Page 84 of Truth, Lies, and Second Dates
“That is a lie.” He batted away the mushroom she tossed at him. “Ask her. The two of us. We sit down and we ask her.We.As in, the two of us. As in, do not rush off alone, Ava. Do not tackle this without backup. Do not—”
“O-kay! Cripes, I get it. And I’ve got to give you points for the direct approach. I like the idea of inverting a trope.”
“What?”
“Or would it be subverting? In the books, the amateur sleuths never just sit down with their suspect. They come up with all these plans to do everythingbutsit down with her, or him. They spy on them or follow them around or bug them somehow… everythingbuta sit-down.”
“What books are we talking about?”
“Ones you haven’t read, apparently. Never mind. It’s a good idea. Especially if we do it in a public place. Not a food court,” she added quickly.
Do it. Perfect opening.“Ah… Ava. About that…”
“Uh-uh.”
“… I wish to explain—pardon?”
“You don’t have to explain dick.”
“I don’t have to explain dick,” he parroted, bemused.
“You couldn’t think there. So we came somewhere you could. And, by happy coincidence, somewhere I could have you all to myself. Win-win. Case closed. Well.Thatcase, anyway.”
Do not be fooled. It’s never this easy.
Yes, but in the past the Ava Capp factor was never in play, either.
“So I’ll reach out to Becka and we’ll set up a meet. She’s probably still doing the MSP-BOS-LAX run. We could probably meet her here in the Cities in the next couple of days. Assuming she wants to even meet with us.”
“My advice is to frame it as a meeting withyou. She needn’t know I’m there until it’s time.”
“Okay. Definitely worth trying. And if she doesn’t want to get together, we can—”
“She will,” he said at once. “She will not be able to resist.”
Ava just looked at him. “Is that a fact?”
“It is.”
“So I guess that’s what we’re doing.”
“Very well.”
“This is about the time when I’d make a really clumsy innuendo like ‘so how do we kill time until then, wink-wink, nudge-nudge?’”
He laughed. “You are dazzling in your subtlety.”
“Aren’t I?” She rose, circled around the small table, came to him, rested her hands on his shoulders. Smiled down at him and—ridiculous thought—the light behind her lit up her hair like a curly halo. “I really need to kiss you right now, with your kind permission, so you’re gonna have to deal with that.”
He was already gently pulling her down, slotting her upper lip between his and gently sucking it into his mouth, encouraging her lips to part for him and then
“Oh. Yes.”
she was on his lap and wrapping both arms around him. “Oh my God,” she murmured, “I love the way you smell.”
“I love—”Every single thing about you. Even the oddities and cavalier approach to death. Especially the cavalier approach to death. Also these feelings are impossible. We only just met.“—how you taste.”
“Like steak and confidence,” she declared, and then giggled as he huffed laughter against her neck.
