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“Oh, right, you need to get back to work. I’m sorry, I’m blabbing away like we have the entire day.”
“Actually, we do. I’m done working. My goal was to find that band of horses, and I did, so now I’m done until Monday. I’d be honored if you’d spend some more of your time with me. I know that must seem pretty cocky.”
“Do you want to come home with me now?”
“Really?”
“Really. It’ll be boring. On Saturday evening, I like to bake. Ha! I know, like an old grandmother. I make pizza for my kids, and all the forms of pizza, calzones and stromboli and garlic buttons and cheesy breadsticks. My neighbors all have garlic breath at mass on Sunday.”
“Calista, I love to bake. I’ll bake with you.”
“Nice! Anyway, make a right turn on the highway, and we’ll go back to town.”
She directed him to her house, a few blocks from Alphé’s, which reminded her to send a text to Lola.Do you want me to pick up the kids now?
Lola answered back right away.They are having so much fun. Let them play. You take some time for yourself.
“My kids are at a friends’. Do you want to go have a coffee?”
She was a little wary about being alone in the house with Austin Macon; his maleness was getting to her already, and they’d only been in the car together for half an hour. The way he was interested in her, asking questions, was something she hadn’t had in a long time. She thought she was probably reading more into it than it was, hoping he was interested in her. And she had to be sending off pheromones to him, as well. She was attracted to Austin Macon, and if given the chance, she was ready to hop into bed with him. Shuddering, she tried to clear her head.
“I’d love to have coffee. Café Delphine?”
“That’s perfect. I forgot you know your way around here.”
He pulled his fancy SUV in front of the café.
“Look at everyone inside, straining to see who is in this behemoth.”
He chuckled, grinning at her, ducking down to see out her window. “They can’t see us, either. These are tinted windows.”
“They’ll think we’re celebrities,” she said.
“Or drug dealers.”
He hopped out and ran around to get her door open before she could even get her seatbelt off, offering his hand. Afraid to take it, she thought if she touched him, it would be all over. She’d invite him to her bed before the day was up.
The hand hovered in the air, beckoning her to take it. She looked into his eyes, and he was smiling at her, and like it was in slow motion, she slipped her hand in his. Wanting to savor the moment, to close her eyes and memorize the feeling of his warm skin, it took all the self-control she had to stay out of personal space.
“Watch your step.”
Her foot hit the pavement, and when she was out of the car, he sadly let go of her hand.Pull it together, girl,she thought, biting her lip to keep from grinning.
Following him to the door, he held it open for her, and she walked in ahead of him. It was like a foreign place, going in there with a man. Back in the day, when she was young and Rod was still alive, they rarely went into the café together. He wasn’t a big coffee drinker, but he’d relinquish control from time to time when he wasn’t working and have breakfast there with her.
“My mother’s friends hang out at the café,” he’d gripe. “Can’t you find a younger crowd?”
“Do you want a booth?” Emily, the server asked, meeting them at the entrance.
“Yes, thank you,” Calista said.
She led them to a booth and gave them menus. “I’ll have a coffee.”
“Me, too,” Austin said, sitting across from Calista. “It’s confession time. I was interested in you when we were kids. That hasn’t changed.”
“You were, Austin? I never knew that.”
“Because it was you and Rodney Beaumont. No one could compete with him.”
