Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Hazel
I was trying not to consider a hamburger topped with a big scoop of Chef Connor’s famous macaroni and cheese, a side of extra-crispy tater tots and a large chocolate shake with double whipped cream and two cherries as my last meal because I knew it wasn’t.
Granted, it might be the last one I ate with the man presently sitting across from me.
But my last? Probably not unless I popped like an overinflated balloon from all the food I kept stuffing into my mouth.
Did that keep me from taking yet another huge bite of my burger.
Nope, not at all. My life might be a mess but the food anywhere on the Ranch or the Ridge couldn’t be better.
As for my dinner companion, the man I’d been drawn to like a bee to a flower the moment I saw him in Moira’s kitchen?
He’d kept his word, not asking me a single question as he ate his own hamburger sans the macaroni.
“You really don’t know what you’re missing,” I said after swallowing the bite I’d just taken.
“I’m pretty sure I do. A burger is supposed to be just that, a burger. If you want cheese, then by all means, a nice slice of Swiss is fine, but to smother the patty beneath a mountain of pasta? He gave a comical expression of horror. “That is just unnatural.”
I laughed and popped another tot into my mouth, loving the crunch it gave as I bit down.
“You know, for someone who comes from a place where they serve up dishes like bangers and mash and people actually think baked beans go with bacon and eggs, that’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
Oh, and come on? Spotted dick? I mean I don’t think I even want to know what that is but I promise you it absolutely has to be unnatural.
” I gave a very realistic shudder that had nothing to do with the chill of the ice cream I was attempting to draw up through the straw that was obviously far too thin to allow the deliciousness to escape its glass prison.
Dipping my finger into the whipped cream and sucking that instead, I added, “I’m sorry, but I honestly can’t consider you a culinary expert. ”
When he didn’t respond, I looked from my plate to him to see him staring at me. “What? Do I have lettuce stuck in my teeth or something?” When his gaze didn’t move a millimeter from my lips, I said, “Earth to Nigel?”
“Huh?”
“Now I know how Brooke felt this morning,” I muttered and forgot about lettuce, choosing the bigger of the cherries as my next bite.
“Why is everybody hung up on Brooke all of a sudden?”
Oops, I’d come too close for comfort on spilling the tea all by myself. Pretending ignorance, I tried to draw up some ice cream again.
“Sweet lord, have some mercy and please stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“That!” He pointed to the straw that was a fraction of an inch from my lips.
I sat back, looking at him as if he’d come from a place even further away than the United Kingdom. Like perhaps Pluto? “Are you telling me that England doesn’t approve of milkshakes either?”
“No, I’m telling you that if I see your cheeks hollowing one more time today, I’m either going to go all caveman and drag you out of here by your hair or I’m going to humiliate myself by shooting my load in my pants like some virginal teen.”
Wow. I honestly didn’t know which visual would be more shocking, but since my pussy had clenched when he’d mentioned pulling my hair, I had a pretty good guess.
I opened my mouth to state I’d rather like to see him in all his Neanderthal glory.
Instead, what came out was, “I suppose then I should let you know that I’ve been sorta lying all this time. ”
If you’ve ever wondered how fast a man can go from looking as if he wanted to devour you to looking at you like you’d just told him you were that Pultonian alien, I could provide the answer.
Less than a single heartbeat.
“Care to repeat that?”
No, not really, especially since I hadn’t intended to say it the first time.
However, wasn’t there something about a faux pas not actually being accidental, but a way of forcing oneself to face some reality they’d rather not?
Or something along those lines. I was studying medicine not philosophy but figured it held at least a grain of truth.
Sitting back, I shrugged. “Not lying, lying, but more like lying by omission,” I confessed.
“Omitting what exactly?”
“Must we discuss all the dirty deets?” Evidently we must as his eyes turned a darker brown and that black brow rose in an arc that had my nipples tightening. Then a promise saved me.
“No questions remember?”
His mouth opened and his brow shot higher, but then his mouth closed and his brow settled and he threw in a nod as if it were a punctuation mark to end an unspoken sentence. Instead of feeling victorious, I felt as I had when realizing I’d been rude to my friend.
I pushed my plate away and took a drink of water, purposefully ignoring the tempting shake, pretty sure I’d never quite see them in the same way again. Dinner was over.
“Remember, I asked you why you’ve never spanked me?”
“I do.”
“I don’t need you to answer because I already know why.”
“Excuse me as I’m not sure how to word this without it sounding like a question, but would you care to share my answer with me so I’ll know what to say, because I’m pretty sure you have no clue what my answer would have been.”
The sigh I gave sounded as if I was carrying the weight of the world, when all I was carrying was the guilt I felt for leading the poor guy on. A big part of me wanted to just slip out of the booth and walk away, but that would only serve to disprove what I was about to share, so I remain seated.
“At first, I thought maybe I’d just fallen for you far harder and faster than you’d fallen for me. But as you continued to ask me out and then we took it further, I couldn’t reconcile that thought with the man who made me feel…”
“Feel—”
Not technically a question but close enough to have me ready to jump up and run if he so much as twitched, but he simply sat there waiting for me to continue.
“Fine. Okay, let’s just rip the Band-Aid right off, shall we?”
Still, he simply waited which only ticked me off. Certainly he had some skin in this game, right? Or had I been so drawn in by his looks, his supposed interest, his kindness— hell, even that damn sexy accent that had the butterflies in my belly happily flapping about—that I was a complete idiot?
“It’s because you’ve finally realized that I…
I-I’m, uh not—” Who said miracles didn’t just fall from the sky?
Not me for I was looking at one that very instant.
“Sadie! Over here,” I called, waving my hands as if she were so nearsighted that she’d miss seeing me.
That possibility had me almost knocking over my milkshake in my haste in exiting the booth.
“Hey—” Sadie managed before I grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the booth.
“Consider this my Band-Aid. Sadie can explain things far better than I can because she is one,” I declared once we’d reached Nigel and I’d practically shoved her onto the bench.
“Oh, and, Sadie, feel free to have my shake. I swear I never even took a sip, though I did dip my finger into the whipped cream, but I left one cherry, so you’re good.
Thanks so much!” With my task finally completed, I turned and did what I should have done in the first place all those months ago.
I slipped back into the shadows where I belonged.