“Rogue curl?” he asks.
“I have one piece of hair that’s shorter than the rest, and it tends to stick out.” At his questioning expression, I add, “Doctors had to shave a patch of hair for surgery after the accident, and it’s still growing out.” Devin’s eyebrows knit briefly, but he doesn’t ask me to elaborate, which I’m grateful for. “Are those for me?” I ask, pointing to the bouquet of lilies on the table.
“Of course. Can’t show up to meet a beautiful woman empty-handed.” He extends the bouquet across the table and I take it from him.
“They’re lovely, thank you.” I inhale deeply. The powerful floral scent fills my nose, tickling my sinuses, and I sneeze.
“Bless you.” Devin chuckles.
I set the bouquet on one of the two empty chairs at the table. “Thanks. And thank you for agreeing to this… to meeting with me.”
“Hey, it’s not every day someone shows up at a bar and tells you you’re her ‘dream man.’ What can I say? I’m intrigued.” With a smoldering grin that could break hearts the world over, he slides a cocktail across the table toward me—the gin and tonic I asked for.
I take a long sip. A hint of lime soothes the fizzy burst of tonic as it burns a warm path down my throat. “So.” I lick my lips. “Where should we start?”
* * *
“How is it possible we don’t know any of the same people?” I spear a piece of calamari on my fork and nearly moan when I chew. It’s lightly fried in a spicy ginger sauce, and the savory flavors twine into a symphony of taste on my tongue. Half an hour of sipping cocktails, comparing social media accounts, and hashing out possible acquaintances sure does work up an appetite. I’m grateful Devin showed up hungry and put in an appetizer order before I arrived.
“You tell me, Scully. This is your show.” Our waiter arrives with two fresh cocktails, and Devin lifts his Moscow mule in a salute before taking a drink. I’m momentarily distracted by the way a droplet of moisture clings to his full bottom lip before he licks it away.
I clear my throat. “I thought for sure we’d have other mutual friends besides Marcus. I guess Cleveland’s east side/west side divide is real.”
“You grew up on the east side?”
“Far east. Chagrin Falls.”
He whistles low. “Fancy.”
“Not where I lived, trust me. My mom moved us there for the school system when I was twelve, into a tiny 1930s bungalow on the edge of town.”
“No mansion on the river then?”
I chuckle. “Definitely not.” Chagrin Falls is known for its old money, so it wasn’t exactly easy blending in with the other kids at school. Thank God for Brie. She was the only one who didn’t seem to care that I was raised by a single working mom who could barely afford our meager mortgage, never mind fancy summer camps, music lessons, or extravagant vacations like so many others enjoyed.
Devin leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “So let me guess… you already know where I grew up?”
“Cleveland, right?”
He nods. “Ohio City. Down the street from Blooms & Baubles, actually.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I thought you knew everything about me,” he says teasingly.
“Hardly. A lot of what I ‘remember’ is a blur, like impressions of half-forgotten dreams. It seems I know some things about your life, but there are other things I didn’t know at all. Like the fact you have a brother. Honestly, I don’t even know how much of what I remember is true.”
“A lot of what you said at the bar the other night was. I did indeed break my finger falling off a trampoline when I was eight. I enjoy a good true-crime documentary, and I hate pizza—sacrilege, I know.” He drops his voice to a conspiratorial whisper and my lips part at the confirmation. “So, try me. What else do you think you know about me?”
“Well…” I take a deep breath. “Do you have a BA from Denison and an MBA from Ohio State?”
“Ding-ding.”
“Okay. Were you an all-state soccer player your senior year of high school?”
“And junior year.” He clicks his tongue as he winks.
I laugh. “And…” I stare into the middle distance, trying to remember. “Do you happen to have a scarf? Dark red with fringe and a pattern of little white circles? I know it’s weird, but somehow I think I’ve seen it before. I even had a feeling you might wear it tonight—if it wasn’t so warm out.”