Page 78 of Risk It All
ELIZA
Laura
You better be coming to dinner tonight!
I grinnedat the text from Lily’s mom. Not even a few minutes later, my phone was ringing.
“I’ll be there, Laura. No need to panic,” I teased. “I know you’ve missed me.” There were still a few hours until dinner, and I was using the time to catch up on chores and water my plants. I also wanted to meal prep a soup for the week that Leo had written me a recipe for…and bought me ingredients to make.
I didn’t even know when he’d had the time to grocery shop, but when I got home today, there was a paper bag of groceries and a recipe in his messy scrawl. That man was too good for this world.
“Ihavemissed you.” Laura’s warm, familiar voice filled the line. “But I also wanted to assure you that I completely understand if you have other plans. No pressure at all if that’s the case. I didn’t want you to think my text was too demanding.”
“Laura,” I said with a laugh. “I think I’ve known you long enough to know that you’re never demanding.” She was one ofthe most understanding people I knew, and it was one of the things I loved most about her. “Who’s going to be there tonight?” I had the phone propped up with my shoulder as I moved around the apartment.
Laura started to list off everyone I’d expect to be there in addition to her and Mark—my brother, Gran, Wes, Jules, Lily, Gabe, and Hal. “Oh! And Leo, of course. How could I forget. We’ve talked with him here and there at Lake Ridge, but an invitation to dinner was long overdue.”
“He’d mentioned you reached out. We’re heading over together, actually.” I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.
“Oh, really?” Laura’s voice went up an octave
“Yes, really, but don’t read too much into it. We’re just friends.”
She hummed. “I think I’ve heard that story before.”
I ignored that comment and instead asked what was for dinner. With the weather warming up, Mark was firing up the grill for the first time this year. Memorial Day was less than a week away, but with how busy that weekend was at Lake Ridge, we weren’t all planning to get together the weekend of. Instead, we were having dinner tonight.
Laura and I chatted for a few more minutes before hanging up, and the hours until dinner went by in a blur of cleaning and cooking.
With my keys in my hand and purse on my shoulder, I left my apartment and closed the door just as Leo was doing the same.
“Hey, perfect timing,” I said, my eyes roaming over his tall, broad frame. His jeans perfectly hugged his muscular thighs, and his navy short-sleeved button-up with the first couple buttons open perfectly molded to his body. He was holding acanvas bag, likely with a gift for Lily and Wes’s parents, because of course he would.
Once his door was closed, he turned toward me, and I saw the desire in his gaze immediately. Every inch of my body heated from his slow perusal. He sauntered toward me, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t doanythingbut look up and reach toward him. My hand wrapped around his arm, and I pulled him closer, leaning up on my toes to press a kiss to his mouth.
I pulled away in a daze. “You can’t look at me like that tonight.”
“And you can’t go around kissing me like that.”
“Uh, yeah, becauseyouwere looking at me like”—I circled my finger in his direction—“like that.”
“How was I looking at you?” he murmured, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me closer.
We were the only ones in the hallway, but even if we weren’t, I didn’t have enough self-control to pull away. “Like you wanted to pull me into your apartment and fuck me.”
A mischievous smile spread across his face. “Then I was looking at you just right.” He reached for my hand, sliding his fingers through mine. “C’mon, I’ll drive us.”
I let out a laugh but followed him with ease, realizing how perfectly my hand fit in his.
Mark and Laura lived about a mile south of downtown, so the drive was only a few minutes, but that was enough time to get myself together and stop thinking about the man next to me—and how much I wished he’d pulled me into his apartment…even if it meant we’d been late to dinner.
“Feel free to park anywhere,” I said as Leo drove up the long, paved driveway. I took note of the cars already parked. “Everyone should be here, and I don’t think there should be anyone here you haven’t met,” I said, thinking if there was someone who Leo hadn’t run into yet. “You’ve met Hal?”
“I met him a couple weeks ago at Lake Ridge. He plays poker with your brother, Gabe, and a few older guys in town, right?”
I nodded. “That’s him. He also owns the hardware store in town and managed the building before Lily and Gabe. Crazy that you’ve been in town for a month already,” I admitted. I wasn’t sure where the time had gone or why it felt like Leo had been in Golden Falls longer.
“It’s hard to believe,” Leo said, turning off the engine. There was something in his voice that I couldn’t read. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to leave or if he wanted to stay.
