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CHAPTERFIVE
Lee couldn’t describe how he felt as he lifted his leg and stepped over the knee-high gate keeping him from Rosalie. Shiny, maybe. It was almost like light beamed from him—his smile, his eyes, his very soul—as she stepped back to make room for him in the aisle she’d made between the wall and the couch she’d placed facing into the living room.
He’d never been happier to run into Karyn Harlow at the organic grocery store. He didn’t even care that that the baby carrots had cost twice as much as he ever would’ve paid. Seeing the wonder and gratitude on Rosalie’s face had been worth every penny.
“Just in here?” he asked, moving past her and toward the kitchen at the back of the house. Her home smelled like powder and perfume, and Lee ducked his head and smiled to himself. That wasn’t her house. That washer, and he sure did like it. He liked the scent of her a whole lot.
His heartbeat scampered through his whole body, but he managed to lift the veggies to the counter just as something thumped loudly to the right and behind him. Surprise tugged at him, but he turned and looked.
A white rabbit sat right at the end of the hallway. Anyone who hadn’t run into Karyn would’ve thought it was the cutest little family pet. His little pink nose wiggled, and Lee wondered if rabbits were like dogs. Could he smell the cabbage?
Lee chuckled and tugged the head of greenery free from the bag. “Do you just chop it up, or…?” He glanced over to Rosalie, who’d come a little closer to him. She currently pressed her palms together, a nervous look on her face.
That gave him pause, but she wiped all of her emotions away in the next moment, her brilliant, professional smile appearing on her face. “Sure,” she said, finally speaking. “I can do it.”
“I know how to chop things,” he said smoothly, a blip of irritation firing through him. He turned in his cowboy boots, looking for a knife block next to the stove. Rosalie had set up her kitchen like most people, and he pulled the large chopping knife from the wood smoothly.
She bent and pulled something from a lower cabinet, then set the cutting board on the counter next to his unpacked vegetables. “You cook?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, trying to decide how much to tell her. Lee didn’t like putting too much out there too soon, which was why he’d preferred the online dating apps in the past. “Every Wednesday for my whole family, actually.” He gave her a ghost of a grin and sliced off a huge chunk of cabbage. “How much to you feed him?”
With her standing so close, that sexy dress hugging her waist and curves, Lee could hardly think. The dark blue leopard spots sat against a cream background, and she wore a pair of off-white sandals on her feet. She made his mouth water, and he couldn’t think about anything but dropping the knife and taking her into his arms.
The rabbit stomped again, sending three loud booms through the house. Rosalie giggled—another kick to his defenses—and moved behind him. “Thumper, knock it off. You’re being rude. He’s making your dinner.”
“Thumper,” he repeated. “Sounds like the perfect name for him.”
“Autumn named him,” she said. “His full name is The USS Thumper, but she allows us to call him by Thumper.”
“Like a ship?” Lee made quick work of the cabbage and carrots, still not sure how much to make for the rabbit. He did seem unusually large, and Rosalie didn’t frown or complain when Lee slid everything into a big bowl he’d found in a cupboard beside the fridge.
“Yes,” Rosalie said, placing the bowl on the floor for Thumper right where he sat. She straightened, her eyes blazing out dark fire as she met Lee’s. “Her father is in the Navy.”
“Ah.” Lee nodded and watched the rabbit chow down a long string of cabbage. He nodded to the lemon drops. “Well, those are for your daughter. I have something for you in the truck.”
The fire turned into dancing lights. “Is that right?” Rosalie took a step toward him, seeming to realize as she did that maybe she didn’t want to. She halted after the single movement, and Lee really didn’t want tonight to be stilted.
He cleared his throat, so many things running through his mind. He didn’t normally just let words come out he hadn’t thought about thoroughly. “Rosalie,” he said, reaching out one hand. She moved toward him then and slid her fingers between his. He watched as their hands joined, something kicking and screaming and firing through him.
Nerves. Desire. Fear.
He looked up at her, seeing all the same things in her expression too. “You’re not going to be the CEO tonight, are you?”
She blinked those long lashes at him, confusion running through her eyes now. “What?”
“Earlier, a minute ago,” he said. “You seemed real…nervous, and then you just wiped it away like it was nothing.” His brain told him to stop talking, and stop talking right now. Instead of listening to the very rational side of himself, he kept going. “I’m nervous too, but I don’t want to go if it’s not going to just be…real.”
Rosalie started to tug her fingers back, but Lee held onto them. She stilled. The air quieted as the air conditioner in her house switched off. Even Thumper had taken a break from his feast.
“I’m a little nervous,” Rosalie said. “I haven’t been out with anyone since the divorce.”
Lee nodded, a smile creeping its way across his mouth. “I’ve seen you polished and perfect, Rosalie. You’re flawless. Tonight, I want to go past that.” He brought his gaze back to hers. “Do you still want to go? I’ve got reservations at Montague’s.”
Her eyebrows went up. “You do? How did you manage that?”
He grinned fully at her. “My sister has some connections.” Cherry really had come through for him. Karyn had too. Lee felt like the Lord had stitched everything together just right for tonight, except for maybe Lee himself.
“Flawless, huh?” she asked as if seriously considering canceling on him. Lee could see she wouldn’t. She’d taken great care with her clothes, her hair, her makeup. Shewantedto be flawless, and he stopped himself just in time from thinking she’d done so for him. She probably felt more confident when she wore her hair back on the sides the way she did and put on just the right dusting of pink powder on her cheeks.
