“Well, obviously, you have a dog you love a lot. You have only a few pictures on Instagram and most are of him. My favorite picture is him floating on a yellow duckie float in the lake.”
“Truck does enjoy his leisure time.”
“And because you don’t have a lot of pictures, I have surmised you are not into social media.”
He had to laugh. “Busted. What else?”
“Your mother buys your underwear at Kohl’s—”
“Correction,” he said, putting a hand up. “I was very clear that I do my own underwear shopping.”
“True. Allow me to rephrase—I know your mom is desperate to buy you some underwear and that your parents are a hoot. Those videos!” She giggled.
He liked her mouth. Full lips, expressive smiles. “Hoot is definitely not the word that I’m usually reaching for when I think of my parents, but I can see how they might appear that way to others. What else?” And he liked the way her brows arched perfectly above her eyes. They were supposed to do that, yes, but they looked really cool on her, especially the one that seemed to rise above the other when she was making a point.
“You have a couple of friends, Boobs and Caden, and you are totally into weather notifications because you get them all the time.”
He had to laugh at that. “What can I say? I like a good, solid forecast.”
“And now I know that your hair is a dark brown that women will pay top dollar to get, and your eyes are really slate colored, and not blue or the freaky red laser dots they are in the picture of you at Halloween. And you like horror movies.”
Jonah paused. “Wait . . . how did you—”
“Instagram. The picture of your dog floating on the yellow duckie? You captioned it You’ll float too, which is totally from It Chapter Two.”
He was impressed. “You’ve seen it?”
“Twice.”
Lord, he was a smitten kitten right now. The woman looked like this, laughed liked this, smiled like this, and she watched his favorite genre of movies?
The bartender arrived with the two beer glasses and a basket of chips and salsa. They each poured their beer into a glass. Harper held hers up for a toast. “Happy New Year.”
Jonah tapped his glass against hers. “Happy New Year, Harper.”
Their eyes met, and for a moment that seemed unusually long, they took each other in. And it felt nice, a warm, happy thing sliding through him like a bit of honey. But then he started to feel a little too warm and broke the spell. “I feel like I know you, too.”
“Tell me.” She picked up a chip.
“You like to eat, for one.” He pointed at the chip she popped into her mouth.
Harper nodded. “Too easy. I’m a big foodie and it’s all over my phone and I’ve already told you I’m a garbage disposal.”
“Street tacos?”
“Definitely street tacos.”
He held out his fist, and she bumped it.
“Okay. I know when your next gynecology appointment is, and by the way, if you have any changes in your insurance, you need to arrive fifteen minutes early.”
She laughed.
“I know you take spin classes, because your phone notified me of a monthly payment. I know you’re a heavy sleeper because of the picture I found that I sent you. I know that Mimi, who I take it is your grandmother, loves you, and has the habit of commenting on all your Instagram photos . . . and all the comments on all your Instagram photos.”
“Oh no,” Harper said.
He nodded. “A Happy New Year text was sent out to what looked like five people? And to every Happy New Year, Mimi said, ‘Happy New Year to you, too, honey.’ ”
Harper winced playfully. “She’s still getting the hang of texting. And she thinks Instagram is just between us.”
“I also know that you really like to take selfies in the mirror.”
Color crept into Harper’s cheeks and she gave a charming, self-conscious laugh of surprise. “Did you go through my entire photo roll?”
“I would need more than a week to scroll through the thousands of photos on your phone. But I did complete a cursory inspection. Didn’t you?”
The color in her cheeks deepened to an enticing shade of pink. “I might have skimmed them.”
Well, Jonah had done more than skim. He liked her mirror selfies and had scrolled looking for them. There were other pictures on her phone, too, pictures that allowed him to imagine her life, like the ones she’d taken with friends at recognizable sites around Austin and Houston. Or the selfie in front of the Paramount Theater in Austin for the Moontower Comedy Festival. With a beautiful, dark-haired woman in front of NASA in Houston. In a bar with several women, all of them in sparkly dresses and plastic tiaras. And there were photos of food trucks. And dogs, seemingly at random.
What he didn’t know was her job, which was not apparent in any of the photos. He never took work photos, either, not at his real job, and certainly not in the dingy office at the Lucky Star. But she did seem to be in and around the Domain a lot, an area of town where residences were intermixed with shopping, restaurants, and high-tech industry. He guessed her job was something in technology.
“So? Should we do it?” Harper asked between chips.
Jonah blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Exchange phones.”
“Oh. Right.” How quickly he’d forgotten the reason for being here. He reached in his coat pocket for her phone, laid it down on the bar, and slid it across to her. “No weird texts or pictures—well, I think my cousins might have taken a picture or two of me one night, but you knew that was going to happen. No unauthorized purchases. All the phone numbers associated with my family have been blocked because none of them listen and they definitely don’t take instruction well. I return this to you as I found it, minus the mint that was stuck to it from the floor of that van.”
“Gross. Thank you.” She reached into her bag for his phone and put it on the bar before him. “Thank you so much for the generous use of your phone. I sincerely hope you have an unlimited plan.”
That brought his gaze up.
She laughed, and the sparkle in her eyes charmed him. “Just kidding. Sort of. Oh, and likewise, no weird pictures or unauthorized photos on your phone, either.”
He slid the phone into his pocket. She dropped hers into her tote. “Now that the great phone caper is over, how was your holiday?”
“Good. I helped my cousin move. What about yours?”
“It was quiet. My parents left on a cruise, sooo . . .” She looked away, shrugging a little. “Oh, hey! You got a great new sweater. Izod. My dad wears them all the time.”