As I chewed a fry, I figured it was time for me to suck it up and attempt conversation if just to find out what was next.
“Is it good?” I asked as he shoved pancake into his mouth, thinking to ease into it.
His eyes cut to me.
What he did not do was speak. He just chewed and swallowed while forking into pancake and, once he swallowed, he shoved more pancake in.
Then his eyes moved through the diner and didn’t come back to me as he continued to scan his surroundings.
I tried again, deciding on a more direct approach as, clearly, this guy was not into idle chitchat.
“So, um… what’s next on the agenda?”
He looked at me again. Then he speared a sausage link with his fork, brought it to his well-formed lips and bit it in half with even, very white, extremely strong-looking teeth.
He did this and he didn’t answer.
So I kept trying. “It would kinda be nice to know, uh… what we’re doing and, um… where we’re going,” I told him.
He ate the rest of the sausage link.
He again didn’t answer.
“Uh… Ty –” I started but he finally spoke and when he did, he spoke over me.
“Name,” he rumbled.
“Name?” I asked, confused.
His beautiful eyes didn’t leave me and he also didn’t explain.
“You mean my name?” I asked.
Again, he continued to stare at me without saying a word.
“Lexie,” I told him, guessing that’s what he meant and not pointing out I’d already introduced myself.
“Full name,” he said then speared another sausage link.
While he bit off half, I answered, “Alexa Anne Berry.”
He chewed. He swallowed.
“Priors?” he asked and I felt my brows draw together.
“Sorry?” I asked back.
“You got a record?”
I was surprised at this question for two reasons. One, he’d used his first verb and I had convinced myself he only knew caveman-speak. Two, it was a weird question.
“No,” I answered. “No record.”
Or, at least, not one that wasn’t sealed. What could I say? There was a reason Ronnie was my boyfriend since high school, I’d been wild. It was just, back then, he wasn’t. Then I stopped being wild, he’d started and he did it better than me. I had a juvenile record but that didn’t count. Or, I told myself that.
His gorgeous eyes did a head to chest and back again and then his head tipped very slightly to the side.
Then he asked, “Sweep?”