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“Okay. Valid point. How about this? Whoever has the worst date story getsoutof buying dinner tonight.”
“That’s better. Then at least I’ll get some kind of compensation for spilling this embarrassing story.”
“Now you’ve got me really intrigued.”
“You go first.”
“Okay, mine’s easy because I’ve only gone out on one date. It was last year and after months of one of the ladies at church trying to set me up with her granddaughter, I gave in and agreed to go to a movie with her. Which I thought would be an easy date, plus I really wanted to see the movie.”
“This doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It was. The woman brought her three kids on the date because she wanted them to have a say in helping to pick their next daddy. Then she made me pay for all of them plus popcorn and snacks and the kids talked and fought through the whole movie then one of them barfed in the seat ten minutes before it was over.”
“Okay, it’s getting worse. But I’m still in the lead.”
“I’m not done. At the end of the date, when I told her I didn’t think we were going to work out, she told me that was fine because she’d thought she was going out with my brother anyway. Oh, and then she asked me for his number.”
She let out a laugh. “That’s pretty bad, but buckle up, Buttercup, because you’re going down. My date also brought companions with him on our date, and I only wish they were his kids.” She paused for effect. “My date, Stuart, told me he was so nervous about his date that he brought along his ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Jangles, to do his talking for him.”
Luke narrowed his eyes. “You’re making that up.”
“Iwishthat I were. Because Stuart might have been nervous, but Mr. Jangles was a laugh a minute, cracking non-stop jokes and most of them were at my expense. I would have walked out, but he didn’t bring the dummy out until after I’d ordered, and I was starving and just curious enough to want see what was going to happen.”
Luke was holding his stomach from laughing so hard. He paused for a breath then held up his hand. “Wait. You said he broughtcompanions, plural. Please tell me he brought more than one dummy.”
She sighed. “If only. Apparently he’d picked a restaurant in the same block as his apartment building. I know this because his mom, who helived with, showed up halfway through the date to check on him. Or to check me out. Still not sure exactly which. But she proceeded to pull up a chair and converse with me, Stuart,andMr. Jangles. Then at the end of the meal, she asked if I was going to finish my chicken parm and when I said no, she took a folded-up piece of foil—from her purse—and wrapped up the rest of my meal in it to take with her.”
Luke was bent double with laughter as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and passed it to her. “Take my money. Just take all of it. You win.”
She had to laugh with him. “I told you I would. And I didn’t even tell you about the great date that I’d thought I’d had, until I discovered he stole my credit card and had already run up $1000 in online purchases by the time I’d got home.”
He waved his hand in front of her. “Stop. I’m dying.”
Even though it was brought on by her terrible date stories, she loved hearing his hearty laughter.
“Please tell me you’re planning to use those in a book sometime.” He leaned back against the rock to catch his breath. “Wow. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.”
She passed him back his wallet. “Me either.”
“I’m sorry it was at your expense.”
“It’s okay. I knew you would either find that story humiliating or hilarious. I’m glad you went with the latter.”
He shoved his wallet back in his pocket and wiped his eyes. “Regardless of a few terrible dates, and you were right, thosewereterrible, I still think your life in Chicago sounds more fun and exciting than mine here at the ranch.”
“Exciting? Are you nuts? More like boring. I’ve done way more fun and exciting stuff in the short time I’ve been here than I’ve done the last year in Chicago. It seems like every day here has been filled with something new and different.”
“That’s only because it’s differentto you. To me, it’s the same old stuff every day. Feeding animals, running fence, working on repairs to the ranch. I spend the majority of my time tinkering around and fixing stuff that breaks. Last week I spent two hours trying to repair my old toaster.”
“A toaster? Don’t those cost like twenty bucks to replace?”
His lips curved into a sheepish grin. “It’s the principle of the thing. And tinkering around with stuff gives me more time to brood.”
She grinned. “You’d better be careful, or you’ll end up like Bear.”
“I think I’m already on my way.”
She leaned back against the bench and held her palms up. “So what are you going to do about it?”
