I totally should kiss him tonight, I decided as I took a sip of my wine.
Candlelight flickered off Grady’s face as he picked up his glass of wine. “What are your plans for Thanksgiving?”
“I’m heading home to visit my family on Wednesday. Our offices close Tuesday evening and don’t reopen until the following Monday,” I explained, kind of shocked that Thanksgiving was next week. Holy crap, where had the time gone?
“That’s nice. You staying up there the whole time?”
I nodded as I chewed on a piece of tender steak. “I don’t visit my family as often as I should, so I’m going to spend the time off with them.” Which meant capturing Rhage and shoving him in the kitty carrier, which was as pleasant as plucking hair off my lady parts with rusty pliers.
“You doing any Black Friday shopping?”
I laughed. “No. My mom is the kind of woman who doesn’t even go to sleep Thursday night. She gets herself hocked up on caffeine and then goes and buys, well, mostly stuff for herself. I mean, she gets everyone gifts too, but I know half of those bags she’ll be bringing home are for herself.” I started to smile at the memory of Mom yelling at Dad to get the bags out of the car while I stood on the porch, trying to see if there were any Barnes and Noble bags.
Turning my cheek to hide the smile, I immediately thought of what Brock had said that night in his car. He hadn’t wanted me to hide my smile, but he really didn’t understand. Maybe Grady would, but six years of habit were hard to break. I bit back a sigh. My gaze flickered back to Grady, but stopped on the hostess desk.
There was a man standing there, his back to where we sat. He was tall and broad shouldered, and there was something about the way he stood that caused my stomach to dip like I was on a rollercoaster, about to drop down a steep hill.
My eyes narrowed as Grady talked about raising sheep or milking cows or something. The man at the desk . . . There was something so familiar—
No. No way in hell.
I felt my heart stop as the hostess approached the waiting area, her eyes all big and doe-eyed, and the man turned sideways. I saw the profile, and about fell out of my chair.
It was Brock.
It was really Brock.
“Oh my fucking God,” I whispered.
Grady’s chin jerked up, but I barely saw him. “Excuse me?”
I didn’t normally take the Lord’s name in vain, but I had a feeling Jesus and Moses and Mary and everyone at this point totally understood my response.
What was he doing here? Had I mentioned where I was having dinner with Grady? Possibly? I mean, I could’ve in random conversation. I had to have, because I couldn’t picture Brock being that much of a stalker, because that was like leveling up in the stalker arena.
“Jillian?”
Blinking, I focused on Grady as my heart felt like it was trying to crawl its way out of my throat. “I’m sorry?”
He frowned as he leaned forward. “Are you okay?”
Clearing my throat, I nodded as I hoped and prayed Brock didn’t see us. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I just, um, remembered something I needed to do for work.”
A small smile played over his lips. “Sounds like it was important.”
I glanced over his shoulders, spying Brock talking to the hostess. “Yeah. It’s really important.”
“Hopefully it’s not another work dinner you’ve forgotten about.”
Had I? Because that was most definitely Brock and he was by himself—oh my God, was he turning this way? I almost wanted to dive under the table, but that would be weird, so I hastily looked down at my plate, upping my prayers that he wasn’t coming to the table. That there was no way Brock would be—
I peeked up through my lashes and saw his dark head over the high walls separating the tables, getting closer and closer, and I knew deep in my very core that Brock was coming to this table.
Chapter 19
Like a toddler, I was of the mindset that if I wasn’t looking at Brock, he couldn’t see us. Like he wasn’t truly there, so I fixed my gaze on my nearly empty plate, and prayed I was having hallucinations.
“Well, hello,” came the smooth, deep voice that never failed to slip over my skin like heated silk. “What a surprise.”
God. Damn. It.
I lifted my gaze at the same time Grady did, and I saw surprise flicker across his handsome face as he caught sight of Brock towering over our table.
“Hi?” I forced out.
Brock’s full lips slipped into a half-smile as he looked down at Grady. “We meet again.”
“Yeah. We do.” Grady was nodding as he glanced between us. “This is a surprise.”
“I know.” Brock’s dark eyes glimmered. “Such a coincidence.”
My eyes narrowed as I picked up my wine glass. A coincidence, my rosy red ass. “So, what . . . what are you doing here, Brock?”
“Oh, I was just in the area and thought I’d swing by and grab something to eat.”
“By yourself?” I asked, because this wasn’t the type of restaurant you wandered into by yourself. So what in the world was he up to?
“I do a lot of things by myself, Jillian.” His amused gaze centered on me.
I widened my eyes at that and took a healthy gulp of my wine, because my mind really took that to a place that was really inappropriate since I was on a date with another man. I suddenly heard his heated words in my ear. I got you. And that made me think of his hand slipping between my legs . . .
Grady cleared his throat. “So, do you come here often?”
“Actually, I was here not too long ago.” He was still staring at me, his lips curved into a rather delighted smirk. “Remember? Our dinner date?”