulder and gave a low, wicked chuckle. “Sometimes it’s good to leave a little mystery.”
“Ah.” Didier nodded. “Like leaving yourculottesbehind.”
“Culottes?” she asked.
“Fancy panties,” Jamie whispered in her ear.
“Oh.Oh.” Her face went beet red. Wanting to steer the conversation in a safe direction, she turned to Erik. “How have your blind dates been going?”
“Okay.” The kid shrugged, his shoulders drooping.
Poor guy. She felt for him. She’d always hated dating too. “That’s not a ringing endorsement.”
He heaved a sigh, rubbing the bristles on his head. “I don’t know what to talk to the girls about. We don’t seem to have the same things in common. And then I need to be careful what I say, because if I say I play football, they get strange, like the girls in England.”
“So don’t talk,” she said. “Let them do the talking.”
Erik frowned at her. “Really?”
Taking a sip of her beer, she nodded. “Totally. Girls like to be listened to, so it’ll work in your favor. If it helps put you at ease, memorize a couple questions so if the conversation lulls, you can kickstart it. You’ll want questions that require in-depth answers, like ‘what’s your family like?’”
He pulled out his phone and began tapping into it. “What other questions would you ask?”
She bit her lip, staring at the field as she thought about it. “I’d ask ‘what do you love to do?’ and then ‘why?’ That could encompass anything from work to hobbies and dreams.”
Nodding, he kept typing into his phone.
She realized Jamie and Didier had gone still, listening to them. Feeling like maybe she’d stepped into something she shouldn’t have, she looked at the two of them apologetically. “I didn’t mean to tread into your territory.”
“You didn’t,” Jamie said, marvel in his voice. “That was brilliant. Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Because we are idiots.” Didier shrugged his shoulder. “It should have been obvious.”
“I just have a removed perspective,” she said modestly.
“You have a brilliant perspective. I could kiss you.” Jamie turned her toward him and leaned in, his lips glancing across hers. He looked into her eyes, so close, and then touched his mouth to hers again, slower this time. His eyes were still open, and she could see everything he was thinking—remembering last night, when they’d been alone and he’d kissed her like this while he’d been inside her.
Her cheeks heated, but she held his gaze and kissed him back.
“Look,” Erik said.
She turned to see Erik pointing at the jumbotron. There was a big red heart around a couple who was cuddled together. It took her a moment to realize that it was them.
“You are famous,” Didier said with an amused smirk.
She gaped at the screen, but their image was gone, and the camera was back on the field. “Did they show us kissing?”
“Oh yes.” Erik nodded.
She groaned, covering her face.
Jamie squeezed her shoulder. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
“Bad?” Didier snorted. “It was beautiful. The only people who’d call that bad are the jealous ones.”