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"I just wasn’t thinking! You should have reminded--"

"Daisy!" Sinclair raised his voice I shut up He held out a single red rose "This is a date A ro to let you drive Okay?"

"Okay" I accepted the rose, hidinga little No one had ever givena fitted black T-shirt that showed off his torso, neatly creased khakis, and a pair of huarache sandals Upscale casual It looked good on hi that?"

"Nah" He grinned "Spare clothes are in the saddlebag I changed in the bathrooreat, too" He crooked his ar to compare it to, I’o, this one was close to perfect The hostess seated us on the patio near the gently splashing fountain It was an intiht of the lowering sun, giving us a jump on candlelit ambience The ht level to enhance the French bistro at it

From the first time we’d met, small talk had come easily to Sinclair andto do with the fact that ere both only children raised by single parents coh it’s not like I’d known that until just the other day Anyway, I was glad to find that the easy connection was still there, that the new level of physical intied level We held hands atop the table and played footsy under it We pored over the wine list and pooled our lie of French wines We talked about favorite movies, an inexhaustible topic, over salad and bread We exchanged stories about our respective days over salmon al his prospects for running a scaled-back tour in the cooblins, the depths of Jojo the joe-pye weed fairy’s crush, and exactly who the hell St Jacques was and what the hell he had to do with scallops

I thought about asking Sinclair back to my place, which I hadn’t done yet This whole boyfriend–ro fully seductive Based on the steady heat in his eyes, he was thinking about it, too

Butyeah There was a pretty big elephant on the patio with us And every ti you, isn’t it?" Sinclair askedabout it"

I winced "Is it that obvious?"

"Not really, no" He leaned back in his chair, cocking his head "But I know you just well enough to be able to tell"

"Do you blaave me a rueful look "I truly don’t"

I looked down at the table,with the ra I know, you’d think I’d had enough of chocolate today, but you’d be wrong "I guess it’s just that I’ve been really up-front with you" I keptacross the table, he tooktime I didn’t have a choice in the matter My father sent me back to my mother one reeot to decide for h" He fell silent a s don’t always stay where we put them," I said softly

"No, I know" Sinclair squeezed aze earnest "But can we leave it there for just this weekend? Let’s enjoy tonight and to to slon after this, and we’ve got all fall and winter to talk about it"

My stomach did a flip-flop Hehaul, which both delighted and, yeah, terrifiedthumbs rubbed the backs of my hands "I promise"

"Okay" I took a deep breath "Did you happen to pack a toothbrush along with a change of clothes?"

"Maybe" Sinclair slanced out toward the darkening street "Well, I’d hate to think of you biking down the highway at night"

"Oh, I’ve got good lights on o to any worry on that account, girl"

"Fine" I withdrew my hands from his and folded them on the table "Would you like to corinned "Love to"

After finishing dessert and paying the tab, we strolled slowly back to the apartside me There were a lot of people out, and nized Sinclair fro because we looked like a young, happy, attractive couple having a fun night out on the town And okay, maybe ere too old to do the hands-in-each-other’s-back-pockets thing, but I have to adot what it felt like to be one of the cool couples<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>