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That made her laugh. “You have an alcoholic chicken?”
He laughed with her. “You could say that.” He turned to the stove and poured some wine into one of the many pans before turning back and opening the second bottle. “Do you trust me?”
She cocked her head to one side, wondering what was coming.
He gave her a half smile. “I meant do you trust my choice of wine?”
“Oh. Of course, I do.”
He poured two glasses and handed one to her. “I think you’ll like it.”
She took a sniff and looked up at him with a smile. “How did you know?”
“Know what?” He raised an eyebrow and tried to look innocent.
“That this is my favorite?”
He shrugged. “You have good taste, obviously, and it’s the best we produce.”
She laughed. “When you say I have good taste—are you referring to yourself?”
He grinned. “I am.”
“Modest, aren’t you?” She chuckled.
“No. I am many things, but modest is not one of them. I am merely logical. You’ve been here, what, six years? The only time I’ve seen you with a date has been at fundraiser dinners, guys you’ve drafted in for an evening. I’ve never known you to have a boyfriend. Now here you are with me.” He gave her a smug smile and swaggered his shoulders. “We’re dating, you have no time for mere mortals, but you’re prepared to take a chance on me.”
Mary Ellen had to laugh. “If you weren’t so damned good looking and so charming, you’d never get away with it, you know.”
He gave her a half smile that set butterflies swirling in her stomach. “Oh, I do know it. You’d perhaps think I was arrogant—shallow maybe?”
Mary Ellen swallowed. Did he know that was precisely how she had thought of him?
He laughed. “Don’t worry. I know I give that impression. I’ve always thought that people are only fooled by appearances when they don’t want to look beyond the obvious.”
Mary Ellen pursed her lips. “I supposed that’s true. I never looked beyond appearances with you.”
He gave her that sexy smile again. He knew full well how good-looking he was.
“Don’t look at me like that. I admit I did judge you based on your looks, but you backed it up with your behavior.”
He hung his head and looked up at her from under his eyebrows. “I have no excuses.”
She laughed. “And why would you need them?”
He came to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m a changed man. From now on, I’m a one-woman man.”
A thrill of excitement shot through her, but she got a grip. They were just playing. He didn’t mean she was his woman. “Why would you want to change? It seems to me that you enjoy life more than most, even if some people don’t approve of the way you live it.”
He shook his head. “Enjoyed. Iused toenjoy the way I lived, but I haven’t been enjoying it for a while. Last Wednesday, I’d bailed on a date and taken myself out to dinner at Molly’s. I was tired of my life, tired of all the meaningless.” He smiled. “And just when I reached that point, there you were.”
She pursed her lips. “I’ve been wondering—what made you talk to me that night? We’ve barely spoken in all the years we’ve known each other. I’ve admitted that I thought you were shallow and arrogant. Why didn’t you like me all that time? And what changed your mind?”
He held her gaze and nodded. He looked quite solemn. “Okay. Honesty time. That time I asked you to go out for a walk with me?”
“When you went with Elaine instead?”
He pursed his lips. “Yeah. I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. But you said no, and I was young and … enthusiastic.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “I was out for a good time, and you were too close to home. You worked with Cam, and you were, I don’t know, serious. No, that’s not it. Too smart, maybe?”
