Page 55 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

“It’s new for you. I get it. I like to joke. Sorry if I’m crossing lines.”

“So that is all it is? A joke?”

“Do you want it to be more?” she asked. The grin was still on her lips, her eyes moving over him, more curious than anything.

How the hell was he supposed to answer this?

He studied her for a long second, the playful ease between them suddenly threaded with something heavier. Real. Unexpected, but he learned that was what happened in his life more than he cared for.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “That’s the truth. I haven’t done this in a while. The joking, the flirting. I like it. I just didn’t want to misread you.”

Her smile softened, not retreating, but warming. “I wasn’t teasing to be careless,” she said. “I tease because I’m interested. Because it’s fun. Because I wanted to see how you’d respond.” The wiggle of her eyebrows made him wonder if fun was more than interest, but he had to stop second-guessing everything because he was out of his element too.

His mouth curved, slow and cautious. Taking it at a snail’s pace. “And?”

“You didn’t shut it down,” she said happily. “You didn’t push too far either.” Her lips pressed together like she was pondering the meaning, then she shrugged. “That tells me something. Just not positive what it was.”

Her laugh made him let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I was trying hard not to screw it up or come off like an ass.”

She didn’t need to know that his finger hesitated on the send button every time, until that last one.

Until he said he liked challenges.

Then she just dropped the conversation into a canyon.

“That’s kind of adorable,” she said, tilting her head. “And unnecessary. And I should say, I’m sorry I didn’t reply, but my mother knocked on my door and wanted to talk, so by the time I got back to my phone, it was later and I thought you would be sleeping. Not really how I planned on stopping that kind of fun.”

The urge to wipe his hand across his forehead was massive, but he didn’t. That’d be an idiot move.

Like someone with no confidence.

He was pretty sure she knew he felt that way, but again, best to play it off.

“Careful,” he said, his voice low, almost a whisper. A teasing one at that. Just using the word she’d put in her text the other night. “I’m already out of my depth. Heaven forbid what might slip out.”

She leaned back in her chair, her eyes still locked on his. Her smile was wide. She knew what he was doing and was going to offer a helping hand.

That he was opening the door and trying again.

Taking that first step back to the flirting, even if he was cautious with it. But she got it. She gothim.

“Then let’s keep it simple. No pressure. No expectations. Just… honesty.”

“And if honesty says I liked what happened?” he asked. “That maybe I wasn’t ready for it to end, but don’t know the next step either.”

Her gaze flicked to his mouth, then back to his eyes. Deliberate. Unrushed. “Then honesty says we are thinking the same.”

The air between them shifted, thicker now, charged in a way that made the noise of the restaurant fade. Made his ears ring, his confidence shoot through his blood.

“So,” he said, his voice lower as he looked around to see if anyone was watching them, “what does that mean?”

She smiled again, slow and knowing, almost like she knew he was still confused. “It means we don’t pretend it didn’t happen. And we don’t rush to define it either.”

He nodded. “I can do that.”

“Good,” she said. “Because I’d hate to stop teasing you.”

His lips twitched. “I had a feeling. Could be the same for me... again.”