Page 23 of Night and Day
Chapter 11
“Can we go to the shop first?” Mia asked, buckling the seatbelt and pulling her knees to her chest.
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” Izzy eyed her, a hint of concern crossing his face. “We can skip the music and... stars. We don’t have to. What Deke said, I—”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind him. He’s funny.”
“You like funny?” A flicker of a smile.
Mia considered the question. Based on her choice of dating Mikko, the answer was no. How had she ended up with such a serious guy? “I haven’t laughed like that in ages,” she admitted. “Like I’d forgotten how to be silly. But here, it feels easier. Must be some kind of New Zealand magic.” A shy smile broke out as she thought of herself pirouetting in his kitchen.
“Believe it or not, that was the first time I’ve seen Deke dancing. Maybe you’re the funny one – the wild one who gets everyone riled up.” Izzy shot her a meaningful look and started the engine, steering them onto the dark, quiet suburban road.
“Ha-ha.” Her, the wild one? Yeah, right.
“No, seriously. I was close to joining you guys. My foot started tapping to the music. I had to hide it under the table. Two more minutes and I would have been doing some kind of godawful river dance to salsa music.”
Mia laughed. “Surely you can do the basic white man dance of shifting your weight from one leg to the other? Could it really be worse than Deke?”
Izzy widened his eyes. “Oh, yes. Deke’s shameless. Whatever he does, he’s owning it. I’d be doing the white man weight shifting and looking like I’d rather be dead. Nothing worse than that.”
“I’d love to see it,” Mia teased. “I’d join you, I promise, and shift my weight in sync with you and look more uncomfortable.”
Izzy shook his head. “Sorry, that’s not possible. I’m the king of awkward social situations, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Mia blushed. He must have been talking about his family’s visit. The intervention. Could she let him know how much she’d heard? Mia opened her mouth and quickly closed it again, lost in his beautiful profile, painted by the passing streetlights. His dark eyes caught the bright lights, reflecting them back like two stars in the night sky. With the chocolate brown tangle of curls and the never-ending beard, he should have been an absolute caveman. But no. He was still gorgeous. He couldn’t hide it.
They stopped at traffic lights and Izzy turned to her, catching her staring. His gaze lingered on her, dipping to her lips, sending shivers down her spine. Mia broke the eye contact, scared her face would betray her thoughts.
“You’re not that awkward,” she mused, casting a sideways glance at him.
He could joke all he wanted, but he had a quiet strength about him she couldn’t ignore, a presence that sucked the air out of her lungs. There was nothing awkward about him, not in the way she was used to. “I’ve been around so much awkward I measure with a different yardstick. You should see Mikko talking to the media. That’s awkward. Make him speak in English and he sounds more robotic than A.I.!” Mia tried to laugh, but the way Izzy tensed made her swallow the sound.
“Mikko?” The way he pronounced the name made it sound like Ikea furniture. “Does he talk to the media a lot?”
Mia squirmed in her seat, staring at the traffic lights that seemed to take forever to change. Why had she brought up Mikko? She didn’t want to think about the guy, not now. “He tries to avoid it,” she explained. “That’s why he wants me to come back and work for him, do it for him.”
“But you’re not sure?”
Izzy’s knuckles tightened around the steering wheel. The light changed and he surged forward, accelerating to join the motorway. His whole body seemed like it worked hard to restrain something more volatile and explosive that lurked underneath. It both scared and attracted her.
