“Welcome to Sideline. Just the two of you today?” she asks, reaching for a couple of menus from the little slot built into the side of the podium.

My heart skips at the question—because it reminds me that I shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be in public, alone, with Declan. Panic flutters beneath my ribs until I remind myself that we just finished a yoga lesson, and we both look the sweaty part, so no one would think anything else was going on.

And even if they did, what was the worst that could happen? We’re two adults having a meal. Nothing wrong with that. Right?

The hostess passes me the menus. “You can sit wherever you’d like. Your server will be right with you.”

It’s early evening, so Sideline isn’t busy at all. I pick a booth far away from the windows, tucked in a quiet corner, and slide into the seat across from Declan, who smirks as he takes one of the menus from me. We barely have time to look them over before the waitress appears and asks us for our drink order.

“Let’s start with a couple of whiskey sours,” Declan tells her, ordering for the two of us, then turns to me. “That’s what you like, right?”

I nod because it’s my favorite drink, but I can’t believe he remembered that tiny detail all these months later. Most men I’ve dated couldn’t remember my drink preference after three dates, let alone one night.

Was he really paying that much attention to me back then?

Declan orders some appetizer or another too, but it doesn’t stick in my brain because I’m still caught on the drink.

If he remembered something that small, what else has he been storing away about me and what I like?

I try to fight it, but my body hums with a mixture of surprise and pleasure at the thought.

12. Declan

Chapter 12

Declan

Hannah stares at me over the rim of her glass as she takes her first sip, and her features soften with pleasure as the alcohol hits her tongue. It’s the exact same look she wore when I watched her taste her drink that night at Opal and Oak—the same one that’s been etched into my memory ever since.

It hit me like a ton of bricks, even with half her face covered by a mask, and it’s even more captivating now that I can see all the details on her beautiful face. Her skin glows with a post-workout flush, her lips full and curved in that slight, secret smile. And her heterochromatic eyes are even more striking now that they aren’t peeking out from behind a mask.