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“Don’t forget we have to learn how to stick up for ourselves without coming off as being stuck-up or entitled,” Annabel pointed out.
Lucas didn’t know what to say. This all sounded a little out there. “You’re just saying that stuff to get me to stop complaining. No one expects that sort of thing.”
Scarlett shrugged. “You don’t have to believe us. But Annabel’s right. If I had to guess, I’d say that Ella is feeling a little insecure around you and in order to level the playing field,she puts distance between you by asserting her position in this project.”
“Well, if you ask me, it’s really dumb.”
“Good thing we’re not asking you,” Annabel smirked. “You’re never going to understand because you aren’t part of our world in the same way we are.”
Lucas huffed. “I’ve been around women a great deal more than either of you will ever know. I think I would have heard about this by now.”
They looked at each other and let out a raucous laugh.
He shook his head, muttering, “Whatever. I’m going to get ready for my date. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
Still, what they had to say sat with him while he got ready for his date, drove to pick her up, and even as he sat across from her at the restaurant.
Lucas studied the woman before him. Like he’d told the girls before, he’d been around women enough to notice a few things. His date wasn’t a natural redhead. The color clearly came from a bottle. It didn’t bother him. He could appreciate when a woman wanted to take care of herself.
Her makeup was perfect. There wasn’t a flaw on her face. Around her brown eyes, she’d done what he’d heard was called a smokey eye. Ella didn’t do her makeup like that. She used more natural colors, if she used anything at all.
Granted, she was doing heavy labor out at the barn, so why would she choose to wear makeup all day? Still, Ella was a natural beauty and probably didn’t need much when it came to her makeup.
His date was thinner than Ella by a lot, and now that he was thinking about it, her arms seemed to be a little too skinny. She definitely didn’t go to the gym or do any work that required lifting.
“Is something wrong?” Her soft voice tore him from his thoughts and he lifted his gaze to her eyes.
“Nope.” He grinned at her. “Everything is perfect.”
“You sure? Because you keep staring at me like I have a giant zit on my face.” She lifted a perfectly manicured hand to her cheek, and he reached across the table to take it into his hands. “You look gorgeous tonight. Honestly, I was surprised to bump into you at the hardware store. Remind me again what you were doing there?”
She smiled sweetly and used her free hand to twirl a strand of red hair around her finger. “I was visiting my aunt.”
“Oh, that’s right. Ingrid is your aunt.”
The woman nodded. Lucas dug deep into his memories from the day before to retrieve her name, but he still couldn’t remember it. Strange. He’d never had a problem with name retrieval before. Lucas used to be able to hear a name once and that was all it took. Now, as he sat here, he didn’t have the faintest clue. He’d even put her name into his phone ashardware store girl. He bet Ella would justlovethat. She’d probably lecture him on it, telling him that if he couldn’t remember her name, he had no business taking her out on a date.
Lucky for him, he didn’t have to answer to her outside of their little project.
“You’re doing it again,” the girl said. “Seriously, if I have something on my face, you have to—”
“Oh, I was just thinking about how beautiful your name was. You never told me how you spelled it.”
Her small smile faded.
Uh-oh. That wasn’t good. He squirmed in his seat. Please don’t be something short like Pam or Beth. He really should have done something to memorize it better. Forcing a smile, hebrought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “How do you spell your name?”
“You don’t remember it, do you?” Her eyes narrowed, and she tugged her hand free.
“Of course I do. I just like to know how to spell it so I can put it in my contacts the right way.”
“Don’t bother.” She stood from her seat and grabbed her purse.
“It’s not Beth, is it?”
She scowled at him.
Lucas winced. “Pam?”
