Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?” His voice rose.
She kept hers even and looked him full in the eyes. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” A quiet statement punchy with withheld fury. “Now, unless you want me to call you a liar in front of everyone, you’ll shut it with that fake story.”
Ward stared at her, his mouth falling open. But he snapped it shut when she shot him another glare.
Danny was looking over with death in his eyes when she glanced his way. She shook her head slightly, her eyes communicating that she’d dealt with the situation. His own narrowed, but he settled back down.
Because Danny, unlike Ward, was the kind of macho idiot who knew Catie could deal with her own shit. Which made him not an idiot at all, she thought with a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Laveni caught her gaze from across the table, her lush lips—painted a dark berry red today—pursed as she fought a laugh.
Catie realized she’d been busted mooning over Danny. Mooning. Ugh. It had to be the sex hormones. They’d been antagonists too long for them to become friends and lovers now.
Really though? It was the annoying part of her brain that liked to poke at her sensible thoughts. He wasn’t your antagonist when you two and Jake worked together to prank Sailor and Gabe.
That had been back when she’d been sixteen, and she had to admit they’d worked well together. Yes, Jake had groaned at their constant snarking at each other, but—looking back—Catie could see that they’d only snarked because they’d found it funny to come up with ever more creative insults.
She and Danny had the same odd sense of humor.
What a strange thing to be hit by in the middle of a crowded Chinese restaurant with her sulking baby of an ex next to her and Danny deep in conversation with a smiling Veni. Ward had never once been the recipient of that huge, eye-crinkling smile. Neither had he ever managed to get Veni to dip her head toward him and share a grinning tidbit in the way of friends who got along.
Danny groaned right then, and a laughing Veni punched him in the upper arm.
Catie felt her own lips curve. Though she knew this was dangerous, she couldn’t help but be happy that her bestie liked him and he liked her bestie. The same went for her other friends. So when no one was ready to call it a night after dinner and Danny seemed amenable, she didn’t argue with the decision to pile into their cars for a quick trip to Tamaki Drive and a walk along the waterfront.
Danny slung his arm around her when they met up after parking their cars. “Yes, I’m deliberately doing this to annoy Ward.”
“Some women would find that insulting,” she said, slipping her own arm around his waist. “Good thing I’m not one of those women.”
“Guess we’re both shit-stirrers.” He grinned.
She grinned back, and they walked on behind the others. Danny reminded her about his upcoming birthday dinner, she teased him by saying she’d gotten him socks, and he laughed, a beautiful man against the night.
When they reached the stretch of restaurants in Mission Bay, the area a buzz of pretty lights and conversation, Veni and a couple of others decided to get ice cream from the busy specialty shop on the corner, then they walked back. It was halfway during that walk that she figured out what Danny was doing.
His hand had slipped to her hip at some point, and every so often, it’d tighten a fraction, then release. She hadn’t noticed earlier because it was so subtle, but now that she was paying attention, she realized he did it every time she hit an uneven patch of footpath.
Giving her a little extra stability.
Her hackles threatened to rise—until she snapped her gaze toward him after another such incident and found him looking out across the water, his attention on the glittering reflection of the city’s skyline. “I always forget how good the CBD looks from here,” he murmured. “Makes me consider moving out here, but then I remember the traffic and nope out.”
“Yeah,” she managed to get out past a rough throat.
He wasn’t doing it on purpose, she realized, didn’t even seem to know he was doing it. She didn’t know how to feel about that. As she’d thought at the restaurant, Danny had full confidence in her strength. That thing he was doing, it was cutely protective in the way a good boyfriend might be about his girlfriend. Grabbing her hand if she stumbled or helping her scramble over rocks.
Catie was annoyed by any such thing… but now that she was past her knee-jerk response, she found she wasn’t annoyed by Danny’s unconscious gesture. She needed to think on that. Before she could, Danny stopped, turned to her… and kissed her.