Page 57 of Late to Love

“Don’t thank me,” he commands.

“I’m going to anyway.”

“Brat.”

I smile. “Maybe you can punish me later.”

His eyes darken, making my heart race even faster. “Count on it.”

He tips my chin up and leans down to kiss me, and I don’t hesitate. A moment later, he pulls away, a satisfied smirk on his face.

“You do that a lot more now, you know.”

Instantly, the smirk is replaced with a frown. “Do what?”

I hip-check him, then back away from him while grinning like a fool. “Smile.”

“I don’t smile,” he grumbles.

“Yeah, that’s a lie,” I shoot back, still backing away slowly. “Because the left side of your mouth will twitchjusta bit, and that’s your version of an amused smile. But that smirk you just gave me? That’s your happy smile.”

His frown deepens. “Is not.” But I can see him fighting a bigger smile even as he says it.

“Sure thing, Mr. Hall,” I say, then twirl around to my car.

He doesn’t say a thing, but when I glance back for a quick peek, he’s still watching me, one hand scratching at his beard absent-mindedly.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he might actually like me.

I swat the thought away, unwilling to let myself get lost in the fantasy. Whatever we’re doing, it’s temporary. How else could it be anything but that?

Chill out, Darcy, I admonish myself. It’s not even been two weeks. I need to relax and let it just...be.

Even though that’s so far beyond my style it’s not even funny, and we all know it.

Back at my shop, I get back to the pool table. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen as far as pool tables go, but to be fair, I spent precious little time looking at my competition. I watched a shitload of YouTube videos, that’s for damn sure. But once I knew what I was doing, I was off and running.

Agatha appears an hour later, a glass of iced tea in her hand.

I take it with a grateful smile and put half of it away in one go. “Delicious. Thank you.”

She nods and looks at the table. “It’s beautiful. Who’s it for?”

“Anthony.” It’s hard not to mumble the name, which is stupid. But suddenly I feel like a little girl with the cool older teenage sister. Which might be weird but given what I’ve surmised from the few stories Agatha’s started to drop, I think she was pretty amazing back in the day.

And the way she’s appraising me right now tells me she has a good feeling about what’s going on. “Anthony Hall, huh?”

I squirm. “Yeah.”

She gives a decisive nod. “Good. I like him for you. Way better than Chad, if I’m being honest.”

I snort. “I was never going on a date with Chad, Agatha.”

She lifts a dainty shoulder. “I promised his grandmother I’d try.”

“But you—you like Anthony? For me?”

She studies me. “Girl, I have never seen you want someone’s approval. What’s going on?”

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