Free One of These Nights by Kendra Leigh Castle Page B

across from Jason, his dog heaved a sigh that sounded distinctly annoyed before resuming her groundhog pose, this time at Jason’s side. Zoe eyed her.
    â€œI suppose you’re going to tell me you don’t feed her table scraps.”
    â€œI don’t. I feed her high-quality, nutritional food,” Jason replied, stabbing into some pork lo mein with his fork. “Some of it just happens to come off of my plate.”
    â€œAnd what does Jake have to say about that?”
    â€œNot sure. He has this weird affliction where sometimes he opens his mouth and the only thing that comes out is a
blah-blah-blah
sound.”
    Zoe opened the top of one of the containers of hot-and-sour soup and dipped into it with her spoon. “Sounds like you may have a hearing problem.”
    â€œNo, I’m just surrounded by people with the same disorder. There’s a high concentration in the Cove, seems like.” Only his cheeky grin saved him from having some noodles flung at him. She put the spoonful of soup into her mouth, closed her eyes, and swallowed.
Bliss.
    When she opened her eyes, she was staring into his. The heat in them was back, pulsing between them like a living thing. Why hadn’t she ever felt this from him when he was in the gallery? Maybe she just hadn’t noticed because it was her place. It was safe.
    Or maybe she’d just wanted to think so.
    â€œSo,” she said, trying to break the spell. “Let’s get down to business. I can work while we eat.” She slid a slim notebook out of the purse sitting beside her chair, unclipped a pen from it, and opened to a fresh page. “Your mother is Molly, right?”
    Jason looked at the notebook as though it were a foreign object. “You’re taking notes? What do you think she’s going to do, give you a quiz?”
    â€œI’m thorough. If we’ve been dating a few weeks, I should know more about you than where you live and what you do for a living.”
    He shrugged. “She knows I’m not big on small talk.”
    â€œThen what would she think we’ve been doing all this time?” She knew the instant the words left her mouth what the answer was, and Jason’s smirk was anything but innocent. “Oh, come on!” she said, picking up a wad of paper napkins and throwing them at him. “She has a dirty mind on top of all the other things I’m supposed to deal with?”
    Now he wrinkled his nose. “If she does, I don’t want to know. Okay, maybe write down to avoid that subject with her completely.”
    â€œI don’t even need to write that down.” She sketched a small doodle, took another bite of soup, and tried to reorganize her thoughts to start again. “Let’s start with basics. Molly Evans.”
    Jason nodded while he chewed. “Yeah. Molly. Married to Dan. I have one brother, Tommy. He’s two years younger than me.”
    â€œDo you get along? I got the impression that you don’t.”
    â€œWhat’s that got to do with anything?”
    â€œAnd I was right. I’ll keep that in mind.” She wrote the names down.
    His voice quickly dropped into his usual surly grumble. “We don’t
not
get along. He’s busy. I’m busy.”
    â€œSelling insurance. Sometimes to you,” she added, and his smile was rueful.
    â€œNo, not to me. Not for lack of trying. But if it wasn’t insurance, it’d be something else. He’s a born salesman, according to everybody.”
    The tone in his voice struck her as a little off, and Zoe watched him curiously as he stabbed at his food with a little more gusto than before. “And what are
you
, according to everybody?”
    â€œStubborn.”
    She had the feeling there was a lot more to it than that, but the look on his face told her to leave that one alone. For now.
    â€œThat sounds about right,” she said. He was quiet as she helped herself to some of the