“Same here with me. I hope I don’t keep you from solving your cases though.”
“We can still discuss them and try to come up with solutions when we’re having fun.” He walked her to her car. “I’m glad you had your tires fixed.” He checked her car over to make sure it looked all right.
“When you were in with Phyllis interrogating her, the police caught the three teens involved in slashing my tires.”
“That’s good news.”
“They said some guy by the name of DM paid them, but the description I got from them matched Victor Freemont as the one who handed them the money.”
“Good. I hope they learned their lesson.”
“They’ve done some minor thefts prior to this, one of the officers said, so I don’t know if this will help deter them or not. What do you want to do about dinner tonight?” Sierra was thinking in terms of something quick and easy to make.
“I’m taking you out on a date.”
She was surprised that Adam wanted to take her out for dinner. She thought they would end up in bed first before they even came up with an idea for the meal.
She smiled. “Sure, I would love to.” She really would. Though it was a toss-up. Dinner at home and making love for dessert or having dinner out and ice cream to follow, then making love at home? “Where did you want to go?”
“Your choice. Somewhere special,” he said.
She had to remind herself she had all the time in the world to enjoy being alone with Adam and this was something he really wanted to do with her. And she wanted it too.
She pulled out her phone and looked for restaurants. “Okay, how about a Spanish restaurant? Greek? Or German, for something different?”
“Let’s go to the Spanish restaurant and we can save the other restaurants for another night.”
“That sounds good. We can get some ice cream afterward.”
Adam smiled. “Sure, at your favorite ice cream place?”
“Absolutely.”
Adam made reservations at the Spanish restaurant and then they drove to his house and dropped off her car. Then in his Hummer, they took a drive through the housing development where Carver’s place was, looking for a home that they might want to check into further.
“Oh, this is fun.” She began taking house numbers down for homes for sale and the name of the Realtor who had listed them.
Then when it was time, he drove them to the restaurant for an early dinner. Once they arrived, they were seated right away. Spanish songs played overhead, and pictures of the coastal regions of Spain were hanging on the plastered walls that revealed old brick for an old-world appearance. Because of the early dinner hour, the restaurant wasn’t busy yet, which was nice.
Sierra ordered seafood paella, while Adam got the steak paella. It wasn’t long before their server brought them bread, water, and salads. They were just finishing their salads when the dinners arrived. Hers was shrimp, clams, mussels, and sausage on Spanish rice. She loved eating here because she could take home half her meal, normally, and eat it for lunch the next day. Adam’s main course consisted of steak and shrimp and peas on a bed of rice.
“Remember to save room for dessert,” she said.
He gave her an interested smile.
She smiled back. “I mean ice cream.”
Adam smiled at her before he buttered his bread.
Sierra took a sip of her white wine. She truly thought the world of him. “This is a lovely date.”
“I love you, you know?” Adam took a bite of his steak.
“I love you right back.” Sierra ate some of her shrimp on top of some rice. “How’s your steak paella?”
“Divine, but so is the company.”
They finished their meals, paid for dinner, and headed to the ice cream shop, ditching their suit jackets in the Hummer.
“Are you getting the same thing as you got before?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “This time, it’s coffee ice cream and hot fudge topping. I like to do something different every once in a while. What about you?”
“I think I’ll have chocolate with butterscotch on top. Try some variety.”
“That sounds good. I’ll have to try that the next time,” Sierra said.
At the ice cream shop, they ordered their sundaes, then took them to a booth and sat down. Adam said, “I thought we could call a Realtor to have him or her show us some homes this weekend.”
“Oh, yeah, I would love to do that. I loved some of the ones they have up for sale next to Forest Park, if we can find one we both love that is for sale and affordable.”
“All right, that’s what we’ll aim for. Something close to Carver’s place, if we can get one, and we’ll help watch over his place and vice versa.”
“When we sell both of our homes, we should be able to afford it,” Sierra said.
“That’s what I figured. We could put them both on the market at the same time, and if we sold one, we would be able to purchase the new house with the proceeds. My house is free and clear. What about yours?”
“Yeah, mine too. With as many years as we live, I save lots and have investments, and I sold my home in Killeen to purchase this one. So we should be good.” She took a scoop of her ice cream.
“Better than good. I’ve always liked the idea of living next to the park. It makes you feel as though you have a lot of acreage, even if it’s not yours. And we could run anytime we wanted to after the park closed for the night.”
“I would have dumped Richard sooner if you had lived in a house backed up to Forest Park and if I’d known you had such a gorgeous boat.”
Adam laughed.
It wasn’t long before they were heading home for a second course of dessert—even better than the first.
* * *
At home, Adam and Sierra headed for the bedroom, pulling off their shoes as they hurried, and once there, they tackled each other to the bed, falling onto it and laughing. But then they were kissing and sitting up. He pulled her onto his lap so she was facing him. They were tugging at their clothes—him trying to unbutton his shirt, her unfastening her pants—and then she tackled his belt and zipper.
Once he had unbuttoned his shirt, she moved her mouth from his and kissed his chest, then licked his nipples and nibbled. “You are so hot and sexy,” she whispered against his chest before she kissed his mouth again.
“Like you are.” He kissed her lips and speared her mouth, their tongues dancing in heated passion.