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“Your dad is a lawyer too?”
“No, retired cop.”
“So you’re having dinner with your parents?”
“Technically, it’s a standing Sunday family dinner, and I’m late.” The elevator dinged for the first floor, and he held the door open for her. “If you come with me, we can pick my mom’s brain on the case study.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“You’re so hungry you can’t think straight. Come on, do me a favor.”
She eyed him with her sparkling sapphire eyes. “How is bringing a stranger to your family dinner doing you a favor?”
“Well, for one, my mom is a great cook, so I’ll win points with you once you eat. For two, I’ve missed the last few family dinners, and this way they won’t give me as much shit if I bring a guest.”
“Fine. I’ll go, but only because I don’t feel like cooking anything and now you’ll owe me one.”
Trying not to let the excitement show on his face, he let the doors close and pressed the button for the garage a few more times before she could change her mind. They were silent the rest of the way, and she followed him to his car, where he opened the passenger door for her.
“Thank you,” she said politely and slid into the car, settling her bag between her feet as he closed the door.
Once he was seated in the driver’s seat, she began pulling her hair out of its messy bun.
“Were you going to tell me I still had a pencil in my hair before introducing me to your parents?”
He couldn’t help but laugh as he started his car and pushed down the bolt of desire from sitting close to her, surrounded by her feminine smell and softness.
“Now that is for sure a trick question. Besides, one of us might have needed it later.”
Her usually white-blonde hair hung thick around her shoulders but looked darker in the shadows. The scent of mint and honey filled the space.
“It’s your shampoo, that mint scent,” he said out loud before realizing how odd that sounded.
“What?”
“You always have this nice, sweet scent of mint, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Sorry, that’s weird, but I just got a big whiff when you let your hair down. I like it.” He babbled and started to pull the car out of his parking spot. “Just pretend I didn’t say that.”
She laughed, digging in her bag for something then made short work of pulling her hair back up into a tidy ponytail.
“How come you never wear your hair down?” he asked.
He could feel her eyes on him but kept his on the road. He itched to compliment her, but she likely wasn’t ready for him to cross over the professional line that far yet. She didn’t answer him. It was starting to drizzle, and the fall weather had put a chill in the air. She retrieved a lightweight army-green coat from her purse and draped it on her lap.
“What else is in your Mary Poppins bag of tricks?”
“Everything I need,” she said.
“Everything but a delicious dinner. I should warn you, my father is a retired cop and that combination seems to breed paranoia. He has all sorts of gadgets and unnecessary security measures.”
“So he’s like a prepper?”
“Sort of. My brothers are also cops, and I apologize for them in advance.”
“Why, what will they do?”
“Oh, they’ll be perfect gentlemen to you. Their wives are awesome. You’ll love them—everyone does. But they will tease and harass and try to embarrass me in front of you. So I’m apologizing for that.”
“I feel like you could have led with that earlier, and I would have agreed to go with you sooner.”
