Page 16 of Can't Always Get What You Want

I groan, burying my face in my hands. “I hate him.”

“Nah,” Luca says, nudging my knee under the bar. “You love him. He’s just being a classic overprotective big brother.”

I drop my hands, glaring. “There’s protective—and then there’spsychotic.Doyou think I need my brother protecting me from the big, bad hockey players?”

“No.” He chuckles, something flickers in his expression. “I think he’s just looking out for you. Doesn’t mean you need him to…” He lifts a shoulder. “Can’t really say I blame him.”

Luca is not laughing at my brother’s expense or trying to worm his way around Gio’s rules.

He’s acknowledging them.

And I don’t know why that makes something warm settle low in my stomach, but it does.

I clear my throat, suddenly needing something to do with my hands. I reach for our drink, swirling the straw before taking a sip, forcing myself to focus on the ridiculous giraffe-themed cup instead of the way Luca is watching me.

The second stretches too long, tension humming between us like a live wire, until, mercifully, Ranger Mike reappears, setting the dino nuggets on the bar top, along with cutlery.

“Still doing okay over here? Drink still treating you right?”

I nod. “Absolutely. The Giraffe Guzzle is everything I dreamed it would be.”

Luca snorts, snagging a nugget from the plate and dunking itin ranch. I grab my own, dragging it through an absurd amount of ketchup before popping it into my mouth.

Luca eyes my sauce-to-nugget ratio with open judgment. “You okay there? Want a little nugget with your ketchup?”

“So good.” I chew pointedly, licking a drop from my thumb.

“This is the dumbest date I’ve ever been on.” He says it so seriously, so matter-of-fact, that I almost choke on my nugget.

“Excuse me?” I place a hand over my chest, feigning deep offense. “You begged me to be here.”

He raises an eyebrow, dipping his next nugget in ranch. “Weird. I don’t recallbegging...”

I smirk, tilting my head. “Do the words one hour, one drink ring a bell?”

Luca shakes his head, feigning confusion. “Nope.”

I roll my eyes. “Gee. How convenient.”

He grins. Then—without missing a beat—leans in slightly, resting his forearms on the bar. “What happens if we go over time?”

…and just like that, my heart stumbles…

Not the way his eyes stay locked on mine, steady and aware. Not the fact that, for the first time all night, the teasing feels like it’s walking a dangerously thin line into something else entirely.

I reach for our drink, needing something to do, but Luca doesn’t look away.

“Depends,” I say, keeping my tone light. “Are you hoping for extra time with me?”

Luca taps his fingers against the glass, considering. “I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

Obviously he wouldn’t.

He’s the one who wanted this date in the first place.

A warmth that has nothing to do with the neon glow of our drink spreads through my chest and everything to do with the way he’s watching me, his fingers absently tracing the condensation on our glass.

I swallow nervously, taking one of the dino nuggets andplopping it into the ketchup, biting off half of it to avoid his intense stare.

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