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“Sorry, that was too forward,” he said quickly in her silence.
“No! I’d actually love to go.” She could close the bakery for a few days, or hire someone to just run the front end for a weekend.
After all, she was contemplating giving up her bakery completely. Maybe a few days away from it might help in her decision-making. Help her see what not going into her own business at five a.m. every morning felt like. See if it could be an option for her future.
“Why don’t we play it by ear?” he said.
“Good idea.”
“So, we got distracted yesterday with your Good Luck Charm story and you never did tell me much about this offer from Not Just Desserts. How much longer do you have to decide?”
She stared out at the evening sun setting over the ocean, the crashing waves lapping over the sand. “Another few months.” Though they were increasingly putting more pressure on.
“Are you leaning more one way or the other?”
“No idea. At first, I thought no way…but lately, I’m not sure.”
“You love it here, though, right?”
Yes, but she had no one to love here.
Not that she could tell him that. She refused to sound alone and desperate, hounded by the sound of a ticking biological clock and wedding bells.
She hadn’t had a first date in a while, but even she knew that would drive a man off. Fast. “I do,” she said honestly. “I guess I’m hoping I’ll know what to do when the time comes.”
“You will,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“The way I see it, there’s no wrong answer. Whatever you decide to do will turn out for the best.”
He sounded so sure and confident, but this was one decision she’d second-guessed over and over. She didn’t think that would end even after making the decision. Either way, she’d wonder what if she’d gone the other way.
All she could do was live in the moment. This moment with him, right now. Her troubles had no place on this date with this gorgeous, interesting man.
…
Kiss her or not?
That was the million-dollar question that had plagued him the entire drive to her place after they left their beach dinner date. They’d held hands whenever they weren’t eating and she’d allowed him to wrap an arm around her as they watched the sun set over the ocean.
But was a kiss too much, too soon?
Would she think he was only interested in a physical, casual fling? They both knew he wasn’t staying in town beyond the holidays and that he obviously wasn’t looking for a relationship.
But he knew two things—he wanted to see her again, and he desperately wanted to kiss her.
He shot a quick glance toward her in the passenger seat of his rental. She’d licked her dark mauve colored lipstick from her lips during dinner and she hadn’t reapplied it. Did that mean she’d be open to a good night kiss? He’d read in aCosmomagazine left behind on a flight once that the lack of reapplying lipstick was a sign…
Jeez, now he was getting his relationship advice from a magazine he had no business reading.
She looked at him, and he quickly turned his attention back to the road. “I’m just the next left,” she said, as he came to a stop sign. The speed limit in the neighborhood was thirty, but he couldn’t be going faster than ten. He was reluctant to see the night end, but inviting her back to the inn for a drink had seemed too sleazy…but would she invite him into her place?
It had been far too long since he’d been on a real first date, and it was quickly becoming evident that he had no idea what the dating etiquette was these days in the era of apps and hookups. She’d been quiet on the drive back to her place, so it was hard to read her.
He turned onto her street and cleared his throat. “So, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate tonight’s date?”
She grinned as she turned in the seat to face him. “Like if I was leaving a Yelp review?”
