“We know where the straights will be.” Jio poked Reece’s shoulder.
Reece grinned sheepishly. “Don’t rub salt in the wound. I wanna get my Carly Rae on too.”
“It’ll go late, it always does,” Matt assured him. “Thanks for arranging this, Jackie. It was nice to hold space as a group again.” He held out his hand to her, and she gave it a hearty shake.
“My pleasure! We should resurrect the group chat, maybe do regular video hangouts if anyone needs them.”
“I’d like that a lot.” With that, Matt took their empty plates from Jio and jutted his head toward the exit. “After you, fiancé.” Jio blew the table an air-kiss before weaving through the mostly deserted tables.
Amy checked her phone for the time. “We should head out too. There’s a reading at the English department and I promised my boss I’d scout for talent.” She buttoned up her cardigan as Nina swept pizza crumbs from the table onto her plate.
And then there were three. Reece helped himself to a Rice Krispies Treat from the dessert plate. He pulled it apart into gooey chunks with his long fingers and devoured it bite by bite.
The girls hid their laughter as he feasted. He realized they were staring at him as he licked sugar off his palm. “What?”
“Weren’t you just at dinner?” Jackie asked.
“It was all vegan food.”
“Ah.”
Charlotte twisted in her chair, popping a kink in her shoulder.
“Please see a chiropractor,” Jackie scolded without any real malice.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”
Reece laughed, the rich sound enveloping Charlotte in a cherry blossom glow. She noticed his eyes dip from her face to her neck, and then a little lower to her cleavage—her shirt rode down while she stretched. She shifted her shoulders to pull the fabric back up, and Reece’s stare fixed on the tattered Rice Krispies Treat on the table in front of him.
Busted.
Jackie pushed back her chair. “Okay, time for Operation Leftovers. Anyone want a refill?” She grabbed their cups without waiting for an answer and strutted away, hip-checking chairs that blocked her path.
“She scares me sometimes,” Reece admitted. He stuck his index finger in Charlotte’s melted sundae and licked the vanilla ice cream off. It wasn’t intended to be seductive, more like a child who couldn’t help himself.
Still, Charlotte couldn’t fight off a smile. “There’s an extra spoon right here,” she said, sliding one across the table.
“It’s more fun this way.” He leaned forward to take another swipe of her ice cream, his eyes bright. “You’ve already been exposed to my diseases.”
What a goddamn pleasure it was to be teased by this man.
“I could have new diseases,” Charlotte baited. “You don’t know what I’ve been up to since graduation. Maybe I have swine flu.”
“Oh really? Which one of us spends more time with animals, Charlie?”
“That depends. Do venture capitalists count?”
Reece’s chuckle rumbled around his chest like a lion’s purr. “Probably.”
Charlotte nudged some of the Oreo crumbles to Reece’s side of the bowl, and he finally picked up the spoon to scoop them up.
She considered the flirtatious undertone of their banter. It had been there all day, as if their horny standoff in the hallway—and their bone-crushing good-night hug—had woken it from hibernation. She didn’t know how to square this playful, open Reece with the Reece who walked her home last night. If he was still interested in her, why hadn’t he kissed her?
“Last night was fun,” Reece said as if he’d read her mind. He kept his eyes on the ice cream, hunting for another cookie chunk.
Charlotte studied his face, but she couldn’t detect any hint at what he meant. The statement was a Rorschach test, open to interpretation. She didn’t know what she wanted to read in it.
No, she knew what she wanted. She just wasn’t sure if she could handle it.
“Will there be beer pong at the hockey party?” she asked.
Reece’s eyes flicked up to her face. She innocently spooned some ice cream into her mouth. He watched her lips move before looking over her shoulder out the window, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “You know it’s not an Atwood party without pong.”
“I think I need practice,” she declared. Practice with her throwing technique. Practice enjoying the company of someone so kind.
Reece spooned up another cookie chunk. “We need a team name.”
“Team Hammer,” Charlotte suggested.
Reece huffed, the laugh startled out of him. “Yes, that’s it.”
Making a good person laugh was one of the purest pleasures in life, alongside Jackie’s fresh-baked pumpkin bread and finding a movie she’d always wanted to watch streaming online for free. Charlotte wasn’t a loud person—she would never be the life of the party or the host of a hit podcast. Her sense of humor was quick and weird, and it only emerged around people she trusted.
“Thank you for earlier, by the way,” he said. “For not mentioning I moved home.”
“Oh.” Charlotte dropped her spoon in the bowl and folded her arms on the table. “Of course. That’s none of my business.”
“Still. I appreciate it. I’m not embarrassed, I just…” He trailed off, his eyes narrowing. “Everyone’s doing so well.”
