Chapter 11 #3
She rolls her eyes, dropping her hand down. I miss it immediately, so I reach out and capture it, putting it into my lap and covering it with mine. “My clients have some of the highest net worths in the state. I guarantee at least a couple of them have bowling alleys in their basements.”
I scoff. “That’s not a bowling alley. My bowling alley is real. The kind with beer in sticky plastic pitchers and old bowling shoes that have been worn by thousands of feet and bathrooms where the stall doors hang off their hinges.”
“Sounds delightful,” she says dryly.
“I mean, it’s no family vacation to Disney World, but as childhood memories go, it’s far from my worst.”
So, so far.
“You wanted to go to Disney World?” she asks.
I shrug. “I mean, yeah. What kid doesn’t? I still want to go to Disney World.”
Caitlin laughs again. “You know you can do that, right? You’re a full-grown adult and can take yourself to Disney anytime you want. I bet there’s a princess bubble wand with your name all over it.”
Laughing, I lace my fingers with hers. “Nah. I feel like I’ve built it up in my head so much over the years there’s no way it could match my expectations.”
Caitlin huffs out a laugh. “It’s Disney. It’s crowded and hot and there are a lot of cranky kids who could really use a nap.”
“Don’t forget about the fireworks.”
She smiles. “You like fireworks?”
“I love fireworks. And when they’re being set off above Cinderella Castle?” I shake my head. “Forget it, I’m weak.”
Caitlin raises an eyebrow at me. “You’re a strange one, Drew Ellicott.”
I groan, pressing my free hand to my heart. “Oh my god, you full named me. That’s so fucking hot.”
“What exactly is wrong with you?” she asks.
Laughing again, I shake my head. “No one knows.”
She huffs out a laugh. “Okay, well, I’ve been thinking about the trust you want to set up, and since we’re just sitting here, we can talk about it if you want.”
“You were thinking of me, Princess?”
She rolls her eyes, and it’s so fucking cute I can’t stand it. “You’re my client,” she says flatly. “Of course I was thinking of you.”
Taking a chance, I lift her hand and press a kiss to her knuckles, grinning against her skin when her pupils dilate, her breath a deep inhale. “You like when all your clients kiss you?”
“You’re not as charming as you think you are, you know.”
“Liar,” I murmur, sliding my lips across her hand.
When Caitlin yanks her hand away like my lips burned her, I can’t stop the grin that spreads over my face. “Okay,” I say, slapping my hands down on my legs. “Here’s the plan.”
“What plan?”
“The plan for the rest of the night. I’m going to go get another bag of Snickers since we finished the first one and grab one of the ten thousand pints of ice cream in your freezer for us to share.”
Caitlin narrows her eyes at me. “How do you know I have ten thousand pints of ice cream?”
I shrug. “Snooped, remember? I had no idea there were so many different varieties of chocolate ice cream.”
She shrugs. “I like to keep my options open. I never know what I’m going to want.”
For someone who seems so together all the time, so decisive, something about her revealing that little bit of indecisiveness has my heart squeezing. I would bet my entire net worth she’s never revealed it to anyone else.
I nod. “Okay, well, you’re going to tell me which one you want, and I’m going to get it for you. With two spoons,” I say with a wicked grin.
Caitlin shakes her head. “Get your own. I’m bad at sharing.”
“Sounds perfect. Two ice cream flavors are way better than one. We’re going to eat the ice cream while you tell me about all the boring lawyer stuff your brilliant brain conjured up, and then we’re going to watch one of those spy movies you love so much. The more terrorists the better.”
Caitlin studies me for a second, like she can’t quite figure me out, and I get it. This is out of character for me in the extreme, but I can’t seem to stop myself. “That sounds suspiciously like a date.”
No way, Princess. This is simply one friend helping another friend who feels like crap, sharing ice cream, legal advice, and a movie where smart people hunt bad guys. If this was a date, you would know.”
“Speaking as someone who has been on a lot of dates?” she asks dryly. “Didn’t you tell me the one you stood me up for was going to be your first?”
I grin at her. “Got me there. I’ve never been a dating kind of guy, but maybe one day you’ll give me another chance to try. In the meantime, I would really like ice cream, and I think Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan is just the thing. What do you say, friend?”
When Caitlin shrugs and says “Okay,” it feels like she gives me the entire world.
Much later, when the ice cream is eaten and the candy demolished, when the lights are off and the coffee table is littered with empty pints and scattered spoons and more candy wrappers than seems reasonable, the credits to The Sum of All Fears scroll on the TV screen.
Caitlin lies lengthwise on the couch where she migrated at some point, her head in my lap, her slow, even breathing telling me she’s fast asleep, one of my hands caught in hers.
I run my free hand over the soft strands of her hair, leaning my head back against the couch, and I think that this might be the best night of my entire life.