He caught the flash of her smile in the dark interior. “You sound like you miss him already.”
He huffed a laugh. “Yeah. It’s been cool having someone around. Actually, Lovey was staying with us too, until she got her own place a couple of months back. I was giving her a hard time about getting her own apartment, but since she moved out I kinda miss her. I have to admit she’s fun to have around and she’s a great cook. Plus, I could keep an eye on her while she was living with us.”
“I’m sure she appreciated that.”
He caught the dry tone of her voice and shot her a grin. “Not really.”
“Are you an overprotective big brother?”
“She’d probably say yeah. She’s my little sister. I’ve always looked after her. And she’s made some bad decisions in her life, so I just want to make sure she’s doing okay.”
“Bad decisions…like what?”
“Like purple hair, getting caught skinny-dipping, taking out a loan to buy a car she couldn’t afford, quitting a good job on a whim, dumping guy after guy…I could go on.”
Amber laughed. “Those aren’t major life decisions. Everyone makes mistakes.”
“True.” Maybe he was a little hard on Lovey.
“Do you think Marc is a bad decision?”
“I did at first. But I’m coming around to the idea.”
“He’s your friend. You must trust him.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I do. But she’s my sister. It’s just…weird.” He didn’t want to tell her how much it had freaked him out to learn they’d been having sex right under his nose. So to speak.
He pulled into the parking lot of a small diner with a neon sign saying “Dimple’s Diner.”
“Cute.”
“It reminds me of a place in Columbus, near home.”
They walked into the tiny diner, which was nearly full as usual. A hostess waved them to the only empty booth, in the back corner, and they crossed the floor made up of small hexagonal black-and-white tiles.
They slid across from each other into the booth, which Duncan didn’t like, but oh well.
A waitress approached. “Menus?”
Duncan looked at Amber. “Hungry? Or just a milkshake?”
“I’m always hungry.”
“Heh. Me too.” He nodded. “Menus, please.”
The waitress returned with big laminated cards for each of them. “Something to drink?”
“Just water, please,” Amber said.
“Sounds good.”
Amber looked at the menu but Duncan didn’t need to, since he ate there on a regular basis.
“What are you having?” she murmured.
“Bacon cheeseburger.”
She nodded. “Geez, I don’t know what to have. Everything looks good.”
Pleasure warmed his insides. Melissa had hated this diner the only time he’d brought her there.
“I think I’ll have the fried egg sandwich.” She finally set down the menu. “And a strawberry milkshake.”
“Good choice.”
“I take it you come here often.”
“Yeah. Marc bugs me for not eating all healthy. I mean, I do eat healthy most of the time. But man cannot live on kale smoothies alone.”
“Ugh. Kale smoothies?”
“Or something like that.” He grinned. “I have to eat cheeseburgers once in a while.”
She smiled at him. “I’d have to agree with that.”
They ordered, and the waitress went behind the counter and yelled, “One burger, drag it through Wisconsin, Adam and Eve sandwich, make it bleed, a white cow and shake one in the hay!”
Amber burst out laughing. “I see why you like this place.”
Duncan smiled back. “It’s fun.”
“And busy. The food must be good.”
He looked at her across from him, hands resting together on the table. She was gorgeous. Why hadn’t he noticed it when they’d first met? Now he couldn’t take his eyes off her—her perfect oval face, full lips, and big eyes. She’d added a zip-front hoodie over her tank top, which didn’t really go with the outfit at all, but the low-cut top still revealed sweetly rounded cleavage that made his palms tingle. Her hands were slender, with long fingers and short nails polished pale pink. When they’d met Friday night he’d noticed she wore no nail polish, so she’d probably had her nails done for the fashion show Saturday night.
He wanted to touch her so bad. Christ. He looked away. Why had he brought her here? He should have taken her straight to his place.
“What’s wrong?”
He looked back at her. “Nothing.”
“You looked…angry.” She lifted an eyebrow.
He blew out a short breath. “Frustrated.” He eyed her. “Sexually.”
Her eyes widened, then lowered. “Oh. Well. You’re not alone.”
Tension snapped around them. His dick thickened. “Really?” The word scraped over his vocal chords. He cleared his throat.
She gave him a crooked smile that made his pulse leap. “Really.”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Can we cancel our order?”
She laughed, a low sexy sound, and his dick hardened even more. “I want that sandwich. I didn’t have time to eat dinner and I’m starving.”
His mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding.”