he said, when she peered cautiously at him over the top of the leather folder, and added a wink for good measure.
“Oh, right.” She quickly skimmed the rest of the menu offerings, then closed the cover as the server returned to their table.
Brie ordered the prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and pan-seared broccolini; Caleb opted for the porterhouse steak with a loaded baked potato and sautéed green beans and mushrooms.
When Eric disappeared again, Caleb buttered a slice of bread and offered it to her.
As she started to shake her head, her stomach growled in protest.
He grinned and moved the bread closer to her lips. She instinctively opened her mouth and took a bite. She didn’t think about the intimacy of eating from his hand until her bottom lip caught on the pad of his thumb.
She abruptly pulled away, her lip tingling at the point of contact. Caleb’s gaze dropped to her mouth, lingered as she carefully chewed the bread.
“Maybe it’s not all in my head,” he mused quietly.
She didn’t ask.
She didn’t want to know—or try to put into words whatever was still between them. Because she could deny it until the cows came home, but it was obvious that something still was.
Thankfully, Caleb didn’t seem to expect a response. Instead, he set the bread on her plate and drew another slice out of the basket.
“Tell me how you know Grace and Lily,” he suggested, as he dipped the knife into the butter.
She latched onto the neutral topic gratefully and spent the next several minutes telling him about her first weeks at Columbia and the development of her friendship with the other two women.
When the waiter returned with their meals, they stopped talking to focus on their food. After dinner, they lingered over coffee and warm apple cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream drizzled with brandy caramel sauce. Though Brie had insisted that she couldn’t eat another bite, Eric brought two forks with the dessert and Caleb urged her to try a bite, and somehow one little nibble turned into more.
She didn’t know what time it was when they finally got back to their hotel. She wasn’t thinking about the clock as they made their way, still hand in hand, through the lobby where enormous chandeliers hung from the ceiling, casting glittery light over everything below. They skirted around the towering fountain, its basin filled with coins of various shapes and sizes, to the bank of elevators.
Caleb punched the call button, and while they waited for the doors to open, Brie realized that she wasn’t quite ready to walk away from him again.
She’d agreed to see him tonight because Grace and Lily had insisted that it would give her a sense of closure, but now that it was nearing the time to say goodbye, she knew she couldn’t bring herself to utter the words. Not yet.
Instead, she kissed him.
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