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As soon as Lacey leaves,I kick back in my truck, closing my eyes again to try and pass the time. It doesn’t work. My mind is racing about later, where are we going to go, will we hit it off like I think we will? Should I kiss her good night, or just say goodbye and I’ll see you later? So many unanswered questions running through my mind.
I sit back up and grab my phone. Without second-guessing anything, I call my sister. She’ll tell me what to do.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I asked her out to dinner,” I blurt, getting right to the point.
“And?” she asks, and I can hear the excitement in her voice.
“And she eventually said yes. I’m waiting on her to get back, now. She wanted to run home to shower and change before we go to dinner. I offered to stay here at the bakery if she wanted a neutral place to leave from.”
“God, you really are a smart man sometimes,” Miranda says.
“I could tell she was a little nervous about my offer to drive to dinner since I offered for us to head into town.”
“Ah, good job on the quick thinking. So where are you taking her?”
“No idea. Got any suggestions for me? I figured anywhere really nice is probably out the window since it’s Friday night and I don’t have reservations.”
“Yeah, that will be an issue. Maybe somewhere more casual. As much as I hate chain steakhouses, maybe that will be your best bet. Not super fancy, but y’all can still get a good meal and have time to talk and see if there’s any spark. And most of those places will have a call ahead wait list, so you can call before you leave and get on the list, that way when you arrive, your wait is mostly done.”
“Good idea,” I tell her, and tap at my phone’s screen to pull up our options. I pick one that I can add my name to from online. The current wait is at about ninety minutes, so perfect timing to get on it. “Just put my name on a list,” I tell my sister.
“Glad I could be of service. Any other plans after dinner?” she asks.
“No, I’ll probably offer to just drive her back since I think she has to be at the bakery tomorrow, and I assume that is an early morning kind of thing.”
“Taking it slow might not be a bad idea, especially if she’s gun shy about dating.”
“Yeah, she tried really hard to scare me away with the fact she’s got two little kids. Tried to tell me she’s got lots of baggage, but I quickly shut that kind of shit talking down.”
“I think our upbringing gives you a different perspective on life. We longed for that manly influence in our lives, so I can understand why you’d want to be that for someone else. Fill the emptiness you never had filled.”
“You don’t think I’m subconsciously trying to insert myself in that type of situation because of our past?”
“No, it isn’t like you stalked her at a park and inserted yourself into her life. Hell, when you first met her you had no idea she even had kids, so really, the single-mom aspect of her life had nothing to do with your initial attraction.”
“Okay, as long as I’m not coming off as a creep.”
“Definitely not a creep. My advice as a mom, is let her control when you meet them. She might be really protective of who she introduces them to, so make sure if things move forward, you don’t pressure her on that.”
“I can do that,” I tell her as I glance at the clock. Thirty minutes have somehow passed already. Lacey thought she’d only be gone thirty or forty minutes, but how will I know something isn’t holding her up later? I should have given her my cell number and gotten hers, but I didn’t think that far ahead.
“When is she going to be back?” Miranda asks.
“Hopefully soon, said she should only be a half hour or so.”
“Just take some deep breaths, I’m sure she isn’t ghosting on you.”
“How’d you know that is where my mind was going?” I ask.
“Call it sister intuition,” she says over the speaker.
“I swear, you know what’s in my head before I do, it’s creepy sometimes.”
“You love me anyway,” she chuckles.
“That I do. What are you guys up to tonight?” I ask to change the subject and distract myself.
