A thrill coursed through her. He was holding her hand like he always had, which she thought was a pretty good sign. Or was that just her being ridiculously naive and reading into something all because she hoped that it meant more than it did?

Jeez. Stop it. Or you’ll drive yourself crazy all night long.

Brett opened her door for her but gazed at her with a funny look on his face. “Everything okay?”

Crap. He was picking up on her nervousness. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Of course,” she said, climbing into the cab. “Let’s go eat.”

He nodded and shut her door before strolling around to the driver’s side and getting in. They made small talk as he drove, although he didn’t take her hand again like she’d hoped he would. But he was driving so she tried not to read into that too.

When he pulled into the Gypsy Cantina’s parking lot, Sidney sat a little straighter in her seat. “Uh, is this where we’re having dinner?”

“Yeah, is that okay?”

“Sure, I just…well, you know who owns this place, right?”

“Jessa.”

“Well, yeah. But you know who she’s married to, don’t you?”

“Oh, you mean Max. Yeah, what about him?”

“You two don’t get along.”

He smirked. “Sure we do. Whenever we aren’t in the same room, we’re fine.”

“That’s my point exactly. You know Max is most likely going to be here. This probably isn’t the best place for us to have dinner.”

Brett pulled into an empty parking space anyway. “It’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

He took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb in circles over her palm. “I am. Trust me, there’s nothing Max can say or do that is going to rile me up.”

Sidney rolled her eyes. “Okay, if you say so.”

Brett grinned as he got out of the truck and came around to open her door. He seemed really confident that Max wasn’t going to upset him tonight, but Sidney knew how relentless Max could be. She’d seen him in action before. Max was a good guy, but he liked to see people squirm. He would push every button Brett had until he found the one that would detonate.

As they headed inside, Sidney could only hope that Max’s taunting wasn’t going to cause Brett to overreact as he always had in the past. Guess we’ll see what happens.

Although the place wasn’t completely packed, it was still pretty busy for a Sunday night. Dining guests were scattered around the room, but there were a few empty tables available. They were seated at one of them directly below a gorgeous chandelier that hung in the center of the room.