She looks down at the table and runs her fingertip along the groove. I’ve already gotten familiar with the face she pulls when she’s thinking something over, and she’s wearing that look right now.
She lifts her head, looking at me intently. “I don’t want to be the one responsible for spoiling that nice face of yours, so … okay, you can come.”
“You think I have a nice face?” I tilt my head to the side, grinning.
Of course, I caught that. And of course I want to know the answer. Mia is the only woman I’ve ever had to question as to whether she finds me attractive or not.
She’s so hard to read that it’s impossible to tell what she’s thinking most of the time.
It’s fucking with my head, to say the least.
Her face has gone as red as I expected it would. I’ve never met a girl as shy as she is.
I’ve never met a girl like her, period. She’s so different. Unassuming of anything, mainly herself. She has no clue just how fucking awesome she actually is, but I want her to know. I just wish I knew how to tell her.
“Uh, um, well…” She runs her fingers through her hair, and keeps her eyes fixed on the coffee in front of her. “You have a nice face. You know, as faces go.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I smile. But what I actually feel like doing is breaking into a fucking dance. “You have a nice face too, Mia. Really nice.”
I hear her quick intake of breath, and I notice the flush on her chest. She’s affected by me.
A-fuckin-men!
“Thank you,” she says quietly, biting down on a smile.
“You have a serious problem with that.”
“What?” Her eyes flick up to mine, the warmth instantly dying.
I hold off the frown I feel knowing why she reacts like she does – suspicious of what I say and do. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it. What that asshole has done to her, how he has broken her confidence … and I don’t even know the half of it. I’m just praying that the black-eye was the whole of it and nothing more.
“Saying thank you. You say it all the time,” I tell her.
“Oh. Good manners … they were drummed into me.” The light heartedness in her voice doesn’t match the look in her eyes.
If I hadn’t been watching closely, I would have missed how her eyes dimmed, but I didn’t, and now it’s stirred an uncomfortable feeling in my gut.
There is more—more than the black-eye from the douchebag ex of hers. And now I’m fucking fuming.
I want to know the rest … need to know so I can help her. But I can’t ask her outright, I don’t want to upset her like I did before, so I’ll just have to wait until she’s ready to tell me.
If ever.
“You don’t need to use good manners around me.” I lighten my voice, trying to bring her back from wherever she’s gone. “If you haven’t noticed, I don’t have any.”
She gives a half-smile. “I don’t know, you seem to be pretty well mannered around me.”
I raise my eyebrow. “I cuss. A fuck of a lot.”
She laughs. The sound eases through me.
“You do cuss a lot, but I find it refreshing.”
“My cussing is refreshing? There’s a new one. You’ll have to tell my dad because I’m pretty sure he’d disagree. Apparently, cussing in front of guests is a big no-no,” I say with mock-confusion, lifting my shoulders in a shrug.
I don’t know what it is that sets her off, but she throws her head back and starts to laugh. A real honest to god belly laugh. And it’s just such an awesome, beautiful sound that I can’t help but laugh too.
Clutching her stomach with her hand, she attempts to catch her breath. She sweeps her bangs back.
Her blue eyes are glistening.
She looks like poetry. Like the sky on a hot summers day. Like the ace in the hand I need to win.
Okay, I’m guessing you get the picture.
She looks beautiful.
“You’re funny.” She smiles. “You make me laugh.”
Hold up. Clarification needed. I don’t mind being the class clown, but not the village fucking idiot.
“Funny ha-ha, or funny peculiar?”
She leans forward, elbows on table, chin in hands as she purses her lips. I feel like I’m being appraised. I can’t say a woman has ever looked at me this way before. Or left me hanging on a question. I feel a bit rattled, to be honest.
“Funny ha-ha,” she finally says.
Well, thank fuck for that.
“You’re quick, straightforward, and you don’t mess around. It’s refreshing.”
“Now, if I didn’t know better, I think you were calling me common…” I tease.