Page 30 of Her Devoted HERO

“You’re right it does. Hold on while I call my mother and tell her you can’t make it for dinner,” she shot over her shoulder as she headed back to the guest room.

Dex grinned. He was ninety-nine percent sure she was giving him shit, but the fact that he wasn’t totally sure made it all the more entertaining.

“If I agree to split the lunch bill, am I still invited to dinner?” he asked Kenna when she came back the hall.

“It depends on how well you behave at lunch. If you give me too hard of a time, then dinner is off.”

He opened the door for her, and they went out to the jeep. He watched as she admired the bougainvillea again. “I can take you to a chain restaurant, or this little dive that has great food. Your choice.”

“Definitely the dive,” Kenna answered. “Austin and I eat at this one taco truck at least twice a month. It has the best food.”

“I wasn’t sure since you said that you worked hard to live in a good neighborhood.” Dex backed out onto the street and headed toward Danny’s Taqueria.

“Four years ago, at our old house, Austin was playing with the kids in our neighborhood. They were a grade older than he was. I was good with it because he was going to be in middle school with them, but it turned out two of them were in a gang. One of the boys shot a convenience store clerk. We were renting a small house, I moved out the next week.”

“You didn’t have an idea of where you were going to move to?”

“I must have talked to everyone at the nursing home and school I was going to, pretty soon I figured out the right middle school and high school for Austin to attend. All I could afford was an apartment, but I moved us in.”

“You didn’t let any grass grow under your feet.”

“Absolutely not. Austin hated leaving his friends and living in an apartment, but he knew I was trying to do the right thing for us, so he sucked it up.”

Dex maneuvered over the potholes in the cramped parking lot. “I’ll say it again, Austin seems like a good kid.”

“I think he is, but I’m biased.”

She moved a little more slowly than usual out of the jeep, and he opened the door to the small restaurant. “We place our orders up front,” he explained.

“It smells great in here.” Her hazel eyes lit up. “Is there anything you recommend?”

“Some kind of seafood. Their fish tacos are fantastic. I’m getting the shrimp rancheros. I’m also ordering guacamole with some of their homemade flour tortillas. Chips are free, but I slather the guac on my tortillas.”

“You talked me into the fish tacos.”

“Good choice.” They placed their orders, and Kenna didn’t even complain when he pulled out his wallet and paid for the meal. When he took their number, and they sat down at a table, he couldn’t resist.

“Now that we’re on our first date tell me more about yourself.”

She placed her elbow on the table and planted her chin in her hand. “I would love to after you tell me why you decided to contact me on the dating site. What about my profile stood out to you?”

Fuck! How in the hell was he going to answer that one?

“Dex? It’s an easy enough question. I looked at your profile, it had only been up for one day before you contacted me. Why me?”

Holy hell, he didn’t want to start this off on some kind of lie, but he didn’t want to have her think that he didn’t think she was special.

He was relieved when their number was called for their drinks. By the time he sat down Kenna was pissed.

“What?”

She looked him up and down, her face was flushed. Her hands were now clenched on the table in front of her. “Consider your words carefully Dexter Evans, I don’t deal well with liars.”

“Does Austin get away with anything with you?”

“Not that I know of,” she bit out.

She unrolled her napkin and slammed the plastic utensils down on the table. “I thought it was weird that someone like you would reach out to someone like me right after joining the site. But you were so funny and nice I overlooked it. But now you can’t answer one damned question without hesitating. What gives?”