Page 71 of Party Favors

“Me too! I love breakfast for dinner.”

Some part of me thought he was saying it to be nice, but I heard the sincerity. Another thing we had in common.

They seemed to be piling up.

The waitress returned, asking if we knew what we wanted. I ordered the chocolate chip pancake platter and Max asked for the protein breakfast—scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage.

“I’ll get that right out for you,” she said, taking our menus, and I nearly asked for mine back.

Because Max was looking at me with that intense gaze of his, the one that made me feel like he could see into my soul, and it made me shift in my seat. I liked him. I felt safe with him.

But he also caused these inexplicable feelings of uneasiness and discomfort. In a good way.

I didn’t know how to explain it.

“What are you working on currently?” I asked him, desperate to fill the silence between us.

He explained how his organization was in the process of trying to acquire a building that they could fix up to provide housing for the women in his program who were obtaining their degrees. He said that they were having a hard time finding donors to help cover the cost.

I internally sighed. He was so selfless and kind and I hadn’t ever met anyone else who had devoted their entire life to serving others. I never would have guessed that altruism could be this sexy.

“It’s just difficult to line up donors in general,” he said with a grimace.

How could anyone ever tell Max no? I would have guessed that he could have just walked into a roomful of rich people and they would have had their checkbooks out before he even opened his mouth.

He said, “We need a lot of supplies for our first-time mother program and we’ve been struggling.”

It suddenly occurred to me that I was supposed to have told him about my upcoming plans. “I know it’s not going to be a lot, but I’m going to use Sunny’s baby shower to help you stock up.”

“You are?”

I explained to him my idea for the shower to be a charity event with all of the gifts and prizes going to him and how excited Sunny was about it.

He had gone still while I talked, and I worried that I might have somehow inadvertently offended him. I hoped he didn’t think I was implying he couldn’t do his job.

“So we’ll just need to coordinate how to get everything over to you,” I finished up, feeling a bit foolish. Maybe I should have asked his permission?

But he reached across the table and enveloped my hands with his own. Would this ever not feel amazing? Could it become commonplace?

“Thank you,” he said, and I was surprised at the emotion in his voice. “How are you like this?”

“Like what?” I asked.

The waitress returned with our food and Max let go of my hands so that she could put our plates down.

He thanked her, but all I could think about was what he’d just said. He’d obviously meant it in a good way, but I needed more information.

An explanation, even if things didn’t end up the way I hoped they might. But before I even skirted the subject of whether or not he and I might be something more, there was something I needed to know first.

When the waitress left, Max picked up his fork and the words fell out of me.

“Why did you tell Sunny that I was down-to-earth and simple?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Did that upset you?” Max asked, sounding confused.

“Uh, yes.” Might as well be honest about it. That phrase had been stuck in my head for a while now. “You think I’m boring and plain.”

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