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“Not that I’m aware of, but she should have been. I never met her, but she’s something of a legend in my family.”
“I could easily imagine she would be.” He took a drink of tea, then looked at Grace again. “Any other fascinating characters in your family tree?”
Grace laughed again. “No. We’re a pretty boring, run-of-the-mill bunch of simple country folk.”
The look he leveled across the table held disbelief. “If you tell me you’re only a step beyond hillbillies, I’ll know you’re fibbing. No one who looks and acts like you could ever be considered simple country folk.”
She blushed and fell silent, and he wondered if he’d said more than he should have. When she gazed at him from beneath her crazy-long eyelashes, he decided maybe his foot wasn’t lodged in his mouth along with his last bite of turkey.
Once the waitress returned to remove their plates and they both declined dessert, Levi excused himself to the restroom. Two glasses of water and one of iced tea had caught up with him. He returned to the table, and Grace politely excused herself to powder her nose. Levi paid their bill while she was gone and stood when she returned, cupping her elbow as they made their way to the door. He used his left shoulder to push the door open and hold it as Grace walked outside, then took her hand in his, hoping she wouldn’t pull away.
Inordinately gratified when she moved a step closer, he did his best to hide his smile. “Is there any movie, in particular, you’d like to see?”
“Well, there is one I thought looked good, but I don’t know if that’s your kind of thing,” she said as he opened the pickup door and waited until she had her skirt settled around her on the seat to shut it.
He jogged around the pickup and slid behind the wheel. “I’m fine with whatever. Just tell me where it’s playing, and that’s where we’ll go.”
“The newspaper listing said it was still playing at the downtown theater. You know, the one with the Egyptian theme.”
He grinned and put the pickup in reverse, backing out of the parking space. “I haven’t been there in years. It’ll be fun to see that old place again. Didn’t it originally open in the twenties?”
“I think I read that somewhere,” she said, sounding uncertain.
He’d forgotten she hadn’t grown up in the area because, for reasons he couldn’t begin to explain, it felt like he’d known her forever.
It didn’t take long to drive downtown and find a parking space across the street from the theater. The restaurants and bars seemed busy, as well as the hotels in the area.
As they crossed the street, Levi held out his arm to Grace, and she wrapped her hand around it, moving closer to him with a smile.
After purchasing two movie tickets, they bypassed the concession stand and made their way into the theater. Grace claimed she couldn’t possibly hold another bite after their filling dinner.
Levi allowed Grace to choose the seats, grateful she selected two at the end of the row at the very back where he could sit with his back to the wall. She smiled as he took a seat beside her and stretched out his legs in the aisle.
“Do you go to the movies often?” he asked quietly as they waited for the movie to begin, wondering if he should have at least bought a small box of popcorn for them to munch on during the show.
“Not often. Cindy and I went in January, I think, to a Saturday matinee. We got two tickets for the price of one.” Grace leaned toward him and lowered her voice. “By the time you buy tickets and snacks, it can get expensive.”
“It can, but then again, there isn’t any other popcorn quite like the overly salty, way too greasy stuff you can find at a movie theater.”
She laughed softly. “You are correct on that point.”
“I’ll go get some if you like,” Levi offered, starting to rise from his seat.
“No. I’m fine, Levi. Truly. My dinner was delicious, and I’m full. Maybe we can get dessert after the movie. My treat.”
There was no way he’d allow her to pay for dessert, but he was thrilled she wanted to spend more time together after the movie. Perhaps that meant he hadn’t completely forgotten the basics of dating or lost what little skill he’d previously possessed in charming a girl.
The lights dimmed, and the movie started. Levi had hoped and prayed that sitting in the dark surrounded by strangers wouldn’t trigger his flight-or-fight response, but with Grace’s entrancing fragrance floating around him and her warmth penetrating his side, he felt at ease.
For the next hour and a half, he found himself watching the antics of two little boys trying to train a bird dog that seemed completely untrainable. The end was, as Levi expected, heartwarming, and when the lights came back on, he noticed Grace dabbing at her tears with a tissue.
“Sorry. Sappy movies and stories get to me,” she said, wiping away one errant tear, then releasing a long breath. “I hope you didn’t mind the movie. It wasn’t exactly a car chase or blowing something up or whatever it is you like. Those are generally the story lines my brothers prefer.”
Levi shrugged. “I’m more of a guy who enjoys a good western.”
She grinned at him. “That should have been obvious from the boots and the cowboy hat you generally wear. We never got around to talking about you earlier. Do you do ranch work for a living?”
“Nope. I’m a farmer.”
