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“Hey, Austin. Poker’s at my house. You lost?” Whitney’s voice was full of teasing. She leaned back, presumably because she’d be hidden from Austin by bookshelves and patted a hand on her heart.
I gave a little shake of my head.
Megan just grinned.
“Half the guys didn’t show. Noah, Scott, and I decided to call it early. So I came here, hoping maybe I could convince my girl to go for a walk. Maybe grab an ice cream?” His gaze locked with mine, and he lifted an eyebrow in invitation.
I stood, dusting my hands on my jeans. I wasn’t dressed for a date. Not that it mattered. Austin had seen me in grubby, hanging-out clothes a lot. We’d been besties for years. So it shouldn’t matter. Still, I was self-conscious. “I like ice cream.”
Megan snickered. “I like ice cream. Can I come?”
“Pfft. Who’d run the store?” Austin glanced at the chair where Beckett was entranced by the picture book he had open in his lap. “I guess Beck could handle it.”
Whitney chuckled. “He probably could. Other than not being able to count past ten—and it gets a little shaky after five. But he’s cute, so maybe people would be okay with not getting change.”
I grabbed my purse. “I guess I’ll see you guys later.”
“I guess you will.” Megan rolled her eyes. “Enjoy your ice cream.”
“We will. You could always pick some up on your way home. You know they’re open late on Fridays.” Austin held out his hand to me.
It was weird slipping my hand in his in front of the girls. His fingers closed around mine.
We left the bookstore hand in hand and stopped on the sidewalk in front.
He tipped his head to the side. “Do you want ice cream? Maybe go walk by the water? Or is it too cold?”
“Nah. It’s not too cold.” Today had been relatively nice, though once the sun set the chill had started creeping in. But I wasn’t going to risk having Austin change his mind. If he wanted ice cream and a stroll in the park by the river, then that was what we’d do.
The ice cream shop was on the way toward the river. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much business tonight, so we were in and out with our cones in a matter of minutes. There were a few people out walking, but definitely not anything like the crowds that would flock in the summer when people headed toward the river hoping for a breeze.
“I’m sorry your poker night fell through.” I knew it was something he looked forward to every week. It wasn’t about the cards. It was time with his friends. I got that. Especially since I’d started looking forward to my own Friday nights with the girls.
“I don’t understand why none of them let us know they weren’t going to make it. I don’t want everything to fall apart, you know? I get that with Scott and Whitney married, and now we’re dating, maybe the guys are worried that things are changing, but I don’t see why they’d have to.” Austin gave our hands a little swing. “If nothing else, if we get everyone else paired off, we can start doing stuff as couples.”
“Whoa there. We’re not matchmaking.” I shook my head. “No one wants that.”
Austin chuckled. “Maybe, maybe not.”
I turned my head and studied him. “No. Put that idea out of your head. What if people had gotten ideas about pushing us together? How do you think that would’ve worked out?”
“A lot like this?” Austin stopped. We’d reached one of the benches by the water’s edge. “You wouldn’t have backed away just because our friends put us together, would you?”
I drew in a breath and looked out over the Potomac. Probably not. I’d been on my way to being in love with Austin for long enough that I probably would have jumped on any opportunity for him to see me as something other than his best friend.
“Exactly.” Austin sat and tugged me down beside him. “Depending on how you look at it, Luke played matchmaker by making me realize how I felt and what I was about to lose.”
“I guess we should write him a thank-you note.” I burrowed up against Austin. He slid his arm around my shoulder and tucked me close.
“That seems excessive.”
I chuckled and licked my cone. “This is nice.”
“It is. Sometimes, at school, it’s all I can do to keep from pulling you close for just a minute. I probably spend entirely too much time thinking about it.”
My lips curved. “You know Lola and Darius?”
Austin snickered. “I do. And yeah, it’d be great to be able to indulge in PDA like they do. On the flip side, I’d just as soon they did a little less. The other day I had to stop and interrupt because Darius’s hand was just a little too inappropriately placed.”
