I think we should talk.
Fuck.
He’d beaten me to it.
CHAPTER 16
SOPHIE
Finn had texted me the address of a little hole-in-the-wall place that supposedly had an amazing Chinese buffet. I loved Chinese and I loved a buffet, and by the time I walked into the restaurant, I was ready to devour everything under the heat lamps. The place was really little, with two small plastic-covered chairs by the cash register, clearly meant for people waiting on a pick-up order. One of those chairs was where I found Finn, his too tall body contorted in a way his legs didn’t stick into the walkway.
He was dressed—I imagined—for work, with charcoal gray slacks that hugged the muscles of his legs and a white button-up, cuffs rolled a couple of times and resting neatly against his forearms. No tie. He held his cell phone, frowning down at the screen until the door swung closed behind me and sucked the air out of the lobby. When he saw me, his mouth split into a wide, if not nervous, smile, and he stood.
God, how had I already forgotten how tall he was?
“Hey,” he greeted me with an outstretched arm. I hugged him back, smiling against his chest when he brushed a kiss across the top of my hair. “You’re even prettier than I remember.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” I teased, stepping back to look up at him, my fingers still settled against the small of his back. “You’re taller than I remember.”
“I make my best impressions on my back.”
I chuckled, pinching his hip before pulling away from the embrace. “Don’t sell yourself short. You make quite an impression on your knees too.”
“Two for lunch?” a hostess interrupted, and with good timing if the flush on Finn’s cheeks was any indication.
“Buffet,” he said.
“Anywhere you like.”
Finn led me to a small table against the wall. It, and the chairs, were wrapped in the same plastic as the seats in the front. I hung my purse over the back of one and turned my attention toward the buffet.
“What’s good here?” I asked.
“All of it.”
He ushered me toward the plates, we each picked one, and I followed Finn down the buffet line, listening to him rattle on about what entrees and sides he liked the most, which were good but not reliable, and which he’d tried once and sworn off forever. We ended up back at the table with overflowing plates, and I dug in before Finn had even managed to get his chopsticks out of the wrapper.
He eyed me with amusement, waiting until I chewed and swallowed at least three bites of food before saying, “You good?”
I laughed and wiped some sauce off my lips. “I didn’t have breakfast.”
“No? Daniel seems like the kind of man to not send you out into the world hungry.”
“What gives you that idea?”
Finn was right about Daniel, but I was curious what had fed his perception. We’d spent limited time together, most of itfocused on physical things and not the caretaking aspect of my relationship with Daniel.
“The way he watches you, for one. But also just…from my own experience with him. He…he’s very generous.”
My lips pulled into a smile that I quickly smothered with a stir-fried green bean. Finn watched me eat, waited like he knew I had something to say.
“He does like to be needed.”
“That’s one way of looking at it.” Finn moved some chicken around his plate. “It’s probably bad form to take you on a date and talk about him the whole time.”
“He’s a very important part of my life, and I think it would be kind of silly if we didn’t talk about him,” I said.
“I’m having dinner with him tomorrow night,” Finn blurted, and my heart swelled, knowing the two of them had managed to connect after all.