Page 229 of A Matter of Time

“Neither am I,” I said adamantly, laughing at him. “But like I said, clowns creep me out.”

He scowled at me, but the smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Don’t make fun of me. I’m not at all creative. That’s why I became a lawyer.”

“Oh, I think the interpretation of the law is plenty creative.”

“Snark.” He nodded. “Super.”

He had warm eyes and a great smile that I didn’t remember seeing before. “So what brings you to the hardware store on a Sunday night?”

He cleared his throat. “This confession will hopefully not scare you.”

“Uh-oh. What?”

“I was across the street, and I thought I saw you run in here. You’re driving a really ugly green Jeep and⁠—”

“The Jeep is not ugly,” I defended Chris’s pride and joy. “And it’s not green. It’s gunmetal. You just can’t tell at night.”

He snorted. “It’s green. It’s, like, greenish brown and⁠—”

“You know nothing about color.”

“I do too.”

“Oh yeah? What’s your favorite color?”

“Black.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yeah, but not black as in the absence of all other color, but black as in lots of paint colors mixed up together to make black.”

“I see.” I said it like he was nuts.

“You’re not freaked out that I saw you and followed you in here?”

I shrugged. “You just wanted to say hi and give me a little crap about my ride. That’s all very understandable and kinda nice.”

He nodded, and I watched his eyes slide over me. “You think maybe you’d like to grab some dinner with me?”

“I can’t tonight,” I said quickly. “I’m putting a crib together, but I will take a rain check if that’d be okay?”

“Yeah, that’s okay.” He smiled, pushing the glasses up on his nose. “Is dinner tomorrow all right, ’cause if it’s not, we can⁠—”

“Tomorrow night’s great. Why don’t you call me at work and we’ll figure out where we wanna go.”

His smile was huge. “That’s perfect.”

I nodded. “Okay, so I’ll expect to hear from ya.”

“You will. Thanks.”

I squinted at him. “Thanks for what?”

He shrugged. “Saying yes.”

I grinned at him, and I heard his breath catch. It was very flattering, his reaction to me.

“I’ll see ya soon.”