Kendra grinned. “Right? So what can I get you kiddies tonight?”
Levi gestured for Jane to go first.
“I’m trying to decide between the sweet potato fries and the shrimp kebab,” she said.
“I’d take both,” Kendra said. “They’re amazing. All the appetizers here are. And your main?”
“Oh . . .” Jane paused. “Um, just the apps, thanks.”
Levi didn’t know if she wasn’t that hungry or if she was worried about the prices. “Hey, why don’t we order a bunch of appetizers and share?” he asked her.
She smiled. “Okay.”
“Is there anything you don’t like?” he asked, wanting to give her the damn moon.
When she shook her head, he looked at Kendra. “How about one of each of the five appetizers.” And then he added a flight of beer to share, getting Jane to pick the flavors.
“Also, we’ve got s’mores on the menu now,” Kendra said. “You get all the makings for them, which you take out on the patio to the fire pits and create yourself.”
Levi looked at Jane, who had lit up at the word s’mores. “I think that’s a yes.”
Kendra gave him another wink and took off.
“An ex, huh?” Jane asked.
“An ex implies we were in a relationship,” he said.
“Ah. So you were one of those guys, the hot ones who had girls throwing themselves at you. Let me guess, it was hard to resist them all.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Not that either,” he finally managed, trying to lose the smile when she glared at him. “No, seriously, if you’d known me then, you’d get why it was so funny.”
“Enlighten me, Tarzan.”
“I was the science geek.”
“Doesn’t seem like it hurt your game any.”
“I had zero game. Luckily for me, just after I graduated from high school, my best friend told me we were in a relationship.”
“Mateo?” she asked in surprise.
“Mateo’s sister, Amy. They lived on my street growing up, and we were all close. Amy and I got closer that summer after graduation, and she changed colleges to go with me to Colorado.”
“How long were you with her?”
“Until the year after college. I’ve dated on and off since then, but nothing serious.” He really wasn’t ready to explain what had happened to Amy because there was no way to do that without taking the mood to a somber place. He’d spent a lot of time in that state and didn’t want to go there tonight.
Luckily, Kendra was heading toward them with their beer and food. She set everything down and smiled at Levi. “You sure did grow up real nice, Cutler.” She turned to Jane. “So is it true what they say about the geeks? That they only get better with age?”
Jane looked at Levi, and he found himself holding his breath on her answer.
“One hundred percent.”
Kendra laughed, and when she left, they continued to stare at each other for another beat.
“In for a penny, right?” Jane finally said and picked up a sweet potato fry. “Also, there’s no way we can eat all of this. It was sweet of you, but impractical.”
That made him laugh because he was the most practical person he knew. In fact, normally by now on a date, he’d be mentally cataloguing the reasons she’d drive him crazy. It’d been his way of keeping himself emotionally unavailable. It was both funny and horrifying that she was doing it to him. “Impractical?” he asked. “My brain doesn’t even know how to compute that.”