Chapter 30
Kate
“Atoast.”Jaxonholds up his wineglass and waits for me to do the same. The heat in his gaze burns brighter than the flickering candle reflecting off my glass as I raise mine.
“To us.” He smiles genuinely—a far cry from the scowl I was first graced with when we met.
I pinch my thigh under the table where the hem of my dress meets my bare thigh. My sisters all but fainted when Jaxon and I dropped Andy off at their house and she took in my outfit.
“I am shooketh,” my sister mocked with her hand over her chest. “I never thought I would see the day where Kate Lawson willingly wore a dress like that.” Her hand left her chest and moved up and down as she appraised my outfit.
I wanted to dress nicer than usual tonight, with it being a special occasion of sorts—our first date, just the two of us. After pulling out half of my closet in search of the perfect dress, I settled on a black lace-top long-sleeved skater dress and black suede peep-toe booties.
“I wear dresses,” I retorted. “I wore a dress to the holiday party, and Kyler’s wedding, and hey, your wedding for that matter.”
Lauren rolled her eyes at my response. All events I mentioned were ones that required a dress. Tonight, I willingly put one on. I may or may not have worn a dress foreasy access in case Jaxon’s hands went exploring before we arrived back home—a perk of a no-kid outing.
I shoved my hands in the pockets of my dress and swayed side to side. “Plus, there’s pockets. You know I love pockets.” We both giggled. “And, you know, sometimes people surprise you.” A wide smile spread across my lips when my eyes lifted and found Jaxon staring at me from his conversation with Finn and Andy on the other side of the room.
Lauren clicked her tongue as she followed my line of sight. She stepped up closer to me. “Have you told him yet?”
My smile faltered, and I turned my head to her, not that Jaxon could read my lips or hear the conversation. “I don’t even know how to bring something like that up. What, over appetizers? ‘Oh hey, by the way, I know we only just started dating, but I—’”
“Ready to go?” Jaxon interrupted and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
I nodded. Lauren pulled me in for a hug goodbye and whispered, “Just tell him. It’ll be okay. I promise.” Easy for her to fucking say. It wasn’t her life ready to implode.
“Hey, you okay?” Jaxon places his hand on top of mine.
I shake off the thoughts. “Sorry.” I give him a smile and my full attention. “To us,” I repeat and clink my glass with his. When I take a sip of the red liquid, the balance of sweet, sour, and bitter flavors explodes on my taste buds, and I can’t help the moan that slips from my lips as I pull the glass away from my lips. When I open my eyes, there’s a darkness in his eyes that tells me my moan wasn’t as soft as I thought. I feel my cheeks flush under the heat of his stare.
He adjusts our hands so our fingers now interlock. “I’m thankful that Finn and Lauren agreed to babysit Andy tonight so I could take my girl out and spoil her.”
I snicker. “Oh please. That boy has my brother-in-law and sister wrapped around his little fingers. I’m sure it wasn’t that hard to convince them.” We both know damn well they’re not the only ones wrapped around his fingers. I pull my hand from his grasp and prop both elbows on the table, resting my chin on my hands. I’m thankful for the smaller size of the table so that I can cross my legs underneath it, caressing his leg with my foot. “But feel free to elaborate on the whole spoiling your girl thing,” I say in a flirtatious tone.
“Behave,” he growls.
“You started it.” I hide my smile behind my wineglass, and I take a quick sip, never breaking our eye contact.
A throat clearing beside us breaks the trance between us. “Are you two ready to order?”
“Yes, I believe we are,” Jaxon says, as if he wasn’t just giving me a look that told me he wasn’t thinking about climbing under the table and eating his dessert first. Once we place our orders and the waiter leaves us, Jaxon leans forward on his forearms.
“So, a funny thing happened today in the car with Andy.” He pauses. “He asked if you were my wife.”
I choke on air, thankful that I hadn’t chosen that moment to take another sip. Otherwise, I would have painted the area with red wine.
“Umm, what did you say to that?” I observe his body language to see how he reacted, but he gives nothing away. My leg bounces under the table in anticipation.
“Well, I told him no, but then he asked what you were.”
“And what exactly am I?” I ask, just above a whisper.
“One thing’s for sure—no matter what we call this, I can only think of one word to describe you.” He leans closer, closing the distance between us.
“Which is?” I place my elbows on the table and push up the remainder of the distance.
“Mine.”
“Yours,” I repeat against his lips before pressing mine to his. Ilove the sound of that.
“You need to try this,” I say, stabbing a bite of food with my fork and holding it in front of him. He presses up from his chair and leans forward to capture the bite.
“Mmm, that is delicious,” he says mid-bite. I was torn between the filet with the peppercorn cream sauce and the Tuscan sausage pasta. Nine times out of ten, if pasta is on the menu, I’m ordering it. Give me carbs or give me death. I’ve never tasted anything more heavenly between my lips before. Italian sausage, baby spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil all nestled into the most amazing garlic cream sauce.
“Aren’t you going to let me try yours?” My eyes dip down to the half-eaten filet on his plate.
Jaxon laughs and shakes his head. “Nope, I’m not sharing. This is too damn good.”
I gasp in shock. “You’re such a dick.”