Page 39 of Icing on Top

“We tied again last time. One of us has to win at some point.”

Wes had been right, of course—not that I would tell him. The temperature had dropped significantly since we’d first entered the restaurant and Zoe had all too eagerly taken my blazer when I offered. Watching her nuzzle into the warmth of it just about did me in. It was hard to focus on driving when she looked so cute in my passenger seat.

We’d barely made it a couple blocks from the restaurant when Zoe gave me a heart attack, gasping and clamping her hand down on my arm.

“Miah, look!” She tapped a couple times against the glass in the direction of City Park. A large sign advertised the Boo at the Zoo event. “I’ve always wanted to go, but somehow, I end up missing it every time. Maybe I can get Jada to go now that Bash is bigger.”

I shook my head. “Hold on. Miah?”

My lips threatened a smirk as I glanced at her from the corner of my eye.

“Yeah. I’m sorry, but Jeremiah is just too damn long. Four syllables? Really? My name is only two, and I still shorten it.”

A laugh burst out of me. “I wasn’t the one who chose my name.”

She wasn’t wrong, though. Jeremiah was quite a mouthful, so I was used to nicknames. Playing hockey, you never got called by your full name anyway. I’d been Fielder, Lang, Langy; whatever rolled off the tongue the easiest.

“Why not Jere?”

She scrunched her face and quickly shook her head as if she’d just downed a shot of bitter cough syrup. “You are not a Jere.”

I rubbed my thumb along the steering wheel. I’d never been called Miah before, but the sound of it on her lips made my chest warm like that first sip of hot cocoa on a cold day.

“I like Miah,” I mumbled softly, not daring to glance in her direction. I didn’t need her to see just how flustered I was by the nickname.

“Good.” She nodded. “Miah it is, then.”

Unfortunately, her apartment was closer to Montebello than I liked. I would have wound around the city more just to keep spending time with her if I thought I could get away with it. But as the saying goes, all good things come to an end.

Zoe waited this time for me to open her door. I was even more disappointed to see that she had shed my blazer and set it neatly on the console.

“You know, I’ve never done the whole… fancy restaurant date thing before,” she admitted as she slipped her hand into mine.

My insides lit up when she intertwined our fingers.

“Really?”

She shrugged. “My last relationship was in college, and neither of us had the money for something like this.”

I mulled over the new information as we walked to her building.

“How did I do, then? Did it live up to your expectations for a fancy restaurant date?”

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Zoe stepped onto the first before turning to me so we were eye-to-eye thanks to her heels. She wore a pleased smile. My gaze lingered on her cherry red lips a second longer than necessary.

“One hundred percent. I had a great time tonight,” she said.

“So did I. It's been a while since I’ve had a Shirley Temple. Forgot how delicious they are.”

Her cheeks flushed and she ducked her head as she laughed. There was a hint of nerves in her laugh, and it brought me comfort to know that she felt the same as me. It had been such a long time since someone made me nervous, and that was definitely the case with Zoe. But in a good way. A way I craved more of.

But then she looked up at me in a way that had my heart catching in my throat, those hazel green eyes of hers sparkling even in the dark. I tried to take a deep breath, but it came as a shallow inhale instead.

“Would you like to go on another date sometime?” I finally got out.

She bit her lip, but her smile still peeked through. “I’d love to.”

My fingers fiddled at my sides, wanting nothing more than to reach out and touch her. To put my hands on her hips like I’d wanted to earlier and pull her toward me for a kiss.