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“No, I’m not busy, and I’d love to see you again tonight.”
“Fabulous. In that case, I thought we might have a picnic down by the creek?”
“That sounds lovely.” She reaches out, putting her hand on my arm, and I do my best not to react to the feeling of her skin against mine… not when we’re in a schoolyard, surrounded by children. “I’m glad you’re here,” she says. “I wanted to apologize.”
“What on earth for?”
“For sending you away so abruptly last night. I was gonna say something in our text messages, but I didn’t want you to misunderstand.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for, either in person or by text. It was our first date and…”
“It was nothing to do with that,” she says, interrupting me. “I wanted to invite you in, and I was going to, but I remembered how much of a mess my house is. I’m still unpacking, you see. My living room’s a mess, and I hadn’t been able to decide what to wear to work yesterday, or when I came out with you last night, so there were clothes scattered all over my…” She stops talking abruptly and bites on her bottom lip.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that she was either going to say ‘bed’, or ‘bedroom’ at the end of that sentence, and that thought makes me smile.
“You assumed I’d give a damn about how tidy your house was?” I shake my head, moving even closer and lowering my voice. “That was the last thing on my mind.” She gazes up at me and sighs out a breath. “I wanna kiss you so damn hard,” I whisper, unable to help myself.
Her breath hitches, and she blinks up at me. “Not here. Not now.”
I smile down at her. “Later, then?” She nods. “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.”
She nods again, and I step away, missing her already.
The walk back to the bookstore takes no time at all, and while I’m relieved by how well that went, I’m still mad about Dean’s presence, and the way he failed to take proper care of Nash. I guess it’s something I’ll have to raise with Sabrina, but I know I’ll have to time it right.
I need to be calm when I talk to her… and preferably not preoccupied with Zara’s admission that she wanted to invite me in last night.
Or where that might have taken us…
I push open the door, surprised to find there are no customers in the store. That’s unusual for this time of day, and I wander to the cash desk, leaning over it, and resting on my elbows.
“What happened? Where did everyone go?” I ask, and Katie smiles.
“You just missed the rush.”
“That’s good.” She narrows her eyes, although she’s smiling, and she leans back against the wall behind her.
“So? How did it go?”
“Zara liked the idea of the picnic.”
“Perfect.” She nods her head. “Now we just have to think of somewhere you can take her for your third date.”
“I was thinking of inviting her to my place, or suggesting I could go to hers.”
She grins, then chuckles. “That’s always an option.”
I stand up straight. “Who made you the dating guru of Hart’s Creek, by the way?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she says, tapping the side of her nose, as she pushes herself off of the wall and walks toward the back of the store to fix us a coffee… I hope.
I turn off the shower, ignoring my erection. It seems to be a fairly permanent feature these days. I get aroused every time I think about Zara, and I think about her practically every second of the day, so I’m getting used to having a hard on. For now, I wrap a towel around my hips, opening the bathroom door, and stepping out into the living room before I make my way up the stairs to the bedroom.
It’s not sunny this evening, but it’s humid, and I decide on dark blue jeans and a white casual shirt, leaving it untucked, because while I may be used to my permanent state of arousal, I don’t want to embarrass Zara.
Once I’m ready, I pack all the things I bought earlier into my backpack, adding a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and two glasses, which I place carefully in the top of the bag, so they don’t break. Then I gather my phone and keys, and go downstairs, letting myself out through the back door.
It only takes a matter of minutes to walk to Zara’s house, and I ring the doorbell, feeling a lot less nervous than I did last night. Now, I just can’t wait to see her, and the moment she opens the door, I have to smile.
