“Oh right,” he said, nodding. “I am pretty good at that too. Maybe not as good as the F thing.”

“You mentioned the great restaurants.”

“Really great. And my very big… credit limit.”

“Right. That was a goes-without-saying thing,” she told him.

They did that silly grin-at-each-other-for-several-long-seconds thing. Then he said, “Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.”

She blinked at him.

He took a drink of cider.

“Really?” she finally said.

“Yep. Are you distracted?”

“Completely.”

He winked at her.

“That’s… interesting.”

“There’s more where that came from.” He knew tons of weird animal facts. For some reason.

“I guess I was expecting more of the flirtatious type of distraction,” she finally said. “Less of the animal urine type of distraction.”

“Oh.” That was good to know. “I can do that.” He paused. “I think.”

“You think? Haven’t you been flirting this whole time?”

“Sure. I mean, that’s talking-flirting,” he agreed. “But if you want sexy-flirting… I’m pretty sure I can pull that off too.”

“Why only pretty sure?” She looked genuinely confused.

He decided to be totally honest. They’d shared a lot tonight. He could tell her this. “I’m not sure I’ve ever sexy-flirted with a woman I really fucking liked. I’d rather sit here and talk over pizza than have you dress up in a fairy costume and tell me my staff really is magical.”

“Oh my God, please tell me that’s a gaming thing,” she asked, looking part fascinated and part horrified.

He nodded. “Comic-Con.”

“That really happened once?”

“Three times.”

“I... um… have no idea what to say.”

He grinned. “Exactly. And I bet you’ve never owned anything from Prada or Louis Vuitton.”

“I do know what those are,” she said. “But no.”

He nodded. “And if you did have an extra two thousand dollars, you’d do something great with it rather than buying a purse.”

“Purses cost two thousand dollars?” she demanded.

“At least.”

“That’s… that should be… illegal.” She shook her head. Then she took a breath. “But you can’t judge people because they spend money on purses. To them, two thousand dollars is like twenty bucks to me.”

He smiled at her. Not a sexy grin. Not an amused grin. A smile he knew was full of affection and admiration. “I like you. I respect the hell out of you. I think you’re a better person than any of the women I’ve ever dated. Not because of how they—and you—spend money, but just because of who you are. And that’s a little intimidating.”

She was staring at him as if he’d just told her four more animal urine facts.

“You okay?” he asked after another few seconds.

“You’re intimidated by me?” she asked.

He laughed. “Yes. But not enough to get up, make an excuse, and leave you alone.”

She took that in. Then she slowly smiled. “Good. The not leaving me alone part, I mean. Not the intimidated part. You have nothing to be intimidated about.”

“I’m a guy who loved video games, accidentally made one that got popular, and now uses his money and success to drive his father crazy.”

“You’re also a guy who looks around and wants to make things better. A lot of people never even look around. Those who do, don’t feel personally responsible for changing things.”

“I bought a cappuccino machine.”

“Yeah. You did something.”

“That’s not much.”

“It’s something, Dax. It matters.”

“You didn’t think so at first.”

They’d been slowly leaning in closer to one another across the table.

“I was wrong. I was looking at the machine, not the guy behind it.”

Yeah, he was falling for her. That was interesting. He wasn’t sure that had happened to him since high school. And Bailey Conner didn’t really count. He’d liked her mostly because of her game controllers—not a euphemism—and love for Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed.

“Yeah, well, you deal with a lot of shit, and you’re still a wonderful friend and coworker and daughter and sister. You want your workplace to be a great place and your coworkers to be happy and appreciated and have what they deserve when you could be wallowing in all your own crap and not worrying about anyone else.”

She looked a little sad for a moment. “I try to do that,” she said. “But full confession. I want to go to work, do my job, and then go home. I want it to be simple. I’ve worked there for so long because it’s straightforward. I resented getting pulled into all the drama with you guys coming in and taking over and stirring everything up and scaring everyone.”

“But you still got involved,” he said with a shrug. “You didn’t want to, but you did it. Sorry, but that makes it even more admirable.”

“Come on. The fact that I don’t want to be involved, even for the great people I work with is admirable?”

“Yes. Because even if you just want to go home at the end of the day and forget about it all, you definitely know something about how important temporary reprieves can be,” he said. “Having someone to dog sit, having a simple ride to work… Those little things can make a few moments easier, and that can make an entire situation lighter.”

Jane stared at him. But he meant it. The things she did to lighten things up for the people around her were more meaningful than what he did, but they both liked making things easier for others. He loved having that in common with her.

“And you do even more than that,” he went on. “You’ve been pushing for better working conditions and to be sure the new management respects the workers and the things that are already in place.”

“I did not want to,” she insisted. “I would have loved to have someone else go up to Oliver’s office that first day.”

“Do you think the great warriors always want to charge into battle? Risk their lives? Face injury and possible death? Of course not. But they do it anyway. That’s what bravery is. Not wanting to fight. Fighting because it’s the right thing to do.”

Her eyes widened. He was on a roll. He made a video game full of warriors and battles. This was his shit.

“You’re not even really doing battle for your own treasure,” he said. “I mean, you don’t have kids and dependents. You don’t need certain work shifts or jobs. You’re healthy and able to do whatever. You have yourself to take care of. But you’re in there fighting so everyone else’s treasure chests and villages are also protected.” The analogies from Warriors of Easton were easy. He grinned, pleased. “Fighting to protect someone else’s village, when yours is pretty safe, is very heroic.”

There was a beat of silence. Then she said softly, “Aiden coached me.” But she was watching him, taking in every word.