But this was so much better.
She looked around the room at the other couples, some of them sitting so close you knew by looking at them that they were in love. Some looked like they were on a successful first date that they hoped would turn into a second and a third. Toward the end of her marriage, when she had all but checked out emotionally from Liam, going out to dinner was more about hunger and practicality than it was an opportunity to connect or spend time with someone you actually wanted to be around.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had so much fun,” she said. “I’d forgotten how much I liked having fun. Also, I think this cocktail is a little stronger than I’m used to because that was probably a weird thing to say.”
“Will I need to carry you out of here?” he teased. “Because I can, Layla. I can throw you right over my shoulder in front of all these people.”
A feeling of warmth spread over her and it had nothing to do with the bourbon. “You might,” she said.
“But yeah, I get it. Fun is not the predominant emotion before, during, or after a breakup. But this is.” He lifted his glass and clinked it against hers.
The waitress stopped by their table ten minutes later. “Would you like another?” she asked.
“Layla?” Josh asked.
She shook her head. Better to quit now before something weirder than the having-fun thing came out of her mouth. Like how much she liked him and how handsome he looked and how good he smelled and goddammit, she did not want to throw him back just because he’d been the first man after Liam.
Layla’s seat was closer to the waitress, and when Josh leaned over to say, “We’re good for now, thanks,” he rested his hand on Layla’s thigh for a moment.
She might not have wanted another cocktail, but that didn’t mean she was ready to leave their nook. She was enjoying the way Josh kept looking at her. Fun was awesome, but flirting was even better, especially when you couldn’t remember the last time you’d done it.
Their glasses were empty, but they lingered for another half hour. Their conversation was animated and there were a few more times when they touched each other—a hand on a leg or a shoulder to emphasize a point. She wondered if he felt it, too. There was nothing quite like that spark, that crackle of electricity when you realized the man you were sitting next to was someone you had chemistry with. I could sit here for the next twenty years, she thought. She smiled, because that was not the thought of a completely sober person and she never wanted to look that far ahead ever again. Better to stay in the present and appreciate how good things were right now. But it was also the thought of someone who was starting to believe not only that there was more on the horizon, but that she might be lucky enough to grab it with both hands.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
No. “Yes,” she said.
Josh paid the tab and followed her as they walked through the restaurant, which was no longer as crowded as it had been when they’d arrived. Layla pushed open the door and took a deep breath of the cold winter air to clear her head. Before she even knew what was happening, Josh grabbed her hand and pulled her back toward him and gave her the kind of knock-your-socks-off kiss made a million times sweeter by the total absence of its anticipation.
Layla didn’t have time to overthink it or even think about it at all before it was suddenly happening. There was none of that awkward fumbling that sometimes happened when you kissed a person for the first time. Later, when Layla looked back, it seemed to her that he simply couldn’t wait until they were back in the car or on her doorstep. That the urge had been so strong he’d said to hell with it and kissed her right then and there because he just couldn’t wait another minute.
She lost herself in the kiss. Their mouths seemed to fit together exactly, and Layla didn’t care who might be observing them or that they were kissing on a street corner like a couple of teenagers instead of two people in their thirties. It felt so good, like she’d been wandering in the desert dying of thirst and he’d put a glass of ice water to her lips. Except that his lips were warm and there was nothing cold about that kiss.
They were silent as they walked to his truck. Josh reached for her hand, and that was exactly what she needed at that moment. It was like he was saying, That was not just a kiss. I like you and I’m holding your hand because this is the beginning of us.
They made small talk on the way home, but Layla had so many thoughts running through her brain. That felt so good, are we going to do it again, what are you thinking?
Josh pulled into her driveway, parked, and turned off the engine. “I’ll walk you to the door.”
Her heart pounded in anticipation, but as soon as they reached her front door, he kissed her again and her nervousness faded away, replaced by how good it felt and how much she wanted this.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
She knew he wasn’t only talking about the kiss. He was checking with her to see how she felt about the seismic shift their friendship had just taken. Friends with potential was now something real, something deeper, as they took the first steps toward being in a romantic relationship again. “Yes.”
“You better go in. It’s cold.”
Was it? Layla barely noticed the temperature, but it was ridiculous to stand outside kissing when it was barely twenty degrees.
“Thanks for tonight. It was a lot of fun,” she said.
He kissed her again, softly. “It was a lot of things. Talk to you tomorrow, Layla.”
She watched him walk back to his truck and then she went inside and wished that tomorrow would hurry up and get here.
chapter 39
Josh
Josh and Jordan were playing a highly competitive game of pool in Jordan’s basement. Their two other brothers were there, too, along with their kids. The wives were having a girls’ night out, and it was complete pandemonium, because the brothers ran a much looser ship than their spouses did.
Kimmy used to love those nights out. Josh’s brothers’ wives had become her friends, and Josh hoped she didn’t lose them in the name of family loyalty.
Sasha and her female cousins darted in and out of the room, screaming while being chased by their male cousins, who seemed hell-bent on terrorizing them. “Holy shit, they’re loud,” Jordan said.
Josh laughed. “Every time I leave one of these gatherings, I wonder if I’ve suffered permanent hearing damage.”
“But it’s a small price to pay for … this,” Jordan said, gesturing toward his beer and his pool cue.
Something made a loud crashing noise upstairs. Josh shouted up the stairs. “Everything all right?”