The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)(41)

Best climb ever.

The weight of his stress and exhaustion faded, making him feel light for the first time since she’d agreed to this farce. And not just because she was saving his ass once again. He felt light whenever he was with her, pretend or not, although certain parts of his body told him there was nothing pretend about this attraction between them. And for once, those body parts and his brain seemed to be on the same wavelength.

Jane sat down across from him and without preamble, swiped her iPad awake and pushed it across the table to him. She’d loaded a site called How to Get to Know Someone in 100 Questions. He looked at her. “Seriously?”

“Okay, so we can skip the obvious ones, like how do you react in a life-or-death situation?”

He snorted, making her smile. “Just pick a random one,” she said. “Here.” She let her finger land on the screen. “Number fifty-two. What’s your most unusual talent?”

He smiled. “In or out of the bedroom? Oh, and hi, by the way.”

She softened with a low laugh. “Hi.” She pointed at him. “Now answer the question. And OUT of the bedroom is all I’m concerned about.”

He smiled.

“It is!”

Her defensiveness had him laughing. “Okay, okay, my unusual talent . . . Gadgets. Robotic gadgets.”

“I said out of the bedroom!”

God, he adored her. “I was actually being serious. I like to build robotic gadgets.”

“Oh.” She blushed. “Sorry.”

Their waitress turned out to be an old classmate of his. Kendra smiled warmly at him. “Hey, hot stuff,” she said. “Heard you went off and made good on that fancy brain of yours. You get paid to tell all those big CEOs in the Bay Area what to do with their data now, right?”

“More like I offer suggestions,” he said. “In a consulting capacity.”

Kendra grinned. “Still, gotta be fun.”

“Sometimes,” he admitted, and gestured to Jane. “Kendra, this is Jane. Jane, Kendra.”

“We went to high school together,” Kendra told Jane. “We sweated out AP Chemistry. And then blew off steam in the back of my daddy’s truck a couple of times.”

To Levi’s relief, Jane laughed. “Nice way to get through the worst class in the history of worst classes,” she said.

Kendra grinned. “Right? So what can I get you kiddies tonight?”

Levi gestured for Jane to go first.

“I’m trying to decide between the sweet potato fries and the shrimp kebab,” she said.

“I’d take both,” Kendra said. “They’re amazing. All the appetizers here are. And your main?”

“Oh . . .” Jane paused. “Um, just the apps, thanks.”

Levi didn’t know if she wasn’t that hungry or if she was worried about the prices. “Hey, why don’t we order a bunch of appetizers and share?” he asked her.

She smiled. “Okay.”

“Is there anything you don’t like?” he asked, wanting to give her the damn moon.

When she shook her head, he looked at Kendra. “How about one of each of the five appetizers.” And then he added a flight of beer to share, getting Jane to pick the flavors.

“Also, we’ve got s’mores on the menu now,” Kendra said. “You get all the makings for them, which you take out on the patio to the fire pits and create yourself.”

Levi looked at Jane, who had lit up at the word s’mores. “I think that’s a yes.”

Kendra gave him another wink and took off.

“An ex, huh?” Jane asked.

“An ex implies we were in a relationship,” he said.

“Ah. So you were one of those guys, the hot ones who had girls throwing themselves at you. Let me guess, it was hard to resist them all.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Not that either,” he finally managed, trying to lose the smile when she glared at him. “No, seriously, if you’d known me then, you’d get why it was so funny.”

“Enlighten me, Tarzan.”

“I was the science geek.”

“Doesn’t seem like it hurt your game any.”

“I had zero game. Luckily for me, just after I graduated from high school, my best friend told me we were in a relationship.”

“Mateo?” she asked in surprise.

“Mateo’s sister, Amy. They lived on my street growing up, and we were all close. Amy and I got closer that summer after graduation, and she changed colleges to go with me to Colorado.”

“How long were you with her?”

“Until the year after college. I’ve dated on and off since then, but nothing serious.” He really wasn’t ready to explain what had happened to Amy because there was no way to do that without taking the mood to a somber place. He’d spent a lot of time in that state and didn’t want to go there tonight.

Luckily, Kendra was heading toward them with their beer and food. She set everything down and smiled at Levi. “You sure did grow up real nice, Cutler.” She turned to Jane. “So is it true what they say about the geeks? That they only get better with age?”

Jane looked at Levi, and he found himself holding his breath on her answer.

“One hundred percent.”