AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This time Chris laughed with me. We helped Penny collect her things, and then I locked up. I said goodbye to my best friend, and she waved before climbing into her car and driving away. Chris opened my door for me, and then we were off.
He drove me out of town to a restaurant called Mario’s. It was new in a town where we didn’t venture too often, farther down the lake and closer to the city. Chris held my hand for most of the drive as we talked, catching up on what happened over the last week or so we hadn’t had a chance to discuss.
Suddenly, I felt silly for putting distance between us after Grampa’s hospital visit. I’d been so afraid of a repeat from four years ago that I quickly shut everything down, blaming myself for messing things up again. I didn’t give him a chance to explain, and I thought it was impossible that he would ever feel even close to the same as I did.
I’d been standing in my own way.
He parked in the lot and opened my door again, holding his arm out for me as we approached the restaurant. Everyone stopped and looked at us when we walked in.
Women stared at Chris as he checked in with the hostess before we were seated.
He pulled my chair out before taking his seat. He was catering to me in a way I didn’t know he would. He grabbed my hand and held it in the center of the table, staring into my eyes like I meant something to him.
He meant something to me, too, and the thought scared me.
I glanced up at the server who stopped at our table and froze when I recognized her. She stood staring like a deer in headlights at Chris.
Chris’s mouth dropped open. “Katelyn?” he asked.
This was the woman who’d gotten pregnant with another man’s baby while in a relationship with Chris. He’d given up his scholarship, his dream, for her, and she’d thrown him away. I remembered Chris crying to Sean, wondering how she could do that to him.
Katelyn was the reason Chris went through women like other people went through tissues.
I hated her for hurting him.
Her mouth opened and closed as if she were a fish. She still looked as beautiful as ever with her platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, and I hated her for that too.
She looked back and forth between us. “I’m so sorry. I’ll tell my supervisor I can’t take this table. Someone will be with you in a moment.”
She rushed off before we could say anything else. Chris’s expression turned sour as he shook his head and muttered something under his breath that sounded likeunbelievable.
“Chris? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, but it didn’t seem true.
“We can leave if you want.”
He looked like he was considering it for a minute. “It’s going to be hard to get into a nice place without a reservation. I only got this one because I called right after someone else canceled.”
“It doesn’t have to be a nice place. We can go anywhere.”
He grabbed my hand again. “I really wanted tonight to be special.”
“It is,” I admitted, realizing the truth of it. “Because I’m with you.”
Katelyn must have walked across the room far behind me because Chris looked past me, another stunned look on his face. I’d been completely thrown by her being there, so I could only imagine how he felt.
“Maybe we should go,” he admitted. I was so relieved that I hopped up, not paying enough attention to what was going on around me. I bumped into a server who carried a plate in each gloved hand. He nearly dropped one, and I grabbed for it to keep it from happening.
“Hot!” he shouted as I grabbed it, but it was too late.
The plate was scalding. I let go so fast that he couldn’t hang on to it. The plate and its contents splatted on the rug.
“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry,” I said, pressing my stinging hands together as I knelt to help. “Let me—"
“Ma’am,” the server said. “It’s fine. We will clean it. Please, return to your seat.”
Katelyn stood a few feet away, watching. I didn’t look long enough to see the expression on her face. She might have felt bad for me for all I knew, but I imagined her as smug, happy I’d looked like a fool.
