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gaze and winking. The poor guy looked mortified by the whole dating-pool discussion. “So, Anne, what do you do?”
    “Thank you,” Tom muttered fervently under his breath. Darwin sent him a quick smile.
    “I’m a high-school counselor,” Anne said, giving him a look but going with the conversation change easily enough.
    “Yeah?” Darwin asked. “I bet you hear some crazy things.”
    Those were the magic words. Anne launched into a story involving a student love triangle, a food fight and a parrot, leaving Darwin free to just nod and smile at appropriate moments and focus most of his attention on the man sitting next to him.
    Even though they weren’t touching, just being this close to Tom was intoxicating.

    *
     
    The food was fantastic. Darwin noticed either a full stomach or the couple glasses of wine had taken the edge off Tom’s panic.
    Sitting back in his chair, Tom cradled his wineglass in one hand. His other hand rested, fingers relaxed, on his thigh.
    As Macy chattered about her two kids, Darwin kept his eyes on her face as he reached over and touched the back of Tom’s hand. Although he started, inhaling an almost soundless gasp that surely only Darwin’s keen hearing could detect, Tom didn’t move his hand away. Feeling emboldened, Darwin linked their fingers, keeping his grip loose and casual, even though he was dying to clutch tightly.
    In fact, during the entire dinner, Darwin had resisted the urge to grab him and haul Tom against him, to drag him to a dark corner somewhere and kiss him until they both couldn’t breathe. The only thing stopping him was the fact that any grabbing or dragging or kissing would most likely send Tom into cardiac arrest, and Darwin was really hoping for a second date.
    Even just the light grip of Darwin’s hand was sending faint tremors through Tom’s fingers. Although the multiple conversations going on around the table covered up the sound of Tom’s breathing, Darwin guessed the other man was most likely halfway to hyperventilating. Reluctantly, he squeezed the fingers vibrating in his hold and moved his hand away.
    Macy had stopped talking and was looking at him expectantly.
    Shit , he thought. She asked me a question.
    With all his attention focused on Tom, Darwin had completely missed it. He replayed her last few sentences in his head and relaxed. This was one of the rare times that he somewhat appreciated the brain enhancements the fuckers at the lab had given him.
    Avoiding social awkwardness wasn’t worth the price he’d paid, however—that they all continued to pay.
    Darwin shoved back a sudden rush of bitterness. Brooding over it wouldn’t do any good and Macy was still waiting for her answer.
    “Not long,” he answered, giving Tom a gentle bump with his elbow to get his attention. “Tom, how long’s it been since we started going out?” He wasn’t sure what Tom had told Anne, and Darwin didn’t want to get him in trouble with his sister.
    Tom’s gaze jumped guiltily to his and Darwin held back a smile, just lifting an eyebrow and waiting for Tom to respond.
    “Oh…er,” he stammered, shooting Darwin another look. “A few weeks, I guess.”
    “It’s gone by so fast,” Darwin couldn’t resist adding. “I feel like it was just yesterday we were planning our first date.”
    Tom’s face flushed to an even brighter shade as he made a wordless grunt of agreement—or annoyance.
    “That’s how I feel about Sean,” Macy said. “He’s my husband. He stayed home with the kids tonight when our babysitter canceled at the last second. We’ve been married for eight years but time’s gone by so quickly. Well, usually it feels that way, though sometimes I look at him and it feels like it’s been a thousand years.”
    Darwin choked on a laugh. “That bad?”
    With a shrug, Macy explained, “He does this thing where he clicks his teeth together when he’s thinking. It makes me want to throw a rock at his head.”
    “And maybe knock out