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toward him. "Do not try to pretend you've never eaten pizza."
"Not one so enthusiastically greasy."
"You must not order pepperoni, then. Pepperoni is grease. And salt, too.
Yummy, yummy."
"I get portabella, green pepper and sliced tomatoes with Parmesan shavings
grilled over a wood fire."
"Oh, you poor, poor, deprived man." She picked up a piece. "Eat."
"But the girls "
"Will come back when they run out of money. Not too much longer, I
think."
Holding her gaze with his, Simon opened his mouth and Sara moved the
pizza toward him. After chewing a mouthful, he raised his eyebrows and
nodded. "I'll admit that it has a certain gooey charm that a grilled portabella
mushroom lacks."
"I guess so."
He looked around again and Sara realized he was worried about the girls.
She wasn't because she'd been watching the exit and the midway video
monitors behind him. "Does Kayla have a pager or a cell phone?"
"Good idea." He reached for his and punched a single number.
So he had his little sister's cell number on autodial.
"Pizza's here," he said into the phone and closed it.
Sara was eating said pizza and enjoying it thoroughly. Maybe too
thoroughly because she was aware of Simon doing his staring thing again. Just
observing her. It made her self-conscious, especially when a string of cheese
caught on her chin. Why wasn't he eating? She set the slice down and pointed
to his. "Aren't you going to eat?"
"I enjoy watching you eat. You're really into it."
Pig woman. What an attractive image. "You can't do that not without
eating, too. It's too weird."
He laughed and picked up his pizza.
She was liking him a little too much, here.
"So, what's between you and Joanna?" That should be a mood killer.
"Nothing." He calmly bit into his pizza.
"Does she want there to be something?"
"I don't know. I don't care."
Sara believed him. It would have been more helpful if she didn't.
Simon was in an alien land. If Kayla had been a boy, he would have had a
frame of reference, but Kayla was almost a teenage girl. He'd thought a nice
grown-up restaurant like La Griglia would be a treat. Obviously not.
If Sara hadn't been in his office, he would have experienced yet another
failure with his sister. But now, watching as she and Amber galloped to their
table, their smiles huge, he realized it was the first time he'd ever seen Kayla
completely happy when she was with him.
She and Amber grabbed pieces of pizza and he started to correct them, or at
least Kayla, but didn't and was rewarded by hearing them tell about the games
they'd played. The words tumbled out of them. They looked at him a couple of
times and he made all the right noises, he thought.
Sara picked up two plastic cards that looked like credit cards. "They need
their power cards recharged."
"After pizza?" he asked.
Sara grinned at him. She had a small, well-shaped mouth and a cute
indentation at the corner when she smiled. It distracted him from immediately
noticing that she was gesturing downward with the power cards.
The pizza was gone. "Did you two inhale it?"
They giggled.
"Do you want more?"
They shook their heads. Sara took a card in each hand and waved them
back and forth as though signaling.
"I take it me and my wallet are invited to the midway." This caused more
giggling, some from Sara.
As he followed them across the restaurant toward the midway arch, Simon
felt as though he'd had a breakthrough with Kayla. The relief was enormous.
His little sister apparently harbored a huge resentment because she felt he'd
ignored her. Simon knew he had Joanna to thank for making her feel that way.
But he also accepted the blame because he'd never actually thought of her as
his sister. He hadn't thought of her at all, really. He'd been so hurt and the
situation had been so awkward, that he'd stayed away. Now he was
struggling to get to know this girl who shared a father with him and tonight's
success was entirely due to Sara.
Sara. One minute, he'd been up to his elbows in the copier and the next, he'd
looked over his shoulder at her standing there and felt his heart skip a beat.
And just like that, he was back in the game. Oh, he had the best of intentions
with regard to Kayla, but in his mind, Simon had already traveled from a
chance meeting at a photocopier to rethinking his No Women rule. And
rethinking it with Sara.
Simon looked at her standing in line, laughing and talking about video
games to the girls with a casual ease that he envied. If she had any idea of
what he was thinking, she'd run. Because he wanted to touch her. Curl his
hand around her nape, draw her close and kiss her. Right here. Right now. He
wanted to taste her. Devour her.
Instead, he extravagantly shoved bills at the cashier, endured squeals and
hugs from both Kayla and Amber, then smiled at Sara. "Come on." He nodded
toward a row of white pods. "Let's go kill some aliens."
4
« ^ »
THE NEXT DAY, Sara immediately set up another lunch with Missy and Hayden
in the atrium café of their building.
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