Page 76 of Feast

Genuinely confused, she picked up her head to frown at him. “Why?”

He tapped her rope marks. “I wouldn’t have done this.”

“How come?”

“It’s…complicated.”

“Our personal motto,” she quipped.

His mustache twitched into a smile. “Let’s get you fed,” he said and stood. “What do you feel like?”

“Meat,” she decided and rose to pick her clothes up off his floor.

He tookher to Brann’s on 28thStreet, ordered the prime rib for both of them, and tried to explain why it was a bad idea to play with rope without eating for twelve hours.

“I feel fine,” she told him and popped a bite of beef into her mouth. “Just hungry.”

“This time,” he pointed out. “Just…let me know if you’re running on fumes next time, all right?”

“Yes, Daddy,” she said demurely and batted her eyelashes.

“Brat,” he admonished, but he was smiling when he cut into his steak.

They ate their dinner, chatting comfortably about everything and nothing, laughing more than he was used to, and when he was signing the check, he found himself wanting to prolong the evening.

“Listen, do you mind if we make a stop on the way back to my place?”

She slid out of the booth. “No, I don’t mind. Where?”

He held out her coat for her. “Schuller’s.”

“The bookstore?”

“Yeah.” He eyed her as he gathered his coat, amused. “Why do you look surprised?”

She shrugged, watching him tug on his coat. “I don’t know. I mean, I assumed you knew how to read.”

“Ha.”

“I guess I just had you pegged as an order-from-Amazon guy.”

“I do, with e-books,” he confessed, laying a hand on her back to guide her out of the restaurant. “But I like to buy local whenever I can.”

“I haven’t been to Schuller’s since I moved back,” she confessed.

He opened the door of his truck for her. “Then I’d say you’re due.”

When they walkedinto the bookstore, Maddie sighed. “God, I love this place.”

Spence looked around. “Yeah. Me too.”

The store was one large, sprawling, open space with a café tucked in one corner, a children’s section overflowing with color, and row upon row of books.

“What are you looking for?” she asked him.

“Brittney Spears’ autobiography,” he said and smothered a grin at her exaggerated double take. “What?”

“I didn’t say a thing,” she said innocently.