no restraint when it came to sex.
He gritted his teeth, lifting his hand for a moment before placing it gently on her back. Because it was what he would do with any other date, so it was what he needed to do with Anna.
She went stiff beneath his touch. “Relax,” he said, keeping his voice low. “This is supposed to look like a date, remember?”
“I should have worn a white tank top and a pair of jeans,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because this looks... It looks like I’m trying too hard.”
“No, it looks like you put on a nice outfit to please me.”
She turned to face him, her brow furrowed. “Which is part of the problem. If I had to do this to please you, we both know that I would tell you to please yourself.”
He laughed, the moment so classically Anna, so familiar, it was at odds with the other feelings that were buzzing through his blood. With how soft she felt beneath his touch. With just how much she was affecting him in this figure-hugging dress.
“I have no doubt you would.”
They walked up the steps that led into the large white restaurant, and he opened the door, holding it for her. She looked at him like he’d just caught fire. He stared her down, and then she looked away from him, walking through the door.
He moved up next to her once they were inside. “You’re going to have to seem a little more at ease with this change in our relationship.”
“You’re being weird.”
“I’m not being weird. I’m treating you like a lady.”
“What have you been treating me like for the past fifteen years?” she asked.
“A...bro.”
She snorted, shaking her head and walking toward the front of the house where Ellie Matthews was standing, waiting for guests. “I believe we have a reservation,” Anna said.
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Yes,” he confirmed. “Under my name.”
Ellie’s eyebrow shot upward. “Yes. You do.”
“Under Chase McCormack and Anna Brown,” Chase clarified.
“I know,” she said.
Ellie needed to work on her people skills. “It was difficult for me to tell, since you look so surprised,” Chase said.
“Well, I knew you were reserving the table for the two of you, but I didn’t realize you were...reserving the table for the two of you.” She was looking at Anna’s dress, her expression meaningful.
“Well, I was,” he said. “Did. So, is the table ready?”
She looked around the half-full dining area. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we can seat you now.”
Ellie walked them over to one of the tables by a side window that looked out over the Skokomish River where it fed into the ocean. The sun was dipping low over the water, the rays sparkling off the still surface of the slow-moving river. There were people milling along the wooden boardwalk that was bordered by docks on one side and storefronts on the other, before being split by the highway and starting again, leading down to the beach.
He looked away from the scenery, back at Anna. They had shared countless meals together, but this was different. Normally, they didn’t sit across from each other at a tiny table complete with a freaking candle in the middle. Mood lighting.
“Your server will be with you shortly,” Ellie said as she walked away, leaving them there with menus and each other.
“I want a burger,” Anna said, not looking at the menu at all.
“You could get something fancier.”
“I’ll get it with a cheese I can’t pronounce.”
“I’m getting salmon.”
“Am I paying?” she asked, an impish smile playing around the corners of her lips. “Because if so, you better be putting out at the end of this.”
Her words were like a punch in the gut. And he did his best to ignore them. He swallowed hard. “No, I’m paying.”
“I’ll pay you back after. You’re doing me a favor.”
“The favor’s mutual. I want to go to the fund-raiser. It’s important to me.”
“You still aren’t buying my dinner.”
“I’m not taking your money.”
“Then I’m going to overpay for rent on the shop next month,” she said, her tone uncompromising.
“Half of that goes to Sam.”
“Then he gets half of it. But I’m not going to let you buy my dinner.”
“You’re being stubborn.”
She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and treating him to that hard glare of hers. “Yep.”
A few moments later the waiter came over, and Anna ordered her hamburger, and the cheeses she wanted, by pointing at the menu.
“Which cheese did you get?” he asked, attempting to move on from their earlier standoff.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I can’t pronounce it.”
They made about ten minutes of awkward conversation while they waited for their dinner to come. Which was weird, because conversation was never awkward with Anna. It was that dress. And those shoes. And his penis. That was part of the problem. Because, suddenly, it was actually interested in his best friend.
No, it is not. A moment of checking her out does not mean that you want to...do anything with her.
Exactly. It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t anything to get worked up about. Not at all.
When their dinner was placed in front of them, Anna attacked her sweet potato fries, probably using them as a displacement activity.
“Chase?”
Chase looked up and inwardly groaned when he saw Wendy Maxwell headed toward the table. They’d all gone to high school together. And he had, regrettably, slept with Wendy once or twice over the years after drinking too much at Ace’s.
She was hot. But what she had in looks had been deducted from her personality. Which didn’t matter when you were only having sex, but mattered later when you had to interact in public.
“Hi, Wendy,” he said, taking a bite of his salmon.
Anna had gone very still across from him; she wasn’t even eating her fries anymore.
“Are you... Are you on a date?” Wendy
