“Remy made it special for you. He has a knack of knowing just what to give someone. You had your cards read by Clementine today, right?”
“Um, yes,” I say, drawing out the word because I’m not sure how she knows that.
“I’m not being creepy. She’s my sister-in-law. Well, kind of—she’s married to Kellen’s cousin. So whatever that makes her is what she is. And, anyway, that’s how I know.”
“She told you about my reading?”
“Oh gosh, no! I’m messing this up. She told me about the candles. And I might also know about the accident between your car and Duke’s truck.” She winces. “Small town.”
“News travels fast around here, hey?”
She laughs. “You have no idea.” Her eyes lift from me to the door, and her expression brightens. “Looks like your date is here. Hopefully we’ll meet again,” she says, lifting her hand to give Duke a wave before she leaves to join her husband behind the bar.
“I see you’re already meeting the locals,” Duke says, his deep voice a rumbly perfection as he approaches. I stand to greet him.
“She was just keeping me company. I was early.”
He chuckles and nods toward the bar clock. Seven-fifty-five. “Me too.”
I blush harder than I’ve ever blushed before and giggle in a way that seems foreign to me. This man just seems too good to be true. Tall, dark hair, muscular and broad. He makes me feel tiny even though I’m far from it, and when he leans in to greet me with a kiss on the cheek, he pauses to inhale, and my knees almost give way.
“You smell amazing,” he murmurs.
“Yes,” I say like a blithering idiot. “I mean, thanks.”
My cheeks burn as we move to sit opposite each other in the booth. Duke shifts a little to get comfortable, but then he frowns and stands again.
“Is something wrong?”
“I think I’d feel better if I was sitting next to you instead of across.”
“OK,” I say, beaming as I shift across and he slides in next to me, our thighs pressing up against each other, my soft against his hard.Why does this feel so…hot?
“This isn’t normal for me,” he says rather suddenly. “I don’t…date.”
My eyebrows lift, curiously keeping my flattery at bay. “Then why are you on a date with me?”
He looks at me—no, hestudiesme—then he grins and shakes his head. “Because I haven’t shared a moment with a wiper wielding spitfire before, either. I guess you could say you’ve intrigued me.”
“Even though I reversed into your car and broke the wiper from it?”
“Sometimes things happen for a reason. Perhaps the point of you backing into my truck was so you’d still be there when I got back.”
“So what you’re saying is that the two of us meeting was some kind of kismet?”
“I’m willing to find that out if you are.”
I couldn’t even hide my grin if I tried. “Willing and ready.”
DUKE
“It’s after midnight,” Dottie says in an excited rush as I enter the door. “Tell meeverything.Are you in lurve?” She giggles after drawing out that last word then the expression on her face drops when I step into the light of the kitchen and take my coat off. “Is that…blood?”
“It’s not mine.”
“Then whose? Marmaduke Arthur Fox, were you in a fight?”
“No, the blood is hers. And don’t call me Marmaduke, you know how much I hate that.”
