"I'm not big on practicing. I like to get right into something," she said.
A smile spread across his face. "You like to compete, to win."
"Well…yeah," she admitted. "You do, too."
"I do. But I haven't had as many wins as I would have liked lately, so I've had to find ways to cope with that frustration. And there's a good yoga studio on Fourth Street, by the beach, called Karma. You should check it out sometime."
"Maybe after all this is over." She took another circle around his office, then said, "I do have one idea of something we could do to distract ourselves."
His eyes glittered as his gaze met hers. "Not that," he said sharply.
"Not what?" she challenged, intrigued by his immediate reaction.
"There's a bad idea going through your head right now."
"Reckless, maybe. Bad? I don't think so."
"Do you play cards?" he asked, a somewhat desperate note in his voice.
"What?" she asked, surprised by his abrupt question.
"Gin? Poker? What's your game?"
"I can play gin and some poker, but I'm not good at bluffing."
"Let's go back to the dining room, and we'll find a responsible way to pass the time."
She frowned. "You don't even want to know what I was going to suggest a minute ago?"
"Haley—"
"Ice cream sundaes," she said, interrupting him. "They always helped me pass the time before. And we didn't have dessert. I'm pretty sure I saw some ice cream in your freezer."
A mix of emotions ran through his eyes. "I have ice cream. But I don't know about chocolate."
"I have a bar in my bag. I'm never too far away from chocolate. So, we're set. We'll make sundaes."
As he got up, he gave her a quizzical look. "Was that really what you were going to suggest, Haley?"
She gave him a secretive smile. "I guess you'll never know."
ChapterSixteen
As they made their way to the living room, Haley found herself looking at Matt with new eyes. When he'd first shown up at her apartment, she'd seen him as just another authority figure who wanted to keep her in the dark, to use her for information but not share any in return. Now she was beginning to see that beneath his FBI agent exterior was someone who genuinely cared about getting to the truth, not just closing a case. And maybe someone who also cared about her, about Landon. She might be reading too much into his protectiveness. He was the kind of man who was going to do his job to the best of his ability, no matter what. She really shouldn't forget that.
"I'll get the ice cream," Matt said. "You get the chocolate."
She grabbed the chocolate bar out of her bag and took it into the kitchen, where Matt had pulled out a carton of vanilla ice cream and two bowls. Breaking the bar of chocolate into small squares, she tossed them in a saucepan, then turned on the heat to simmer. "This works better with milk if you have it."
He retrieved a carton of fat-free milk. "This is all I have."
"It's perfect." She poured in some milk and then stirred it into the melting chocolate. "Why don't you dish out the ice cream? This is almost ready."
After Matt scooped ice cream into two bowls, she poured the warm chocolate over the top. "This would be better with nuts and cherries, but this will work." She didn't take a bite until Matt had spooned up a mix of chocolate sauce and ice cream. "Well?"
He nodded with approval. "It's good."
She took a bite and let out a sigh of pleasure that came not just with the warm chocolate taste, but with the memories that came with it.
