Bullshit.
She liked virtually everything about him. Lauren gulped air. Her heart raced. “You don’t know anything about me . . . who I really am. I’m not all fun and games.”
His jaw flexed, and a small muscle popped in his jaw, back by his ears, as he fought a smile. “Now, that surprises me.”
Heat rushed through her. Heat and a funny, dizzying wash of hope. “I’ve had a lot of things happen . . . things that aren’t nice and pretty.”
“No one gets through life unscathed.”
His deep voice shivered through her, low and male and sexy, making her insides jump and quiver and her skin tingle to life.
If he’d had a less appealing voice, maybe she could do a better job ignoring him . . .
Resisting him . . .
Chris’s blue gaze met hers, held, holding so long that she forgot to breathe and her head became light.
“What?” he asked quietly. “What do you want to know? Ask. I’ll tell you.”
Her eyes searched his face. Strong cheekbones, a broad brow, thick jaw, square chin. A masculine face, but also open. “Boone said you were with your girlfriend for three years and it ended a couple of months ago.”
“Yes.”
“He also said she’d like to get back together.”
“Sounds like Boone’s doing a lot of talking.”
She shrugged. “Tell me about her.”
“She’s . . . beautiful. A model.” He ignored Lauren’s arched eyebrows. “And ambitious. But Holly works hard, and deserves every good thing that comes her way.”
Holly was her name . . .
A girlfriend named Holly.
“Are you still in love with her?” Lauren asked, feeling a squeeze in her chest. Why she’d feel anything was beyond her. She didn’t like Chris . . . did she?
“No. Not like I did. I mean, I’ll always care about her. But we’re done. I’m done. Have no desire to get tangled up with her again.”
“Things ended badly?”
“We had one of those hot and cold relationships, where it was either really good or bad, and after years of breaking up, getting back together, I just had enough. Not going to do it anymore. And I’m not blaming her. Might have been me.”
The entire restaurant might as well have shrunk and disappeared. Lauren could see only Chris. “Why would it be you?” she whispered.
His blue eyes held hers, burning her, burning into her. “Because I started out wanting one thing but then realized I needed something else.”
“What was that?”
“Need a best friend, not arm candy.”
For a moment there was just silence. Lauren exhaled slowly, dizzy, dazed. Her heart was thumping and a lump the size of her fist filled her throat, making her want to cry.
At that moment she felt completely undone and she didn’t even know why.
“Today,” Chris said quietly, breaking the silence.
She looked at him blankly.
“Today, after the game. You and me,” he added. “It’s a one o’clock game, it’ll be over early, you won’t even be out late.”
She swallowed hard and stared at him, lost, thinking she was already lost.
“Unless . . .” His lashes dropped as his gaze rested on her mouth, making her lips tingle and her skin feel far too sensitive.
“Yes?”
“You’d like to come to the game. Watch me play. Then go have dinner with me.”
She didn’t want to.
Not true.
She did.
But she had to work through this crazy Father’s Day rush at the café, and then, once things had calmed down, she’d been toying with the idea of heading home to surprise her dad. It was Father’s Day after all. She’d told her mom she’d try to come home if she could pull it off, but Mom wasn’t to tell Dad in case Lauren couldn’t. Lisa, the optimist, had made a dinner reservation for the five of them at six.
“I’ve got to work until fairly late this afternoon, so I’ll miss the game. I’m sorry.”
“And dinner?” Chris’s blue gaze held hers, steady, so steady and calm.
He had nerves of steel, she thought. And that crazy confidence. She still didn’t know quite what to think of him, but she wanted to know more. Was ready to learn more.
“I have to go home tonight. It’s Father’s Day.”
“Where’s home?”
“Napa.”
“Nice.”
She looked closely into his eyes, not sure what she was looking for. “Want to go with me after the game?”
If she’d surprised him, Chris didn’t show it. He nodded once, decisively. “I’d like that. But the game could go extra innings.”
“So we’ll drive up whenever you’re done.”