“That was lucky.”
I nodded. Then I touched his chest and told him, “I love this shirt. You draw really well.”
“I’m glad you like it. I’ll send it home with you at the end of the night.” He gently brushed his fingertips over my cheekbone, which made my pulse quicken. Then he tried to explain it away with, “There was an eyelash.”
Good lord, this man was absolutely intoxicating. I forgot all about being nervous, and now I just wanted to lick him.
My brother called, “If you go ahead and shut that door, I can drive off and leave you two to ogle each other in peace.”
“Right. Sorry.” I slammed the door, and he shot Lucky another look before driving off.
“Okay, I have to ask,” Lucky said, as we went inside. “How old are you? I was thinking you must be about twenty-two, but if that’s your older brother, then all bets are off.”
“Close. I’m twenty-three. What about you?”
“Tragically, I’m twenty-nine.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely a tragedy. On the bright side, you’re almost eligible for the senior discount at Denny’s.”
He clutched his heart. “You mock me in my advanced age, even after I made fake orthodonture to entertain you.”
“It was impressive.”
“Thank you, I’m quite proud of it.” He pushed a button to close the garage door behind us, then held up his creation and said, “I soldered the metal wire to a piece that fit against my teeth, but the true inspiration was using a headband for the neck strap.”
“Genius.”
“Right?” As he led me past his disassembled motorcycles, he gestured at the seating area ahead and told me, “I made us some snacks and drinks. They’re nonalcoholic, because—”
“You think I’m a total lightweight who can’t hold my liquor.”
“Yes.”
“That’s fair.”
I noticed he’d added a fuzzy blanket and some pillows to the couch, to make it cozier. His chess game with his father had been relocated to a side table, to make room for another large chess set, a few other board games, a pitcher of drinks, and a fancy charcuterie board, which was piled high with cheeses, olives, nuts, and other wonderful-looking things. It was surprising and touching that he’d gone to that much effort. At best, I would have expected him to hand me a beer and maybe dump some chips into a bowl.
We took a seat on the couch, and I pierced a perfect little cube of cheese with a toothpick as I asked, “Did you really sit around dicing cheese all day?”
He grinned at me and admitted, “It came pre-cubed in a bag. I did, however, artfully dump it out and arrange it on this tray. I also fanned out the crackers, because that’s how you make them fancy.”
“Those are legit culinary skills, as far as I’m concerned.” He poured two drinks, and as he handed me a glass, I asked, “What have we here?”
“It’s a sparkling mojito lemonade.” He tapped his glass to mine and said, “Salud,” before we both took a sip. I meant it when I told him it was delicious.
I’d never tried most of the varieties of cheeses and olives before, and I probably seemed woefully unsophisticated to him since I kept asking what everything was called. But I saw it as an opportunity to learn something new and broaden my horizons, so I didn’t really care how it made me look.
While I grazed, Lucky said, “As you can see, I got us a better chess board. The travel set is cute, but it’s a little too puny for my big mitts. While I was at it, I dug out my backgammon set, because that seemed like something you might enjoy. I also found Scrabble and Parcheesi in my storage closet. Since I have no recollection of ever owning either of them, that was puzzling.”
It was pretty obvious he was trying to take the pressure off and show me he was fine with just hanging out. If I wasn’t ready for this to turn sexual, no big deal.
It worked, too. Knowing there were no expectations helped me relax and showed me I was in charge of whatever happened tonight. That in turn was such a confidence booster that I found myself asking, “How about strip Scrabble? Is that a thing? If not, we should invent it.”
Lucky smiled at me and said, “I like that idea. Tell me, though—are you ridiculously good at this game? If so, I should just strip naked right now and save you the time and effort of crushing me in defeat.”
“I used to play it with my best friend Hal, but it’s been years. The regular version, obviously, not this strip variation I just invented.”
Okay, so the reason we’d stopped playing was that I always won and Hal got sick of losing. But that didn’t mean a victory against Lucky was guaranteed, and I was prepared to get naked too, if the game took a turn in that direction.