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“Come on. I’ll take you to my favorite place.” He started up the dock.
She was so flustered by this man. She followed behind him, and it was impossible not to consider that he looked as good from the back as he did the front. She was surprised he’d told his dad about her. “He didn’t think you should date me?”
He glanced back at her as he moved toward the interior of the small island. “Who said anything about a date?”
Yep, definitely flustered. Why had she put it that way? Probably because she’d spent the entire night thinking about him. “A slip of the tongue. I told Gavin last night that it was just dinner. He got in yesterday evening and waited up to say hi. He was curious about who’d dropped me off. But it was dinner. Nothing more.”
“Dates end in kissing, Brynn.”
She followed him, Duke at her heels. “They don’t always. Or are you telling me you’ve kissed twenty-three women in the last six months?”
She was still in awe of the amount of blind dates the man had been on. She wasn’t about to talk to Gavin about it because there was definitely a rom-com in there somewhere.
“It was only twenty-two. Last night didn’t count because the date didn’t even start. And no. I did not kiss them all. Most of the dates ended in a hearty handshake.”
“And one ended in an arrest.”
“You know, I shouldn’t count that one, either, since she didn’t even order an appetizer,” Major pointed out. “By the way, if you do go to the café at the Fillin’ Station and they try to talk you into ordering the Cheese Puff Experience, don’t. They make it sound all fancy but it’s cheese puffs from the chip aisle. They open the bag tableside.”
Such a weird place, and she was definitely ordering the cheese puffs. “So how many did you kiss?”
He stopped, his expression turning thoughtful. “A couple, but I didn’t actually kiss them until we had a second date. I only went out with four of them more than once. I dated one for a couple of months. Other than that, it was mostly pleasant conversation and the agreement that we didn’t fit the way we should. But I think if you and I went on a date, it would definitely end in kissing.”
She didn’t like how that made her heart rate tick up. The other thing she’d thought about the night before was what Gavin had said. This relationship couldn’t go anywhere. She would spend her time here and then move on, and she didn’t see Major fitting into her world. “How do you know that I would kiss you?”
Those way-too-full lips of his curled up at the corners. He was beautiful in a completely masculine way. “Oh, you would kiss me.”
She wished that cocky look on his face didn’t do something for her. “Would not.”
“Now, that sounds like a challenge, Brynn.”
Flirty Major was her catnip. She knew she shouldn’t engage, but she couldn’t help herself. She felt like she’d gone through the last couple of years on autopilot, and now she was back in a real, vibrant world. “One that doesn’t matter because we’re not dating. Unless this is a date. Is this a date?”
Dolly danced around her dad’s legs as he considered the question. “Would you have said yes to a date?”
She didn’t want to be anything but honest with him. “Yes. You know I would have said yes.”
“And I also know you would let me kiss you,” he said quietly before he went back to flirty. “But we’re not on a date. This is my way of thanking you for saving me.”
“I thought you paying for dinner was your thank-you.”
He shrugged. “Let’s say I’m very grateful. And just so you know, if we do date, you’re going to have to be the one to kiss me.”
Now, that definitely sounded like a challenge. “Oh, then we’re never going to kiss, Major.”
“I bet we do.” He turned again and disappeared behind a large wall of green trees and bushes.
The sad thing was she wouldn’t take that bet. Not even for a dollar because she got the feeling she would lose.
If they were dating. Which they were not.
She followed the well-worn trail and then Brynn stopped, all thoughts of flirting fleeing her brain because she found herself in the middle of a fantastical scene that couldn’t possibly be real. She was in a circle of trees, the light flowing through the limbs and leaves like golden beams. A large dragonfly floated in and found a place to perch. It was like a scene out of a movie, like she’d walked through a mystical door and found herself in another land.
She could work here. She could think here. The world would slow down and there would be time for what she needed for once if she stayed in this place.
