Free Pretty in Ink (Voretti Family Book 3) by Ava Blackstone Page A

into her eyes.
    He was in this now, and there was no going back.

CHAPTER 7

    “W AIT A MINUTE . You’re taking me to Michael Saka ?” Joslyn’s eyes widened with something that looked closer to panic than pleasure, and Caleb mentally cursed himself for his choice. You didn’t take a woman to the most expensive restaurant in San Diego for your first date.
    When he’d made the reservation five days ago, calling in years of markers to get his buddy who worked there to find an open table, he’d figured it would prove to Joslyn that he was seriously interested in her. Then, when he told her about his arrangement with Liv, she’d understand he was simply helping out a friend. Only, now Joslyn was looking at him like he was a stalker in violation of a restraining order.
    Okay. Damage control.  
    He pulled into the lot and cut the engine. “I know it’s over the top, but I’ve always wanted to try this place. And Rafe won’t go anywhere unless there’s beer and wings.”
    Joslyn sat frozen in her seat, staring at the sun setting over the ocean—even the parking lot had a killer view. “You don’t have to impress me. You know that, right? I already like you.”
    Her words washed over him with a soothing warmth. She wasn’t worried he was a stalker. She was worried he was emptying his bank account to impress her.
    This woman was everything he’d been looking for in a partner. He was going to give this relationship his best shot. He owed it to himself.
    “I really do want to try the restaurant,” he said. “And I want to try it with you.”
    “In that case…” Joslyn took off her seatbelt. “You’ve got yourself a date.”
    *
    Two glasses of wine and a filet mignon later, Joslyn looked much more relaxed as she told Caleb about the two problem children in her preschool class, trying to sound exasperated but failing miserably.
    “And so I had to separate them for the rest of the day. Over a crayon!”
    Caleb grinned. “What did you do with the crayon?”
    “I hid it in my desk. Not that it helped, because at recess they argued over a rock someone found on the ground, and at lunch there was a dispute over who got to sit at the end of the table. And I finally figured out that their first argument hadn’t been about the crayon at all. Henry was upset because Jared said his Mickey Mouse backpack was for babies. So I had them talk it out, and by dismissal they were best friends again. We’ll see how long that lasts.”
    He chuckled at Joslyn’s skeptical tone.
    Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God. I just realized how long I’ve been babbling. You shouldn’t have let me go on for so long.”
    “I was enjoying it. It sounds like you’re a great teacher.”
    She went red—two patches in the middle of her cheeks that were…cute. “I’m only doing my job.”  
    The real problem is, there’s no spark. I saw the way you looked at that woman, and you were not thinking about banging her.
    Caleb gulped down some wine, trying to drown Liv’s voice. Cute was a start. He could build on cute.
    “Enough about me,” Joslyn said. “Tell me something about you.”
    The standard getting-to-know-you question snapped him into hyperawareness. He sat up straighter, scanning all the way from the wood-paneled bar to the floor-to-ceiling windows in search of the threat he sensed, even as his mind told him it was coming from the woman sitting across from him. The woman who was probably expecting him to say something at some point this year. “I’m a detective. I joined the police department right out of college and worked my way up.”
    “I know.” Joslyn took a sip of wine, but her gaze didn’t leave his. “Jen already filled me in on all the basic stuff. I want to know what you’re passionate about. What you want out of life.” She smiled at him, sweet as could be, even as her words made his stomach quiver. “Who you really are under that buttoned up shirt.”
    He cleared his throat, trying to come up with something