Page 6 of A Cowboy's Claim
But if he didn’t say something now, when? Life didn’t come with guarantees—and the look in Sydney’s eyes this morning said she’d noticed the shift too.
So he met her on the bottom step and caught her fingers in his to keep her from blowing past. “We could go out. Just us. Not secret. Not by accident. A real date.”
2
Holy hell.
Sydney blinked. Declan was actually standing there, his hand wrapped around hers, eyes brimming with something dangerous?—
Hope? Hunger?
All that popped to mind was, “What?”
As far as responses went, it was the worst. It didn’t even buy her time to get her head screwed on straight.
Declan cleared his throat then tilted his head toward his truck. “I’d like to take you to dinner. We can go somewhere casual—and there’s no problem with us not being at the table. The guys will demolish every ounce of pasta Aiden cooked without any trouble.”
Dinner with Declan. A date, official-like.
Temptation wrapped in a six-foot-three package.
If her grandpa hadn’t picked today to drop in, she might’ve landed at the restaurant before it even sank in what a terrible idea it was. Terrible, but wonderful. She wanted so, so badly to take hold of his hand as well and tramp down the stairs toward…something new.
Instead, she stiffened her spine. “That’s not our arrangement,” she said softly.
He met her gaze evenly. “Sometimes arrangements change.”
This was going from bad to worse, because while his suggestion came out of the blue, it wasn’t something she hadn’t daydreamed about. Especially with her best friends hooking up and falling in love.
She was brilliant, yes—but not a romantic at heart. That soft part of her, the part that longed for fairy tales and slow dancing in the kitchen, had been hidden deep. Buried like forbidden treasure.
Sydney took the coward’s way out. “We need to go in for dinner.”
She stole her hand back and pushed past him into the house.
Shoes kicked off under the coat rack, she all but sprinted forward until she landed beside Tansy.
The blonde woman had her casted leg propped up on a chair and Jake’s son in her lap. “Hey, Sydney. Petra said you might come.”
“Free dinner? Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Sydney settled into what was normally Jinx’s seat, leaning in to wiggle her fingers at Jeffrey. “Hello, kiddo. Have a good day?”
He nodded, dark brown eyes wide in his pale face as he clung tightly to Tansy. “We went to the bookstore. Grandpa Mal said I was a hoot.”
Amusement escaped, even as her stomach tightened when Declan slipped into the house and settled at the other end of the dinner table. “Well, Grandpa Mal knows his hoots very well, so I’d take that as a compliment.”
“I assume that’s some kind of poke at me,” Tansy offered with a wink. “But yes, my dad is the king of hoot-spotters.”
Jeffrey looked pleased, but didn’t give up his grip on Tansy until Jake sat to the left of Sydney. Then Jeffrey switched allegiances in a shot and settled in on his new father’s lap as if he’d known Jake his entire life.
Tansy took a deep breath and shifted her foot to the floor. “Love that kiddo, but it’s nice to be able to move around a bit more. Also to chat with you without watching my language as hard. Glad you could come tonight.”
Sydney’s reply was drowned out as Petra arrived with a tray piled high with warm garlic knots, the scent of butter and rosemary trailing behind her like a ribbon. Aiden followed with steaming bowls of pasta, meatballs, and sauce. A Caesar salad and endless supply of lemonade were added, and the entire meal was finished off with baked apple crumble and ice cream.
Through it all, Sydney chatted with Tansy and Petra. Or more like she let them chatter a million miles an hour while she nodded a lot.
She was somehow linked into Declan three chairs down the table from her. She couldn’t see him directly, didn’t talk to him.
But she was utterly aware of his presence all the same.
