Page 61 of Finding My Charming

He finally faced me with a genuine smile on his face and continued my way. “Hi, Elle.”

The air in my lungs found escape, allowing me to smile and look like a semi-sane person. “Hi.” It came out as a breath. I needed to pull myself together soon, or he was going to be running before I got in the car.

“You look great. I love the young-professional look on you.” He winked and held out his hand.

I placed mine in his while silently cursing myself for not thinking to have Ari bring me a change of clothes. Luckily, I was wearing a navy pencil skirt and floral blouse, not a pantsuit, but still. Not exactly my ideal first date outfit when he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

I allowed him to lead me to the passenger door and waited next to him while he opened it. He stepped back, dropping my hand, and made a wide sweeping motion with his other hand.

“My lady, your chariot awaits.”

“Why, thank you, sir.” I smiled at him as I slid onto the smooth leather seat.

He gently shut the door and jogged around the front to his side.

My eyes tailed him like he was a firefly on the darkest night. The draw to him was undeniable.

We started off on the drive in silence, but after a few blocks, Vincent blew out a breath. “We didn’t have this problem when we were basically strangers.”

I glanced over at him, concerned he was going to turn around, and this date would end before it really started, but he was smiling back at me with a joke in his eyes.

“There were no expectations then. Now we have to live up to those other nights.”

He lifted one hand off the steering wheel and reached across the center console for mine. “Would you have told me all that you did if you’d known we’d see each other again?”

I pretended to think about it but shook my head. “I was hoping we would. You make it easy to talk to you though.”

“I wonder why that is. You’re probably the only girl I’ve ever met who is so easy to talk to, well, about real things.”

I squeezed his hand and chuckled. “What do you normally talk about if it’s not real things?”

“You know. Girls want to talk about their last shopping trip or what lipstick is the best color.”

I was full-on laughing before he finished. “You need to meet different girls then! Not all of us are that vapid.”

“I know that now.” He studied me for a second before winking and looking back at the road.

“Where are you taking me?”

Now it was his turn to laugh and squeeze my hand. “When you say it like that, I sound like I’m kidnapping you. I wasn’t sure if you had any food aversions. We didn’t get to that during our last conversation, so I thought I would play it safe.”

“Okay? So, what does safe mean?” I took advantage of the time he was distracted and studied his profile while he was driving. I still couldn’t believe a guy like him was interested in me. He was it. The handsome jock with a chiseled body and a great personality. Put together, he was too good to be true.

“Before I tell you, I want to preface it with a bit of an explanation. I’m taking you to my favorite place, but I was hesitant, since normally, girls want to go to nice places where they can dress up and feel important. But you aren’t a normal girl.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye before continuing. “I don’t want you to think that I didn’t want to impress you or not take you somewhere nice. You just seem more down to earth. The kind of girl who would rather have delicious food and good conversation than be served by a waiter in a tux.” When he was finished, he peeked at me again as if he was nervous about my reaction.

I contemplated making him sweat it a little, but he was being thoughtful, and he paid attention to me. He didn’t deserve to be teased for that.

“Those stuffy places make me uncomfortable. I’d much rather go somewhere with a good burger than eat hors d’oeuvres that I can’t pronounce.”

For the first time since I’d asked where we were going, he had a smile that reached his eyes. I could tell he was really stressing about this, but he had no reason to be.

“I’m glad you mentioned good burgers because where we’re going has the very best.”

“Oh really? We’ll see if it lives up to my favorite place then.”

I watched his smile grow at my challenge. We drove in comfortable silence for the rest of the way, but when he pulled into a parking lot, I couldn’t help but laugh.

He released my hand as he maneuvered the car into a space then turned to me with a weird look on his face. “What’s so funny?”