Chapter 9
Marley
I loved Gino's burgers, and this one was especially good. I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, and I was hungry. I was also in an incredibly good mood. I felt like all was right with the world now that I had this scarf back around my neck. I finished my burger before Dominic finished his, and then I slowed down on the fries once I realized how fast I was eating. I dipped one fry at a time instead of three at once like I had at first.
"Tucker McDaniel was asking Tom about you," Dominic said. "And that creep with your scarf. You've got so many guys trying to talk to you."
"It's because I'm too friendly," I said causing him to laugh. "No, it's true. I'm working on it, though. I've been in Chicago for just over a year now, and I'm significantly meaner now than I was at first. It's going good."
I was looking serious as I spoke, and he grinned at me thinking I was joking.
"I'm smiling, but it really is true," I said, shaking my head. "I'm more distant with people than I used to be. I was just so used to looking people in the eyes and acting really friendly with them. I'm from a small town, and that's just how things were." I stared straight into his eyes with a kind expression as I spoke to demonstrate what I used to do. "I would look into people's eyes when they talked to me at the store. I would look right at them, and hear their story, and let them get to know me. I really do care about people. But some guys take it to mean that I care more than I do. That didn't happen to me as much in Texas, so I wasn't prepared for it when I got here. People were misunderstanding me. I would hold eye contact or touch someone's shoulder without even thinking about it. But I've had to learn to be more guarded than that. I was too friendly at first. I thought I was being normal, but they thought I was flirting. I ran into that quite a bit working at Abercrombie."
I had been holding eye contact, staring at him, the whole time I spoke, but then I dropped my gaze toward the end of what I was saying.
"I like it when you look at me," he said.
"I like to make eye contact, but I've gotten pretty good at avoiding it without seeming rude. There's an art to it. You need to know just how much to do."
"I see you barely glancing at me now."
"Yeah, this is about the amount I usually feel comfortable with."
"I like it the other way," he said.
His tone seemed serious, and I glanced at him. Our eyes met. We held eye contact. It happened for five or ten full seconds and I almost forgot to breathe. We blinked, and we just kept staring.
He was a breathtaking individual. It wasn't just that he was a strapping male athlete type or that his face was chiseled and wonderful… it was that he had been raised in the spotlight, and he lived up to the hype. He was larger than life. I felt safe with him near me. Not only did I feel like he would never hurt me, I felt the opposite, like he would protect me from anything else that would. I felt flush when those thoughts hit me and I took a deep breath and looked away. He made a frustrated sound.
"It's sad that you have to be guarded with people. But you do. You don't with me, but with some people… with most people, maybe. It's surprising how many people in the world you probably shouldn't let yourself get close to."
"I know, I found that out. That's why it was so good to have a fresh start after Abercrombie."
I wiped my hands on my napkin when I was finished. I looked down and hugged the scarf, unable to believe it was there.
"Were you saying you learned how to knit?" Dominic asked.
"Yes. I did learn how. And I remembered this scarf so well that I would have gotten close to recreating it. But it wouldn't have ever been the same. There's just no way to get my hands on that same yarn. It was so long ago, and she got the yarn in so many places. I learned to knit, and I can't say I regret it, but I am so happy to have this thing back. I saw your job and everything on your social media. It looks like you own a pretty amazing gym. I don't have much on mine."
"Yeah, I didn't even know your last name."
"Matthews."
"I learned it now, but I had nothing at first."
"I'm not really online. I mean, I surf sometimes, but I don't put myself out there. I had to add a photo of myself when I got in touch with you. I don't put anything personal on there. My sister does, but I never have. Yours is cool, though. I looked at it some more after I knew we were meeting, and it looks like you have a good life, a good family and everything. A girlfriend, too."
"I told Blake to take those down. That woman wasn't my… we had a few dates, but I'm not seeing her anymore."
He blushed a little when he talked about that, and I felt a wave of something in the pit of my stomach. I had finished the burger, and now I sort of regretted it. I sat up, straightening my posture. He was talking to me in a way that made me think he had some kind of feelings for me, and I wasn't expecting that. Dominic was a billion miles out of my league, and I thought I was just meeting him to get my scarf. Even getting the scarf was crazy enough. With the way Dominic was looking at me and talking to me now, I… his dark eyes were utterly distracting.
I cleared my throat. "Thank you for lunch. I don't want to leave, but I think I have to." I looked at my watch.
"Do you have somewhere to go?"
"Yes, I do, actually. I'm sorry. I didn't when we first made these plans, but these things happen. It's my car. It's at the mechanic. I'm using Joan's car right now, and she needs to be somewhere by three today. I thought I had plenty of time, but I'm trying to count backward, and I think I need to go soon."
"You bought a car?"
"Yes, and I regret it." I laughed. "No, but I just got it two months ago, and it already has a leak in the radiator."
"Is it new?"
"No. I paid cash for it. But it's not a bad car. I got it back in Texas when I was there for Christmas. It got me back here, which I was happy about. I just thought I would get more than two months out of it," I added, laughing.
"Who sold it to you?" he asked, looking protective, which was so sweet.
"It was my uncle's back in Texas, and my dad said he would be embarrassed if he knew it broke down on me, but it happened. It's not my uncle's fault. Anyway, it's not that big of a deal. It's more of an inconvenience than anything. I was having fun at lunch. This was fun, and I hate to cut it short. I probably should be going, though, if I'm going to get Joan's car back for three."
"Why don't we just take the lady's car back, and I can take you to the mechanic later. Would that help you?"
I stared at Dominic, not knowing if he was serious or not. This desirable, famous, busy man was offering to give me rides… was this real? He sat there like he seriously was waiting for me to answer his question.
"Yes, it would help me. But I couldn't. It's probably over an hour of errands. Joan's is a couple of miles from here, and the mechanic is like five or six miles from Joan's. I can't ask you to drive me all over town."
"You didn't ask me. I volunteered."
I grinned at him. "That was before you knew what a commitment it was."
"Do you want me to leave you alone about it?" he asked staring at me and speaking in a serious tone.
"Do I want you to?" I asked.
"Yeah. I mean, am I one of those guys who's not getting the point? I don't want to be pushy or assume too much with the eye contact, but I would love for this lunch to not be over with you."
"I-I would like or love it to not be over, too," I said in a choppy tone.
I was feeling weak in the knees. It was a good thing I was still on the edge of the stool. Dominic gave me a confident grin like he wasn't stirred up at all.
"Then it's settled. I'll give you a ride," he said. He glanced at me to see if I agreed, and we stared at each other. I blinked, but we held eye contact. The tension was heart-stopping, at least it was on my end. My heart literally felt like it stopped. Or maybe it was just beating so fast that it was like one solid hum.
"Okay," I said, finally, in a hoarse whisper. "I don't know what to say other than thank you."
"Do you feel comfortable riding with me from Joan's to the mechanic?"
"Yes," I said, honestly. "I can just tell you're a good person. I know you are. You wouldn't try to hurt me. And even if you would, I gotta warn you, I'm scrappy. I fight back. If it's between me and a would-be assassin, I'd put my money on me." I smiled and gave him a look of challenge, messing with him like I would a friend. He reached out and felt my upper arm when I said that. I didn't know what he was doing at first, but I flexed when I figured it out. As I flexed, I looked at him with a confident, satisfied expression that made him laugh.
Before we left Gino's, Dominic asked me for the addresses of the places we'd be going so that he could go ahead and get directions. I didn't want him to feel obligated to drive me all over town, and I gave him another way out, but he didn't seem to want that. He seemed interested in hanging out with me, even if it meant running errands, which was insane. I went with it, pretending he was a normal guy. I told myself to imagine he was one of my retail coworkers, and when I started to feel starstruck, I would remember that perspective and try to see him that way—like someone I would banter with.
It was difficult, though. Dominic Decker could make a person feel tongue-tied and weak in the knees.
We went to my house, and he waited outside while I went in and gave Joan her keys. She was happy when I told her I didn't need a ride to the mechanic. My scarf was tucked into my coat, and I didn't show it to her. I didn't want to get my hopes up about the scarf before today, so Joan didn't know that I had located it or about my plans to meet Dominic.
I didn't have time to explain. I ran upstairs and changed into a different sweatshirt that wasn't Notre Dame. It was cold out, so I put on another hoodie. This one was solid burgundy. I put on my scarf and coat and adjusted my headband around my ponytail.
My phone rang while I was in my bedroom.
It was the mechanic, so I picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Is this, hello, is this Marley Matthews?"
"Yes."
"This is Ben down at Dell Brothers Automotive."
"Yes," I said timidly, fearing more bad news about my car. I was already having thoughts of how to sell it before he even got the words out.
"We, uh, yes, ma'am, yes, indeed, we realized that, after all, this leak was still under warranty on your car. The previous owner must have had a good warranty on it. It looks like we are supposed to do some routine things, too, some other things it needs, and that's all covered as well."
I sat in silence for a second, finding it difficult to compute or believe what he was saying.
"I assume you want to have it all done if it's covered. I just wanted to make sure you knew that we're going to need it a little longer today. We close at six, and we'll have it done by then. Is that okay?"
"You're making other changes to my car besides just the radiator leak?"
"Yes, we'll do those other repairs and replacements I talked to you about. I didn't realize they were covered. None of this is any charge to you. The whole thing is taken care of."
"You're kidding me."
"No, ma'am. But the pick-up time has changed. We've got a little more work to do."
"Yes sir, six o'clock. Is that right?"
"Yes ma'am, thank you, I'll see you then."
I made my way outside after barely pausing to acknowledge Mitzy and quickly saying goodbye to Joan.
I opened the door to Dominic's truck. It was a large vehicle with a lavish grey interior and I climbed inside. There was wood trim, and it looked like a luxury vehicle even though it was a pickup truck. The windows were tinted and we were high off the road. I sat up and peered out of the windows. "I feel like I'm in a plane or something else besides a vehicle. This is a nice truck."
"My dad had a contract with Ford, so we get the hookup. This was Christmas from my parents."
"Whoa."
"I know. It's not like that every year, but this year, there were trucks in the driveway with big ribbons."
"Well, Merry Christmas to us all," I said. I sat back and put on my seatbelt with a smile. "Thank you for the ride. This is great." I ran my hand along the armrest, which was made of soft leather.
"I could go for a smoothie," he said. "I know a place."
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that before we go anywhere. We don't have to go to the mechanic anymore. My appointment got pushed back to later this evening, so I'll just get a ride over there later. Thank you, though. We can still get a smoothie or hang out for a minute if you want."
"You don't need me to take you to the mechanic?"
"No, and you are not going to believe what just happened in there. This day has been unbelievable. I got the scarf back, and now, I'm… a guy from the repair shop called me while I was inside and told me that I—" I gasped. "Oh, my gosh, Dominic, you know what I just thought of? Mitzy. Joan's dog. She was going nuts on me just now when I went in the house, trying to talk to Joan, and it dawned on me that Patrick made this big deal about her going crazy on you in the store and yelping. You went to Joan's store to pick up some pajamas for—"
"Ohh, that dog ? You know that dog?"
"That's Joan's store you were in, and that's her dog who was whining so bad that day. It just dawned on me that it might have been my scarf that made her do that. Did you have it near your stuff?"
"Oh, definitely. I had it on the same hanger as my coat. That dog was stuck to me like glue that day. That's insane. I can't… are you serious? That was Joan's store? Back at Thanksgiving?"
"Yes. She was all excited about your mom shopping there. Patrick told the whole story about how Mitzy wouldn't let you let her down."
"She wouldn't. She yelped like I had hurt her."
I laughed. "Patrick told us all about it. She's never done anything like that before then or since. Do you think it was because you had my scarf?"
"Yes, definitely," he said with an amazed laugh. "That's for sure what did it. I had that scarf on the same hanger as this coat. You saw it in the picture. And she was scratching right at my chest."
"Oh, Mitzy… " I said, shaking my head. "But I'm so sorry. I got off track. My car. I was telling you about my car. I don't need a ride anymore because it's so late now. I'll take the bus later tonight, or Joan might be back by then, but it's not going to be ready until six o'clock. And I'm trying not to doubt what I just heard, but the guy said it was going to be zero dollars. Free. Zilch. Na-da, Dominic."
"That's awesome. Are you happy?"
I squinted at him. "Am I happy?" I said, teasing him. "I'm feeling like I'm dreaming. This whole day. I mean, with the car, I'm still cautious about believing it's going to happen like the guy said, but yes, I'm extremely happy. I'd still love to go with you and get a smoothie, though, if you want. We can just go somewhere close, and you can just drop me back here after."
"Or we can hang out all afternoon and I could take you to your mechanic later," he said with a little smile.
I wanted to hang out with him for the rest of my life, but I just smiled, nodded, and shrugged, not knowing how serious he was. Dominic backed out of Joan's driveway like he knew where he was going.