again.
“It tastes as amazing as it looks,” he said.
She grinned at him. “Thanks, but my niece made it. I was just the sous chef who was mostly in the way.”
“Can I adopt her?” He took another bite, and the look on his face made her want to drag him to her bedroom right that second.
“She’s twenty-two,” Grace said, digging into her own fish. It was just as fantastic as he said it was, and she wondered if she could entice Lex to live with her indefinitely.
“Bummer.” They talked and flirted their way through dinner, and eventually they moved to the living room where they sat next to each other on the couch.
“I missed this,” Grace said.
“Missed what?” Owen took a sip of his wine.
“This.” She waved a hand between the two of them. “We didn’t really talk much this week. I missed it.”
“Oh.” His smile vanished, and he gazed at her as if he were trying to work something out.
She put her wine glass down on the coffee table and asked, “What’s going on in that brain of yours?”
He sighed. “I’m just trying to figure out what exactly it is you missed. Me, the flirting, or the attention?”
Grace sat back, stunned at his question and a little offended. “Before I answer, can I ask where that came from?”
“Dammit. I didn’t want to do this tonight.” He ran a hand through his hair and glanced around the room before meeting her gaze again. “The other night when there was the altercation with that client’s husband, you forgot to call me. Worse, when something bad happened, you didn’t even think to call me. Who did you call that night, Grace?”
She frowned as she recalled what she did after she’d gotten home from making her report with the police and checking in on Vince after he was released from the care of the EMT. She’d gotten herself a cup of tea and curled up in bed. She had to admit, her first instinct was to call Bill. They had been married for twenty years after all. But she’d refrained and called her girlfriend instead. “I only called Joy.”
“But not the guy you were dating? Did it even occur to you that I’d hear about the incident and be worried?” he asked.
Actually, it hadn’t. Not that night. Calling him had completely slipped her mind. And in the morning, when she realized she’d be the talk of the town and the office, she hadn’t called him then either. She’d waited for him to call her.
When she didn’t answer him, he sighed. “I sometimes get the vibe that you like being out with a younger guy more than you actually like being out with me.”
Okay, Grace might have been a little thoughtless when it came to communicating with him, but she was just offended by his comment. She stood up just to put some distance between them and said, “So you don’t think I like you for you? That I was just in this for a fling with a younger guy. Is that it?”
“The thought crossed my mind, yeah.” His expression was guarded as he watched her pace her living room.
“So, what? You came over here tonight to have dinner with me, thinking that even if I wasn’t all that into you that, at the very least, you’d get laid?” Her words sounded harsh to her own ears, but there was no taking them back now.
Anger flashed through his gorgeous dark eyes as he got to his feet. “Is that really what you think of me? If so, maybe you should just stick to dating your client Matt Dahl. He seems like the type of guy that you probably should be dating anyway.”
“What the…” Grace trailed off and just stared at him for a moment before she shook her head. “What is it with you and this thing about Matt? I’m not dating him. I’ve never been dating him.”
“Then why did I see you at Crabby’s with him that night you canceled on me?” he asked, staring her down with an intensity she hadn’t seen from him before.
“You were at Crabby’s?” she asked, completely taken aback by his comment. She hadn’t seen him. If she had, she would’ve invited him to join them. If it was an actual date, she’d never have done that.
“Grace,” he said, shaking his head. “If you want to date someone else you think is more appropriate, just tell me.”
“I…” She trailed off because she didn’t know what to say. The truth