Chapter 37
CHAPTER 37
Connor had made a reservation at their favorite Korean restaurant. Dylan was running late because her job interview had lasted much longer than expected. The three people who had interviewed her had all been at least ten years younger than her, one of them probably closer to twenty. She felt old and insecure, but also grateful that Connor had invited her to dinner. It was his way of supporting her after a stressful day.
Dylan rushed into the restaurant, gave Connor’s name to the ma?tre d’, and followed her inside.
Dylan froze. Connor wasn’t there—instead, Raffo sat at a table for two by the wall, and Dylan’s heart couldn’t decide between soaring or sinking. Min-ji, the restaurant’s owner, was Raffo’s friend, so of course Raffo might be here. But tonight? When Dylan was supposed to meet her son, with whom things hadn’t completely returned to normal? She hadn’t seen Connor since the night Murray had left. The only communication they’d had was this dinner invitation he’d extended this morning, when he’d called to wish her luck with her interview—he’d always been a wonderfully attentive son in that regard, no matter what was going on.
Dylan’s head spun. Raffo looked gorgeous, and the thought that she might be here on a date with someone else made Dylan’s stomach clench.
The ma?tre d’ stopped at the table Raffo was sitting at.
“There you go, Mrs. French,” she said. “Min-ji will take care of you personally, but we’ve been asked to give you ten minutes alone first.”
“Wait a second.” Dylan held up her hand. “I think there’s been a mix-up. I’m meeting my son. The reservation is for Connor Hart.”
“Connor made the reservation,” the ma?tre d’ said. “But you’re having dinner with Raffo, not Connor.” She waggled her eyebrows and walked away.
Dylan stared at Raffo. “What’s going on? Am I, or am I not, in an alternate universe? Do the doors to Min-ji’s lead to a different dimension?”
Raffo rose from her chair. “I don’t know. I was supposed to have dinner here with Connor tonight too.” She scratched her cheek. Then a grin appeared on her lips. “When was the last time you spoke to Con?”
“He called me this morning to set up this dinner,” Dylan said. They stood around awkwardly, towering over the tables around them. Dylan wanted to kiss Raffo—at least on the cheek—more than anything, but she had to figure out what was going on first.
Raffo chuckled. “I think this might be Connor’s way of… saying we should date.” Her face all lit up, she grinned at Dylan. “He set up this dinner—this date. For us.”
“Are you sure?” Dylan found it hard to believe.
“Ninety-nine percent.” Raffo did what Dylan didn’t dare. She took a step closer. “Hi,” she said, once she was firmly in Dylan’s personal space. “It’s fantastic to see you.” She pressed her lips to Dylan’s cheek.
Dylan pushed her cheek against Raffo’s lips. Instantly, heat rushed from her neck to her face. It wasn’t a hot flash—those were well and truly behind her. Dylan knew damn well what it was.
“Shall we sit?” Raffo gestured at the table.
Dylan was already feeling a bit wobbly in the knees and was glad for the support of a chair.
“What the actual fuck?” she said. “What happened?”
Min-ji approached their table. She and Raffo exchanged a long, close hug.
“Connor asked me to give you this. It will explain everything,” Min-ji said. “I’ll be right back with some drinks.” She handed Raffo a white envelope.
Raffo tore the envelope open and pulled a card from it. On the back, there was a picture of Raffo’s famous painted rainbow heart—Dylan would recognize it anywhere now.
“ Dear Mom, Dear Raff ,” Raffo read out loud. “ Dinner’s on me. Have fun. Love you both, Con .”
“Oh my god.” Dylan didn’t know what was going on, but tears pricked behind her eyes.
Raffo turned the card around in her hand and spotted her painting. “Fuck me.”
“You didn’t know about this?” Dylan dabbed at her eyes.
Raffo shook her head. “I talked to him a few days ago. I told him how I really felt about you.”
“You did?” Butterflies danced in Dylan’s belly. She extended a hand to Raffo.
Raffo nodded, then wrapped her hands around Dylan’s. They felt warm and comforting, like the first sunlight after weeks of winter.
“There was this bullshit with Mia again and I so clearly realized that I wanted to be with you—well, that I wanted to try,” Raffo said. “If you want to.” Raffo fixed her dark gaze on Dylan.
“There’s nothing I want more.” They would need to get the food to go. Dylan was only hungry for one thing.
“It’s still complicated but… Connor set this up so he must have found a way to be okay with it.”
“I suspect that way goes by the name of Murray.” Dylan picked up the card. “He referenced this painting while trying to get through to Connor about… us.”
Min-ji arrived with two beers and a plate of food.
After she left, Dylan huddled over the table and whispered, “I so want to take you home.”
“I get it, but we have to stay a while. For Min-ji.” Raffo grinned as though this delighted her greatly.
“Because she’s your friend and it would be rude?” Dylan asked.
“Yeah. Besides, we’ve waited this long.” She slanted her head. “Granted, you’ve waited longer than I have, but that’s your own fault.”
Dylan couldn’t get enough of this devilish side to Raffo.
“Let’s talk then.” She picked up the bottle of beer and held it up. “And toast. To my son.”
Raffo clinked the neck of her beer bottle against it. “To Connor Hart.”
“What did he say?” Dylan was dying to find out.
“Well…” Raffo held up her bottle. “We didn’t so much talk about it as we… drank about it, if that makes sense.” She put down her bottle, a grave expression crossing her face. “There are some things that best friends simply can’t talk through and this is one of those things, but clearly Connor’s willing to make an effort to live with it because he wants us to be happy, even if it costs him something—well, more than something. It’s awkward and weird and all of that, but he knows me through and through and that’s why he knows that I wouldn’t have asked him if I didn’t feel like I had any other choice.”
Dylan’s heart was about to burst out of her chest. Not just because her son was becoming more amenable to the idea of them , but because Raffo had just claimed that she didn’t have any other choice but to be with Dylan—and go through the ordeal of asking Connor if he could find it in himself to be okay with that.
“Maybe nothing is really impossible,” Dylan said, even though it sounded a bit silly. But she was intoxicated by the situation and, in that moment, it truly felt like everything was possible. The relief coursing through her was overwhelming because everything that had seemed so thoroughly impossible was suddenly within reach.
Raffo shook her head, because that’s the kind of person she was—and that’s the kind of life she’d lived. “I don’t believe that, but I do believe in this, in… us. The potential of us.”
A grin spread across Dylan’s lips. “I guess this is our first official date.”
“Maybe, even though we’ve done plenty of things that don’t necessarily belong on first dates.”
Dylan’s mind flashed back to their last night together in Big Bear. Min-ji set down more food and left them alone.
“You’re looking very different than what I’m used to from you,” Raffo said after swallowing a bite of bulgogi. “Very corporate compared to those barely-there jeans shorts and see-through tank tops that you seduced me in.”
Dylan ignored the playful jibe. “I had a job interview before I came here.”
Raffo’s eyes lit up. “I bet you crushed it. Did they hire on you on the spot?”
“No,” Dylan said with a glance at Raffo. “They didn’t have an instant crush on me like some people at this table.”
“Don’t blame me. Blame your naked breasts,” Raffo said matter-of-factly.
Dylan nearly spat out the piece of shrimp she’d just popped into her mouth.
“Are you still not over that?” she asked.
“Scarred for life, but in the best way possible.” Raffo plastered on the most delicious grin. “Seriously, though, how did the interview go?”
“Good.” Despite feeling ancient and insecure, the interview had gone well, although Dylan didn’t really feel the spark for the job. “We’ll see.”
“You don’t want to talk about it?” Raffo read her so well.
“It’s not what I want to do, but I also don’t want to sell Big Bear, so it’s my only choice right now.”
“You’re not selling?” Raffo smiled widely. “Meaning we can go back any time?”
Dylan nodded slowly as memories of their time at the lake house engulfed her brain. It was more than enough to perk her up. Maybe, if she could date Raffo in her spare time, taking a job she didn’t really want would be a piece of cake.