Chapter 30
“What do you think, the blue one or the green one?” Zoe asked, holding up two of the pretty tops that she’d bought a few months back but hadn’t had the chance or reason to wear.
Until now.
She couldn’t believe that she was going on a date with Trevor.
Although she was nervous about what people would say after their one and only date, especially when she started to show, right now she really couldn’t care less.
She knew that people were going to talk after the babies were born.
A lot of them were going to make an issue out of the fact that Trevor was the father and because of that, they’d probably always think the babies were either conceived out of pity or a night of drunken stupidity.
If worse came to worst, she would move out of town and hopefully be able to keep her children away from the majority of the gossip.
There would always be talk, but as long as her children knew they were loved, she could deal with all the nonsense.
There was plenty of time later to deal with the drama.
Right now, she was going to enjoy her night with Trevor.
“Well?” she asked, holding the blouses up higher, but the two dogs lounging on Trevor’s bed weren’t exactly helpful as they took turns licking Mr. Cuddles’ face.
“I guess I’ll go with the green one,” Zoe decided.
They matched Trevor’s eyes, but she didn’t say that out loud, mostly because she didn’t know where Trevor was exactly and she didn’t want to take the chance of coming off as even more pathetic.
It was bad enough that he knew that she was in love with him. He didn’t need to know that she was also pathetic. Even though she had no plans of accepting his ludicrous proposal, she fully planned on enjoying this night with him.
Tonight, he was hers and not just when they were alone.
Tonight, she was going to know how it felt to have every woman wish that they were her, because she was with Trevor.
For once, people weren’t going to assume that she was his frumpy little sister because tonight she didn’t have to hide her feelings for him.
Even though she had absolutely no doubt that he cared for her, she really didn’t think he loved her.
How could he? She wasn’t beautiful or special in any way, besides if he loved her, he would have shown her long before he found out that she was pregnant.
It was kind of nice that he was willing to lie to her to make her feel better, and for tonight, just tonight, she was going to pretend that he really did love her and enjoy her one special night with him.
When the kids asked about their relationship, she would honestly be able to tell them after tonight that they’d dated and it just hadn’t worked out.
Tomorrow she would find a new place, a smaller place that she’d be able to afford with her savings for the few months that she wouldn’t be able to work.
She didn’t have to ask to know that Trevor would help her financially, at least where the kids were concerned.
It was more than her mother ever had, so at least she wouldn’t have to worry that she wouldn’t be able to support her kids because Trevor wasn’t the kind of guy to skip town just to get out of child support like her own father had.
If she got desperate, she could always ask Trevor to rent her one of his apartments. It wouldn’t be an ideal situation, especially once he got married, but if she had no choice, she’d suck it up for her kids. This really wasn’t the way she wanted to start a family, but none of that mattered now.
Tonight was her one special night with Trevor and she was going to enjoy it, Zoe decided as she pulled on her green blouse and fixed her hair. Everything was going to be perfect.
A small knock at her door caught her attention.
She gave her hair another look and decided that there just wasn’t any way to hide the small white bandage on her forehead.
Taking a deep breath, Zoe shoved away her disappointment that she wasn’t more of a girly girl, opened her bedroom door and forgot how to breathe as she came face-to-face with a bouquet of baby pink roses held by one of the best-looking men she’d ever seen and tonight, he was all hers.
Tonight was going to be perfect.
“This is my date,” Trevor bit out tightly, gesturing towards her and looking more irritated than he had a minute ago when the hot brunette came sauntering over to their table and started flirting outrageously with him.
So much for her one perfect night, Zoe thought with a small sigh as she picked up her apple juice and took a sip as she looked around for their waitress.
When she spotted her across the room, Zoe gestured for the woman, deciding that she’d waited long enough to place their order.
Since they’d walked into Joe’s Tavern forty-five minutes ago, they hadn’t been able to say more than two words to each other because of the constant flow of women coming over to flirt with him and guys from work coming over to chat with him.
If they saw her sitting at the small round table with Trevor, they didn’t show it.
While most of them smoothly stepped in front of Trevor to block her out, a few guys had invited him to join them at their tables and one woman had actually asked Zoe for her seat so that she could sit next to Trevor.
When Trevor explained that he was with someone, a.k.a.
her, a few had looked a little stunned, one guy had laughed like it was a joke until he caught sight of Trevor’s glare.
Sadly, more than a few women had told Trevor how sweet it was to see a man spend time with his sister and left their numbers on the table for him.
“Oh, really?” the woman asked, looking her over and frowning down at her before she clearly dismissed her and went back to flirting with Trevor.
Oh well, Zoe thought as she gave the woman and Trevor her back and placed her order with the waitress. Trevor tried to get the waitress’ attention, but the bombshell next to him wasn’t giving up so easily, so Zoe just went ahead and ordered him the “All you can eat chicken wing” platter.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t serve him that item,” the waitress said, only somewhat surprising her since she had a pretty good idea why.
“Why not?” she found herself asking anyway out of curiosity to see if she was right and to have something to do to kill time since it appeared that Trevor was still busy trying to get the woman to go away.
“Because he’s a Bradford,” the woman explained with a shrug.
“Okay, can you bring him two cheeseburger platters, then?” she asked, knowing that if she didn’t order him enough food that there was a good chance that he’d steal her food and for the first time in weeks, she was ravenous and wasn’t willing to share.
“Sure, it will be about a half-hour,” the waitress said, taking their menus.
A half-hour? She was starving! She was pregnant with Bradford twins and she was very much afraid that for the next seven months, she’d be in a state of constant hunger as she tried uselessly to satisfy the Bradford appetite.
She really wasn’t sure how she was going to survive this pregnancy or, more importantly, survive another thirty minutes without food.
That nausea pill had done wonders for her body and she wanted, no needed, food or she was pretty sure that she would die…
or kill someone if she didn’t eat something soon.
“If I order an appetizer is there any chance that I can get it quickly? I’m two and a half months pregnant with a Bradford,” she said, not mentioning that it was twins because the thought was actually starting to scare her.
She also hadn’t told Trevor yet and she didn’t want him finding out like this.
She just hoped the woman understood because she was very close to crying.
Judging by the slightly startled expression on the woman’s face, she did.
The waitress shook her head. “No, you’re right.
You probably won’t be able to survive the wait,” she said, sending Trevor, who was still trying to get the other woman to leave, a glare.
“I’ll bring you out a bowl of clam chowder followed by chicken fingers, they’ll only take a few minutes to prepare. Will that work?”
Zoe nodded solemnly. “You are my hero.”
“I’ll put a rush on your food,” the waitress said before walking away.
“Bless you,” Zoe said, fighting the urge to kiss the woman. She really couldn’t remember ever being this hungry before. Was this how it felt to be a Bradford? she idly wondered as the woman who’d been flirting with Trevor stormed off in a huff.
“I’m really sorry about that,” Trevor said, sighing as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking frustrated.
“It’s fine,” Zoe said, shrugging it off.
There really wasn’t anything that he could do about it.
As much as she would have liked one perfect night with him, she wasn’t that angry.
It was probably for the best that they didn’t have a perfect night together so that she didn’t have something truly wonderful to reminisce over and have “what if?” thoughts about later.
“No, it’s not. This is our first date,” Trevor said, reaching over and took her hand in his. She tried to pull her hand away, but he wasn’t having that. Holding on to her hand tightly, but not enough to hurt, he shifted his chair closer to her.
“Maybe we should just focus on having a nice time out as friends instead of trying for the impossible,” Zoe suggested, trying to pull her hand away only to find herself tugged forward and her mouth covered.
He brushed his lips over hers several times before pulling back just far enough so that he could look into her eyes as he spoke. “This is a date, Zoe. Don’t try to downplay what we’ve got going on just because you’re afraid to see where this is headed,” Trevor said softly.