He cocked an eyebrow. “Is that a question? Do I need to give you some references?”
She shook her head but couldn’t resist teasing him. “Do you really have dating references?”
“No, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes for you to give me the time of day. Heck, you could even talk to my grandma if that would help.”
She chuckled. Everything about the last couple of minutes had been flattering. And she was a lot of things but unfortunately not immune to that. “I’d love to go out with you.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded.
“Great. Okay, give me your phone number and I’ll text you as soon as I look at my schedule. Okay?”
“Okay.” After she gave him her number, she looked at him more closely. “You didn’t plan on this, did you?”
“No.” He looked sheepish as he reached for his coat. “Honestly, I thought you would be close to my grandmother’s age. All day I was preparing myself not to get creeped out when I put my hand on your waist.”
“And here we just held hands.”
He shrugged on his coat. “I’m thinking maybe I would’ve liked holding your waist just fine, Shannon Murphy. I’ll call you. Promise.”
She smiled at him as he walked out the door. Then, as soon as she was alone again, she sat down and breathed deep. Whew. She sure hadn’t seen that coming.
CHAPTER 32
“No one dances sober, unless he is insane.”
—Cicero
Looking skeptical, Jennifer walked backwards ahead of Dylan, Ace, and Kurt on the narrow flight of stairs leading up to the third floor. “I guess this is a pretty tight fit,” she said. “I didn’t even think to measure the size of the dresser before asking you to carry it upstairs.”
Since his arms were burning, his back was about to send out an SOS signal, and they still had half a flight to go, Dylan didn’t say anything.
“This ain’t no big deal,” Ace called out. “All in a day’s work, yeah?”
“Thank you again.” She stopped.
“Keep walking, Jennifer,” Dylan called out. “We’ve got this.”
Realizing she was blocking them, Jennifer scurried forward. “Oh. I’ll just go make sure my door is still open.”
“Thanks, darlin’,” Kurt said.
As soon as Jennifer trotted off, they climbed another two steps. Ace was leading the way, and Dylan was supporting the bottom half of the dresser next to Kurt Holland.
“You guys with your Southern charm,” Dylan teased. “The minute you pull out those drawls and ‘darlin’s,’ girls turn to putty.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Kurt asked as they lifted the dresser and pulled it up another few steps.
“Not a damn thing. I’m just wondering where you learned it.”
“From the best sweet-talker I know—my pa,” Ace said. “He could sweet-talk my momma into doing just about anything.”
“Huh.”
“Oh-oh,” Ace teased. “Are you thinking it’s time you adopted some of that charm for yourself?”
Maybe. Not that he was going to admit it to his buddies, though. “I’m just surprised, is all. I hadn’t ever had the privilege of seeing it in action.”
“For what it’s worth, sweet-talking doesn’t do much for Emily,” Kurt said. “She just kind of rolls her eyes and asks me to listen to her.”
“Noted.” Three steps later, they were on the landing. After they set the dresser down on the wood, Ace stretched his arms. “This place is really is nice up here. Way cooler than I thought. That Shannon knows what she’s doing.”
“She always did though. Right?” Kurt murmured. Reminding Dylan once again that Shannon might be a new resident, but she wasn’t without a support system. She had her sisters and a trio of guys from Spartan, West Virginia, to lean back on. Whenever they mentioned things like that, he was reminded that they all knew her far better than he did—and had known her for years.
“What was Shannon like?” Dylan asked.
“When?”
“I don’t know. When you all were growing up.”
“She was younger than us. Jackson knew her better—I didn’t know her real well,” Kurt said. “But she was a star.”
Ace nodded. “We were all real proud of her. Still are.” There was a slight edge to his voice now. Almost as if he was making sure that Dylan knew Shannon Murphy wasn’t without friends in Bridgeport.
“Good to know.” Raising his voice, he said, “Jennifer, we got your dresser. You ready?”
The door flew open. “Yes! Sorry, I was on the phone and the reception was a little shaky.”
The words were out before he could stop them. “Everything okay?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes. It was Jack. He’s taking me out for coffee.” Before he could say anything about that, she pointed to an empty wall. “Could you guys put it right here?”
“No problem,” Kurt said bending down to pick up the beast again.
After it was exactly where she wanted it, Jennifer thanked them, and Ace and Kurt took off.
Dylan stayed a moment to look at Jennifer’s room. He couldn’t deny that it was shaping up real nice. “This is pretty, Jen.”
“I think so, too. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how everything was going to look together, but now I know it’s going to be just fine.”
“It’s quiet back at home. I already miss you.”
“I bet you’re missing your hot dinners.”
“That, too. Maybe one day soon we can go out to lunch or dinner? My treat.”
“I’d like that.”
Feeling awkward but not altogether bad, he nodded. “Okay then, it’s a date. Now, I better go check in with Shannon. I’ve got my class in twenty minutes.”
“Have fun.”
He rolled his eyes, but in truth he was looking forward to his hour-long lesson. He had a lot of making up to do and, though there was a lot to talk about, he knew that the two of them had some chemistry that couldn’t be denied. Surely that had to count for something.
* * *
When he walked into the studio ten minutes later, Shannon was already there.
She was wearing another pretty dress. Her hair was in a complicated-looking kind of ponytail, too. And she had more makeup on than usual. He thought she was just as beautiful in leggings and a T-shirt with her face freshly washed.