My heart skips at the sight of his name. My fingers quickly tap out a reply while Aaron pontificates about the wine to the waitress.

ME: I told you, it’s not a date. It’s just dinner.

DECLAN: You didn’t answer my question.

ME: It’s going… okay.

DECLAN: Come on, you can be honest with me.

I stare at the screen for a few seconds, watching the cursor flash while I wrestle with whether that’s true. How honest can I be with Declan? It’s not that I don’t trust him, but once I put something out there with him, I can’t take it back. And I’m not naïve enough to think he won’t read between the lines of anything I say.

“Everything alright?” Aaron asks, glancing across the table at me.

“Yeah, sorry. My mom needed something, I’m almost done,” I cover, and his face lights up.

“Oh, tell her I said hi and thanks for helping make this happen.”

“Yeah, sure,” I murmur, although I have no intention of doing that.

ME: I shouldn’t have said yes.

DECLAN: I’m glad you said that.

My brows furrow because I don’t have any idea what he means by that, but I don’t have time to ask him. I stuff my phone back in my purse and look up just as the waitress finishes filling my glass.

“To us,” Aaron says and lifts his glass, watching me expectantly, so I reluctantly pick mine up and clink it against his.

Thankfully, the waitress appears again a few moments later, interrupting our awkward conversation. But she’s wearing an apologetic expression when she stops at the table.

“I’m sorry, but I just got word that the restaurant is going to be closing early tonight, so there won’t be enough time for you to put in a dinner order,” she says, clasping her hands together.

Aaron frowns. “What? Why the hell is it closing so early? And why didn’t anyone bother to tell me that when I made the reservation?”

I cringe at his tone, embarrassed for both of us. Even back when we were dating, his quick temper with service staff always made me uncomfortable.

The waitress grimaces at him. “We weren’t planning on this, but something has come up that makes it necessary.”

Aaron stares at her with his jaw hanging slack like a fish out of water, but I raise a hand to tell him to back down and smile at the waitress. “We understand. We’ll finish up our drinks and get out of your way so you can close.”

“Thank you for understanding. I’ll bring your check and a cork for the bottle in just a second so you can take it home,” the waitress says and steps away looking relieved, to go tell her next table the same news.