“How?”
Whatever outcome he was considering wasn’t readily apparent, but the fact he was considering any outcome other than the path they’d been on—going their separate ways—needed to be squelched.
“What do you mean, how? We’re partnered on an important work project.”
“One that won’t last forever. We don’t work in the same department. We don’t even work for the same entity. Last time I checked, employees of the City of New York can date each other.”
“We’re not—” She stopped abruptly, catching herself before trying again. “What we had isn’t dating. Let’s not pretend there’s more between us then there actually is.”
Sera wasn’t quite sure who she was trying to convince, but knew she needed to hold her ground. Because she had wanted to see him again. And once she’d gotten over the shock of seeing him again that morning, it had felt so good to be in his presence once more. To look across the table and see that face that had been emblazoned on her mind as if every feature had been captured in indelible ink.
But she couldn’t give in to this.
Nor could she delude herself into thinking somehow this all had a happy ending. They’d come together in a heated rush and had proceeded to go on with their lives. Only now there was a very large secret between them. One that she knew she had to share.
One that he deserved to know.
Yet no matter how she spun it in her mind, she couldn’t seem to find the words to tell him the truth.
“But there is something between us, Sera.”
Whatever Gavin might question about his feelings and the odd way they’d come in and out of each other’s lives—twice now—there was something there.
Wasn’t this very conversation proof of that?
Sure, things had had gotten very personal, very fast. That had been true between them from the start. But at the moment, things had also gotten much too serious. So with his dual police and dive training in the forefront of his mind, Gavin did what he knew how to do best.
Pivot and attack the situation from a new angle.
“Let’s go get some ice cream.”
“Now?”
“You ever heard of dessert, Forte?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
He stared pointedly down at his empty plate before looking back up at her. “Do you have ice cream in your freezer?”
“No.”
He shook his head and let out a small tsk for good measure. “A crime against nature, but we’ll address that later. Let’s go get some ice cream.”
Based on her initial resistance, Gavin figured she’d put up more of a fight, so it was a welcome surprise to find themselves walking into the Sunset Bay pharmacy and heading for their soda counter twenty minutes later.
“Best ice cream sundaes in Brooklyn.” Gavin breathed in deeply of the mixed scents of sugar, cream and chocolate as they took two stools at the counter.
Sera slipped onto the stool next to him, and he took her coat as she shrugged out of it, walking it down to the small coatrack at the end of the bar before returning to her.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
As he settled himself on his stool, he couldn’t help but notice the two of them reflected in the big mirror that stretched along the back of the soda fountain. Although they didn’t touch, they looked like they were on a date, the light tension arcing between them evident even in the old mirror with desilvering in small splotches up and down the length of it.
“This place has seen a lot.” He said after a quick glance at his menu.
“It was the heart of Sunset Bay while I was growing up. And even more so for the generation before us. Aunt Robin still talks about how Uncle Enzo brought her here when they were dating.”
It was interesting. She’d spoken of her aunt and uncle several times throughout the evening, but still nothing about her parents. Were they absent? Dead? Gavin wondered.
He was about to ask, but a skinny, bored teenager came up to them to take their orders.
“What’ll you have?” the kid asked Sera.
“Scoop of chocolate with some peanut butter sauce.”
“Banana split for me.”
The bored teen trotted off, leaving them to their conversation at the mostly empty counter. It was the distinct lack of people that had him drifting straight back to their unfinished dinner conversation.
“So about this something more between us.”
She was in the middle of settling her purse on hooks beneath the counter, her attention focused elsewhere, but Gavin didn’t miss the wary lines on her face.
Whatever had gripped her in that moment was gone when she gave him her full focus. Her spine was rail-straight as she sat on the backless stool, and her voice held what he assumed was a match for the formidable tones she’d use in the courtroom.
“There isn’t something more.”
