“You’re good at that,” I say after another minute of staring at her.
“At painting?”
“Yeah, and focusing.”
“I’m finding this oddly relaxing. You may have discovered a new hobby for me.”
“That’s great, and you have all this wood to work with.”
“It’s fun too,” she adds.
“I’m definitely enjoying myself,” I say, smirking at her. She doesn’t get my joke because she hasn’t taken her eyes off her project since she began.
“I can say with one hundred percent certainty I didn’t think I’d ever be doing crafts with you in your kitchen.” She snickers. “What other date ideas did you come up with?” she asks.
“Well, I thought of going snowshoeing but figured that’s something we should do during the day and on a weekend.”
She nods. “Sounds fun. I haven’t done that since I was a kid.”
“We could go on a sleigh ride sometime.”
“Another thing I haven’t done since I was little.”
“I guess we’ll need to remedy that soon,” I say.
She looks up at me and smiles. “I’d like that.”
“Last year I took Gramps on one, and when we were in the middle of the ride, he pulled out a flask filled with whiskey,” I say.
She laughs. “Sounds like something Pops would do.”
“They’re too alike.”
She nods. “I guess it’s to be expected when they’ve been best friends since they were kids.”
The next couple of hours pass like a flash with easy conversation peppered with some teasing on both our parts. And then she says the words I’ve been dreading since she arrived.
“I need to get going. It’s almost my bedtime.”
“You can leave your sign and finish it another night.”
She wrinkles her nose. “I don’t want to tie up your table for days on end, but we spent so much time talking, I didn’t get to finish.”
“It won’t be in my way. I eat in front of the TV most nights anyway.”
“Maybe after Travis and Nina’s party, I can come over and knock out the rest,” she suggests, standing.
“Is that your way of trying to come up with an excuse to sleep over?” I tease, pushing my chair back and rising.
“It wasn’t meant to be, but it’s probably a good idea since I may have a drink or two.”
I nod. “Seems like spending the night here is the responsible thing to do.” My blood pumps faster at the thought of having her in my bed.
“Tonight was a lot of fun.”
“Then we’ve officially had a successful first date.”
“Best first date ever.”
