Page 39 of Love In Hiding

He pushed his plate in front of him, but London kept chomping at her fries until they were gone. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out where she had put it.

The bill came and he laid his card on the table. He knew she was itching to reach for it. But why? It was a business expense for West.

“Are you going to be with me or Paris on every trip for the foreseeable future?”

“I don’t know that any more than you. If I were to take a guess, this was to get both of our feet wet, and because your cousins are also aware of your... personality.”

“And that I could turn some people off here?”

“You said it, not me. But it’s also about us learning on the fly. Not just you and me but Braylon and West too. You’ve got another one scheduled in a few weeks.”

“I saw that. In Florida. Both Paris and I will be there for that one. Do you need to go and hold our hands?”

He let out a low chuckle. “I haven’t been told yet. I’m sure I’ll find out when I get back.”

When his card was returned, he pushed back to leave. When she stood next to him, someone came walking through and brushed into her side, pushing her off balance, his hands reaching to steady her.

The heat that hit his body with the contact of her back into his groin and chest might have been enough to ignite the building.

And the way her face was blushing when she turned to thank him said he wasn’t alone in those thoughts.

He guided her out of the pub and to the street. It was almost seven, the sun was still bright and there were plenty of people walking around on the main street of the small town.

“Shorts,” she said. “I need to find shorts. Maybe stretchy ones after that meal.”

“I don’t see any clothing stores around here,” he said. “Let’s check out the general store and see if they’ve got anything. Or at least ask if they can point us somewhere else.”

They crossed the street, moved a few buildings downand went in. In the back corner there were some T-shirts with a lobster on them. Then some shorts with the same. Cheap and silly, but they’d do the trick.

He grabbed a large for him. London was pushing through. “I can’t believe this is all they’ve got.”

“Or you can ask,” he said. “These will work for me.”

No way he was wearing a shirt. The damn shorts were going to be bad enough. Were they soft and would move easily in the sheets? Nope, but it’s not like he thought he’d get much sleep anyway.

He moved to the register with London. “Hi. Do you know if there are any clothing stores close by? I’m just looking for shorts I can sleep in. Or athletic shorts.”

“If you go out the front and turn right, about thirty minutes down the road you’ll come to a boutique. Not sure if they have what you are looking for, but it’s the only place other than Walmart. That’s about an hour away.”

“I’m not driving an hour for shorts to sleep in,” he said.

“No,” she said, sighing and walking back to grab the same ones he had. They were going to look ridiculous tonight.

He reached his hand for her to hand them over and she pulled her card out before he could pay. “My peace offering for being so hard to handle today.”

He didn’t argue over twenty dollar shorts. It wasn’t worth it.

When they got outside, he turned and said, “You’re not hard to handle. Or not anything I can’t handle.”

She held his stare long enough that a car beeped its horn for them to walk since they had the right of way.

“I don’t like men handling me.”

“I don’t like having to handle a woman, so nothing to worry about there.”

“We aren’t talking about work,” she said.

“I’m talking about life in general and work falls into it. Despite what you might think, I’m not a controlling person.”