She laughed. “What if I had wanted to go to a different restaurant? To have something Mexican or Asian instead?”
He smiled. “I was going to convince you we had to go to a steakhouse because they had such a variety of food. Steaks, prime rib, seafood that is out of this world, duck even.”
“Yeah, I love their prime rib, tender and served with horseradish potato cakes and broccoli,” she said.
“And huckleberry mojitos?” he asked.
“Hmm,” she said as he pulled out her chair and she sat down, then he took a seat opposite her. “A grizzly’s favorite.”
A beautiful bouquet of flowers arrived, and she smiled brightly when she realized it was for their table. “Oh, these are beautiful.”
Aromatic purple irises, white baby’s breath, pink, orange, and red roses, and hot pink snapdragons filled the basket, with a large, purple bow on the handle. It was just gorgeous. No one had ever given her a bouquet of flowers at any point in her life.
She got up from the table, and he rose from his seat. She gave Grayson a hug and a kiss. “I’ve never received flowers before.”
“You deserve that and everything good. I can’t imagine anyone in your life not giving you flowers. You just weren’t with the right person before.”
“I so agree.”
They sat back down and placed their drink order first. Then they looked at the menu again.
She overheard a woman at another table say to her significant other, “Wow, he knows how to do it right.”
The guy’s ears tinged a little red. “I guess I need to rectify that. But it’s probably their anniversary.”
A fresh loaf of bread, glasses of water, and their drinks were delivered to the table. “Do you know what you want to eat?” Grayson asked.
Both wanted the prime rib, potato cakes, and broccoli.
Grayson cut off two pieces of bread and gave her the slice that was in the middle of the loaf, while he took the heel, and he scooted the dish of butter over to her. Wow. If she’d had a date who cut off a slice of bread for her, he would give her the crust. Sometimes, a boyfriend even cut a slice in the middle and left the crust for her to eat. He wouldn’t even hand her the piece, but just got his own slice, and she was on her own.
It was simple things like that that showed how caring Grayson was.
They clinked their drinks together. “To us,” Grayson said. “I love you. You are amazing.”
“Oh, you mean the world to me. I love you too.” They drank from their glasses, and then she put hers down on the table. “Where do you want to live?”
“Since Marcus can handle cases in Whitefish and the surrounding area, and you’re on your own here in Kalispell?—”
“You’re going to stay here with me, unless he needs help, and then we can help him.” She was thrilled at the prospect of not having to leave her home. Moving was so stressful, and she was on a bigger lake, which made it more fun for her. Though she loved the forest out where he lived, and that his home was close to a ski resort.
“Sure, and we can stay with Dad or Marcus whenever we want to go skiing or running through the woods out there. So you want to have kids, right?" Grayson asked Kendra.
She was surprised he hadn't wanted to talk about this before he said he wanted to mate her. "Yeah, of course."
"Good. My dad is so ready to be a grandpa, and Ivy is dying to be an aunt. She wants to smother them with love."
Kendra laughed. "That's sweet. What about Marcus?"
"Oh, he'll be a great uncle. He is like my dad when it comes to Ivy's friends, helpful, always wanting to be there for them if they need someone to talk to, despite Ivy saying no one was paying any attention to her after Mom died. We were all going through our grief process, and for Dad and my brother and me, it was throwing ourselves into our work for the most part."
"And she doesn't work."
"Well, she had school, but she was really close to our mother, and she has been having difficulty concentrating on her subjects even."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I went through that when my sister died. And then again, with my parents. At least I was older when they passed. But it was still awful, and it made it difficult to get through the days at times."
Then it began to lightly rain outside, and she was glad they were inside, enjoying their fine dining. The people sitting outside on the deck under umbrellas were still protected, unless the rain and wind picked up.
