Page 48 of Get Lost

“Answer me in one or two words?”

“Do I?”

She groaned softly.

Alex laughed. “I’m opening up a restaurant.” He paused, counting. “See? Five words.”

“You drive me crazy. Four words.”

“Good. I try. Three words.” Their gazes locked for a drawn-out moment, then Alex bumped his knee against hers. “You’re not going to ask about my restaurant?”

Kelsey shrugged. “Nope. But only because you want me to ask about it so badly.”

Alex watched the side of her face, studying the little spattering of faint freckles on her nose and cheeks. “Well, it’s going to be called Arroyos—”

Kelsey snorted. “Of course it is. Because you’re so full of yourself. Bet you’ll name your firstborn son Alexander, too, won’t you?”

“—in honor of myparents,” he continued, waiting for the smartass smile to fall from her face, “theArroyos.”

Kelsey closed her eyes on a long blink and Alex smirked at her discomfort. It was almost too easy to make her eat her words.

“It’ll be a Latin fusion of sorts,” he went on. “Mexican food with roots in Oaxaca, where my dad is from, and Spanish-inspired tapas dishes and flavors to represent the summers my mother spent teaching English in Spain before she met my father and they decided to have me. As you know, she settled down after that, became a stay-at-home mom, and now, even all these years later, she’s still never returned to Spain. I want her to come into my restaurant and feel that sense of home again.”

Kelsey turned more fully to face him now, searching his gaze. The seriousness in her eyes made Alex pause.

“What?” he asked.

Kelsey’s eyes narrowed, then softened around the edges, almost in defeat. “You’re serious.”

He nodded. “I am.”

She made a little huff-scoff-snort sound, then shook her head. “Of courseyou’re opening a restaurant and dedicating it to your parents.”

Alex watched the side of her face, waiting for understanding to hit him.

“I’ll never hear the end of this,” she mumbled into her lap.

Alex leaned forward then, without thinking it through. He reached up, cradled her chin in his thumb and forefinger, and turned her face toward his. “What did you just say?”

But her mouth was parted on a gasp, and her eyes were on his lips.

Alex’s heart beat fast. Did she want him to kiss her?

Should he do it?

All he had to do was lean forward. Three, maybe four inches separated them at most. Inches he wanted to eliminate.

Kelsey breathed shakily, then she licked her lips and brought her gaze to his eyes. “My mom will go nuts over this.”

“This?” Did she meanthem? Like, this thing happening between them?

Kelsey laughed awkwardly, pulling away from his hand to sip her mimosa. Only she didn’t sip it; she downed it, then quickly hit the call button. She looked at Alex again. “Is it hot in here?”

Alex flashed a wicked grin. “No, that’s just this thing between us.”

Kelsey’s smile fell. “There’s nothingbetween us, Alexander.”

He winked. “Okay, Chelsea.”

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