Chapter 9 #2
“Look at us, Ty.” She ignored the food and got up. She came around the table and sank into a crouch at his knee. She held up her phone, but Ty could only look at her.
She exuded such joy, and Ty loved the light she put off. She looked up at him, and he quickly cleared his throat and looked at the photo on her phone. The sunset shone through the window behind them, and Ty looked happy enough while Winnie bore pure radiance.
“Send that to me, would you?” he asked.
“Of course.” Winnie did it right there, crouching at his side, and then she straightened and went back to her seat.
“This looks amazing.” She got herself situated while Ty served himself some sausage and polenta, and he’d just speared some meat when she said, “Let’s taste it together on three, two, one. ”
Ty put his bite in his mouth at the same time Winnie did, and the spice, tomatoes, and fatty salt hit him all at the same time. “Oh, yeah,” he said around the creamy polenta, with plenty of that sharp cheddar flavor in there.
“Mm, this is spicy,” Winnie said, and she chewed quickly, swallowed, and reached for her spritzer. She took two big gulps and then coughed. “Wow. How are you not coughing?”
In response, Ty forked up another bite of the spicy sausage, the creamy polenta, and swiped it through the marinara sauce. “It’s good.” He popped the bite of food into his mouth as Winnie’s cheeks pinked up.
Winnie ran the tines of her fork through the polenta and ate a little bit of that, but she didn’t take another bite of the sausage. She picked up a chunk of brown bread and spread the polenta on that as if it were butter. “Let’s do the yes-no game.”
“The what now?”
She smiled at him. “I ask you something, and you can only say yes or no. Then you can ask me something.”
Ty hated games, but he didn’t have any amazing conversation topics. He supposed he could’ve asked more about her formal sign language training, but that ship seemed to have sailed. “All right,” he said, taking another bite of spicy sausage.
“Did you go to college?”
“No,” he said. When he didn’t immediately voice another question, Winnie waved her fork at him.
Ty got the message. “Uh, when did you get your cats?”
“That’s not a yes-no question,” she said.
Ty huffed at her and wanted to roll his eyes. He refrained, but he seriously couldn’t come up with a yes-no question he cared to know. “Can you drive a bus?”
“Can I drive a bus?” Winnie blinked at him and then burst out laughing. Pure humiliation ran through Ty, but soon enough, he joined his laughter to hers.
“Can’t we just talk?” he asked. “I’m no good at games.”
“The only thing I’m good at is games,” Winnie said.
“See? Now I know that about you,” he said. “What kind of games do you like?”
“Word games.” Winnie looked up as Davy arrived with their chicken dinners. A woman had come with him, and both he and Winnie were served at the same time.
“Anything else I can get you two?” Davy asked.
“This smells amazing,” Winnie said, and she grinned up at Davy, as if he’d prepared their food.
“I think we’re good,” Ty said, and the waiters left.
He tucked into his food, noting that Winnie didn’t find anything with the black pepper too spicy.
In fact, she exclaimed multiple times about how much she enjoyed the food, and Davy checked on them several times, finally boxing up their leftovers and offering coffee with their dark chocolate cheesecakes.
By the time the meal wrapped, Ty realized that the restaurant had quieted even more, and he and Winnie were a few of the last to leave. He’d managed to eat and chat, no games required, and he laced his fingers through Winnie’s as they stepped back out into the January night.
“Mm, it got cold,” he said.
“I hate to break it to you,” she said. “But it’s been cold for weeks now.”
Ty ducked his head and chuckled. “I don’t mind the winter. I mean, it’s not summer, but it has its own type of beauty.”
“Yeah.” Winnie sighed, and while Ty wanted to prolong their evening together, he led her back to the truck and got the heater blowing.
“So,” he said. “Do you want a tour of my childhood?”
She leaned her head back against the rest of the passenger seat, her smile barely there and oh-so-beautiful. “Yeah, that sounds amazing.”
“We’ll be seated and warm,” Ty said. “And if you’re lucky, I’ll find us a hot chocolate stand that’s open, and you can have a second cocoa fix.”
Winnie giggled, and Ty reached over and took her hand in his. “I really like holding your hand,” he said, his chest suddenly storming. “I don’t have a lot of human contact either, and it’s nice.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“I’m….” Ty mentally cursed himself, but he just wanted tonight to be perfect, and if he tried kissing her…. “I’m not sure I’m ready to do more.”
“More?” Winnie spoke with the cutest uncertainty.
“It seems like everything I do lately,” he said. “Has to go slowly, and I think that’s going to include me and you.” He glanced over to her. “Is that okay? I mean, I want to kiss you, but I’m not sure I’m ready.”
You’re definitely not ready.
Winnie blinked at him and then released the cutest, lightest laugh. “Yeah, Ty, it’s the first date. I don’t even want you to kiss me.”
Ty dang near drove up onto the curb as he stared at Winnie. Then he realized she was teasing him. “Well.” He huffed. “That was rude.”
She laughed again, and then they settled into comfortable silence. Ty made a turn and nodded out Winnie’s window. “There’s the elementary school. There’s only one in town, and we all went there.”
And for some odd reason, Ty’s embarrassment about taking this trip down memory lane to prolong his time with Winnie didn’t feel so ridiculous after all.