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“Tammy,” Leigh said, stopping the waitress before she walked away. “Can you bring us something snacky to go with those drinks? We’re not picky, so whatever appetizer you suggest will be good. If you can bring everything out together, that would be wonderful. We don’t mind waiting for the food to be ready.”
“You got it.”
Ah. Planner Leigh had taken control of the date. If that’s what she needed to do, he’d roll with it. Give up the lead for a while. Things had turned out pretty amazing the last time she’d taken charge.
Meeting his gaze, she tilted her head and smiled a little. “The line of doom just disappeared from your face.”
“Line of doom?”
She nodded. “When the eyebrows get low and drawn together. The line of doom.”
“That’s the official terminology?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.” Her smile bloomed a little wider. She shifted forward in the chair, reaching across the table with her palm up, inviting him to take it.
Which he did, of course. Then used the connection to bring her knuckles to his lips. “Thank you for staying.”
“Doing otherwise never crossed my mind, Sam. I just needed a moment to process.”
“Understandable.”
“And I’m done processing. Unless there’s more?”
He shook his head. “That’s the worst thing I hoped you’d never learn about me.”
“It isn’t that bad.” She laughed when he shot her a dubious look. “It isn’t. Honestly, I bet a significant percentage of adults have dealt with some form of that scenario.”
“Have you?”
“Well, no. But I haven’t had many sexual partners and I’ve only had unprotected sex with one person, ever.”
It was hypocritical of him, but her statement struck a hell-yeah note. It also rekindled his curiosity about her not-really-an-ex.
He’d never been the jealous type. Women had always flowed in and out of his life as easily as water in a sink and he’d rarely given them a second thought once they were gone. Leigh was different. Her entry had been more of a trickle. Something about her made him want to find a stopper for the drain.
“Would it be out of line for me to ask about your relationship with Tim?”
“What would you like to know?”
“Everything. Or just a basic outline. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“There’s honestly not that much to tell.” She reclaimed her hand, using it to take a drink of water before settling in to her seat. “Tim and I met in college while taking the same business program. We hit it off right away and quickly became friends off-campus as well as in classes. A couple of times, after we’d had too much to drink, we took a stab at being more. It seemed like the natural progression, but our chemistry didn’t transfer to the bedroom. We decided to stick to friendship instead.”
That had to be a polite way of saying Tim stunk in the sack. Or that the guy had a small dick. Either way, Tim’s loss had resulted in Sam’s win. Thank you, Tim.
The drinks and snack food arrived, along with another extension of their time with the unopened menus. A couple of nachos and a generous swig of beer later, the mathematician portion of Sam’s brain kicked into gear. Unless Leigh had delayed going to college by a decade or more, those couple of times hadn’t resulted in Leigh’s pregnancy. Meaning there was a lot more to the story than she’d let on.
“You must have given the ‘being more’ thing another try later, since you have Lennox.”
“We did, but not the way you’d think. After college, Tim and I remained best friends, helping with each other’s new business ventures, having each other’s back through years of dating and relationship tribulations. During one of my post-breakup commiserations, which was amplified by alcohol, I told Tim how much I wanted to be a mother and how scared I was that it would never happen, since I was already thirty.”
“You were pretty young to be thinking that.”
“Men have the luxury of coasting in the parenting department. Biology isn’t as liberal with women. Logically, I knew I had years before I needed to worry, but I swear I could feel my clock ticking faster with each month that went by.”
Once again, he thanked whatever powers might be for making him a man. He loved women, but he couldn’t imagine being one. Way too much stuff to worry about. The scales of physical responsibility were a hell of a lot lighter on the male side.
“You and Tim started dating after that?” he asked, getting back on track.
