I clear my throat, giving my head a little shake to break the heat in my gaze and do my best not to swoon when his hand brushes my thigh. “Three times now.” Dear God, he smells heavenly. A mix of sandalwood and yum. “Thank you…again.” My breathing is shallow, and my cheeks warm with want. I’m nothing but a ball of sensation, and if this is indicative of how the night’ll go, I’m in bigger trouble than I originally thought.
“Don’t mention it.” Careful not to smash any limbs, he shuts my door before rushing around and climbing up into the driver’s seat.
He looks so natural behind that wheel… a true country boy made to travel these wooded back roads. “I can’t even picture you in the city,” I say, staring at his profile.
He laughs. “I was a fish outta water, no doubt.”
“But you lived here before, right?” My voice fades out, the uncertainty over whether I should even bring up his past fueling a bout of instant regret. “Kate told me…” I give an apologetic shrug. “The other night when we were at her house.”
“Yeah,” he says, casting a brief glance my way. “After the accident, I went to live with my mom’s parents. There was no will or anything. They were just better suited financially to raise a kid.” He pauses briefly, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I owe them so much.”
His love for the people who raised him comes shining through his every word. “I’m glad you had them to help you to deal with that loss.” Why can’t I just shut up? I promised the man a date, not a session with a grief counselor.
“It’s fine,” he says, sensing my reluctance to continue. “It all happened so long ago.”
“I’m sorry. I just get chatty when I’m nervous.” Way to out yourself, idiot. “I mean, not that you make me nervous, or anything…” Hot lava bubbles in my tummy.
“Of course not.” He rolls his tongue over his lips, biting back a smile, and his grip tightens on the wheel, flexing and unflexing with manly pride. “How else are we gonna get to know one another?”
“Is that the goal here?” I ask, starting to backpedal. How could I allow myself to get sucked into his orbit so easily?
“Isn’t it?” He grants me another brief look before turning his attention back to the winding road.
“I’m just here to repay a debt.” I’m trying to keep it real, but one look at the disappointment on his face has me wishing I could take it back.
“Right,” he says, his jaw suddenly tense. He doesn’t say another word for the remainder of the short drive to Clotille’s Riverside Restaurant.
I’m stewing in a mixture of relief and regret, sure I’ve just ruined the entire night, when we pull into the gravel lot. But I shouldn’t be surprised to find that Wyatt is extremely forgiving—at least where jaded females such as myself are concerned.
“Get your fingers off that handle,” he orders when I reach to open my own door. “My Mimi didn’t raise no millennial.”
His comment has me choking on a laugh. “What, no Fortnite and Tinder for you?”
He scoffs. “One of the benefits of being raised by old people who didn’t know the first thing about interwebs and those playboxes.” The way he mimics their language with such fondness is priceless.
“You’ll be glad to know you’re dodging a bullet here,” I say, referring to myself.
“Why do you say that?” He takes my hand, helping me down from the cab.
Once standing, I rise up to my toes and lean in close, pressing my lips against his ear. “I might have had a YouTube channel in high school.”
He gasps. “Say it ain’t so.”
“I’m not proud of it…it was a dark time in my life.”
“You go through a goth phase or something?” He laces his fingers with mine, leading me up the wraparound porch of the quaint eatery.
“Quite the opposite.” I chew the inside of my cheeks, hesitant to expose myself. “A cheerleader.”
“Table for two under Wyatt Landry,” he says to the hostess, who grabs two menus and instructs us to follow.
“That actually doesn’t surprise me at all,” he says, guiding me along the uneven floors with his hand at the small of my back.
“Really?”
“You look the type.” He shrugs. “Gorgeous, leggy, blonde, with a bangin’ body.” He makes a show of looking me over head to foot. “I could see you on the arm of a quarterback, easily.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll never make that mistake again.”
The hostess seats us at a table in the courtyard, leaving us with menus and a promise that our server will be with us shortly. It’s a beautiful evening, nice clear skies granting us the perfect view of the stars that are just peeking out to make their nightly appearance. The temperature is perfect, too—cool enough that we aren’t being eaten alive by mosquitos but not so cold we have to bundle up.
I stupidly think I won’t have to elaborate on my earlier comment, but Wyatt doesn’t skip a beat, picking up right where we left off.
“Bad experience?”
I groan, hoping to convey just how much I’m not wanting to have this particular conversation. “Prissy’s father was the star running back of our rival team. We dated for a bit…until I popped up pregnant. The rest, as they say, is history.”
“What a dick.”
I shrug, trying not to dredge up old hurts. “He was a teenager, and a baby didn’t exactly fit into his plans.”
“So were you.” He reaches across the table laying a comforting hand over mine. And although I know that I shouldn’t, I let him. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that on your own…” He shakes his head with a timid smile. “Fucking millennials, man. No sense of responsibility.”
“I haven’t really been on my own, though. My parents didn’t bat an eye, just stepped in, and they’ve been by my side every step of the way.”
“Your folks are good people.”
I smile at his assessment. “I can only hope someday to be half as decent as they are.”
I’m grateful for the interruption when our waitress finally arrives to take our orders, gulping down half the glass of water she sets in front of me without stopping for a breath.
We order two of their famous hurricanes to sip on while waiting for our food, making small talk about the weather and the house he purchased on the river. His passion for what he does is infectious. He’s so animated when he speaks about the big plans he has for the renovations.
“I can’t wait to see it all when it’s completed,” I say while scrolling through the before pictures on his phone, shocked by how much I mean it.
“I’ll look forward to showing it to ya.”
By the time the server delivers our meals, an easy friendship is already forming between us. I’m truly taken by how witty and intelligent he is.
Charming, sure, that I expected. I mean, he charmed the panties right off of me the night we met. But he’s also fun and thoughtful and so much more. It’s a shame we can’t just erase the past and have a do-over. If it weren’t for that unfortunate hookup, I might be inclined to explore this crazy attraction… but who the hell starts their happily ever after with a quickie in a public alley? Not this girl.