Page 43 of Crossing Paths
Her sisters were both grinning at her. Cara opened her mouth to say something, and Norah braced herself for the teasing comment that was coming. Cara had been channeling her twin’s sense of humor lately. Luckily, their server, Taren, arrived at their table just in time.
“The usual?” she asked, taking them in. The three of them nodded as Taren scribbled on her order pad, her bejeweled nails catching the late afternoon sunlight. Looking at Dash, she sighed. “You wantmore?”
The last word had a disbelieving edge, making Norah glance at him with a raised brow. How much had he already eaten to faze the typically unflappable Taren?
Dash gave a short shake of his head. “Coffee. Thanks.”
With a nod, Taren hurried off, and Norah tried to put her menu back in the most inconspicuous way possible. When her sisters started laughing, she sighed. She should’ve known they would notice. Wanting the attention off her, she turned to Dash. “So how much have you eaten?”
“A couple burgers.”
That didn’t seem like much. He was a huge guy who worked out all the time.
“Fries.”
Still, that wasn’t an unreasonable amount of food.
“A few milkshakes.”
Okay, the milkshakes were enormous. How had he managed to finisha few?
“Onion rings.”
Norah just blinked at him.
“A salad.”
She didn’t even know they offered salad, and she’d just been burning holes in the menu with her eyeballs.
“Flatbread pizza.”
He had to be messing with her. She studied his deadpan expression, wishing she knew his tell for when he was joking. The problem was he’d have to joke for her to notice it, and that was very, very rare so far.
“Pie.”
Now things were getting ridiculous. “A whole pie?”
“No, a slice.”
That was at least a little more reasonable.
“A few slices.”
From the snorts and chortles coming from across the table, Molly and Cara thought this was hilarious, but Norah couldn’t stop staring at Dash.
“And a cupcake. Forgot about that. It was small.” He reached up and rubbed his cheek. The movement was seemingly casual, but Norah saw the slightest crinkle at the corners of his eyes and knew he was hiding a smile behind his hand.
“You’re just messing with me.” She was almost disappointed. Consuming that amount of food would’ve been an impressive feat.
“No, I ate all that.” Dropping his hand, he let her see hissmile. “The look on your face is entertaining.”
She was back to staring at him with a sort of disgusted awe. “How are you still alive? Shouldn’t you be having a heart attack right now?”
Lifting his shoulder in a shrug, he said, “I’ll burn it all off tomorrow.”
“That’s true.” The thought of him working out at the gym made her gaze drift to his bowling-ball-size biceps, but she caught herself mid-gawk and abruptly turned to face her sisters. They were both grinning knowingly at her. Although she felt her cheeks grow warm for what felt like the thousandth time just that day, Norah managed to not drop her gaze. “Should we…um…discuss…” She trailed off as everything—Leifsen, Chloe, Zach Fridley, Mr. P, Detective Mill—churned around in her thoughts. With all that was happening, she didn’t know where to start. Finally, she just spread her hands and went with “Everything?”
“First off, let’s go over what happened with Detective Mill.”
