Page 78 of The Last Goodbye

“I mean, you have to share, too. That’s how this whole friendship thing works.”

“I don’t have a problem with that. How long has it been for you?”

“Since I went on a date or since I had sex?”

“Both.”

“Well, I dated pretty often back in the city. I went on a date a few days before I came to Blue Sky Bay, and that would be my last date, because I haven’t gone out with anyone since arriving here.”

“And is this date when you last had sex?”

“No. I didn’t even kiss the guy,” I said, sounding much more defensive than I meant to. But let’s just say that Connel Matthews was not my type, which I’d figured out before we even had our salad plates in front of us.

“You call that a date?”

I finished chewing and set my utensils down. “You don’t have to kiss someone to call it a date.”

“What do you constitute as a date?” he pressed before finishing off the rest of his wine.

I chuckled. “He asked me to join him for dinner, and it was obviously a date.”

“I asked you to dinner, and you made it clear that this isn’t a date.”

“You are the one who made it clear that it isn’t a date,” I reminded him.

“Well, you and I have different ideas of what a date is.”

“What do you do on a date?”

“I mean, I had a girlfriend for a few years, and I haven’t dated much since, but typically the woman actually likes me when I ask her out.” He grinned at me.

Maybe the wine was kicking in, but his words hit me in a way that I didn’t expect.

“Do you really think that I don’t like you?”

“I think I piss you off more than I don’t.”

“I think I piss you off more than I don’t.” I reached for my glass and took the last sip.

“You don’t personally piss me off, Briar,” he said, catching me off guard because he rarely used my name. “Obviously we got off to a bumpy start, because you wanted my restaurant and I was defensive about it. But we got past that, and I appreciate what you’ve done for me with the new space. I really do. And what you did for my sister—it says a lot about you.”

My breath hitched in my throat, and I swallowed it down. “What does it say about me?”

“How big your heart is. How selfless you are, because let’s be honest, there is no way that getting my mother out of that bar and to the airport was an easy task.” He reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you for doing that. I’ve never seen my sister so happy.”

“It was not that big of a deal. I understand how much it means to have your family there to support you for those big moments, even if it’s not a perfect situation.”

I glanced down to see that my hand was still in his.

“Yet, your father didn’t show up for you?”

“Not that time,” I said, forcing a smile, because the truth was, I couldn’t think of a time when he’d actually shown up for me—but I wasn’t going to say that.

He did agree to pay for my college, and for law school. That was his way of showing up for me, which I appreciated.

“I want you to know that I like you, Magpie.”

I narrowed my gaze. “Is that so?”