Chapter Eighteen Dominic
Chapter Eighteen
Dominic
T he front door of his house was cracked open when Dominic walked up the steps of his porch after getting home from his first shift at the hardware store. It had been a slow day—only two customers, both of whom knew what they wanted and needed nothing from him except to cash them out. He slowed as he approached and cautiously pushed open the door a little wider.
“Hello?” he called out into the foyer, though he didn’t see anyone yet. He did, however, smell something burning and immediately felt himself bristling with alarm.
“Oh, crap,” someone muttered from the back of the house. Finally, they called out. “I’m not ready yet!”
“Ready for what? To rob me?” Dominic called back as he walked farther into the house, searching around for what the burning smell might be. “Sorry to disturb your trespassing.”
Amanda stepped into the hallway from the kitchen doorway like she was trying to block the kitchen from his view with her body. “Trespassing? The door was unlocked.”
“That’s still trespassing,” he replied. “Were you going to burn the place down, too? What’s going on in there?”
She huffed, her expression annoyed as she turned around and headed into the kitchen, motioning for him to follow her. “It’s not trespassing if the door is unlocked.”
“Literally still the legal definition of trespassing,” he said, following her into the kitchen to see two baking trays of burned mounds of… something on the kitchen counter. “Seriously, though, is there a fire in here somewhere?”
“That’s just the oven,” Amanda replied sheepishly. “When’s the last time you cleaned it out? I think stuff was spilled in there, and that’s why it burned everything.”
“It’s a brand-new oven delivered last week that I haven’t used yet,” he replied, walking over to it and opening it up. A billow of dark smoke escaped from the inside, and he grabbed a rag to quickly begin fanning it out. “Go open the porch door. We need to get some air in here.”
Amanda followed his instructions and opened the back door as well as two windows, helping fan the smoke out with another hand towel. “I swear, I don’t know how this even happened.”
They worked together for a few more minutes to clear the air as much as possible before he finally put the rag down and leaned against the counter, examining the trays that he now realized had at one point been cookies before they became bricks.
“What were you even trying to do?” he asked, chuckling lightly. “And you absolutely owe me new baking trays.”
Amanda tried to wedge a spatula under one of the cookie bricks, but it didn’t budge. She sighed heavily and shook her head. “I told you when we met that I was not a baker.”
“Okay,” he replied. “So why are you baking? And why are you baking in my kitchen?”
“I was trying to surprise you with your grandfather’s cookies. I got the recipe from Ellen, and I didn’t think it would be that hard to follow, but clearly, it was.” Amanda gestured toward the burned cookies. “I was just trying to do something nice for you and completely screwed it up instead.”
She looked near tears, and he felt a pang in his chest that he’d probably made her feel more guilty with his line of questions.
“Hey,” he said softly, reaching a hand out to her and circling his fingers around her wrist. He pulled her a bit closer to him, though not quite against him yet. “You were making my grandfather’s cookies?”
She nodded but didn’t look up at him. She sniffed slightly as she stared down at her feet. “I’m sorry. I’ll get you new baking trays.”
“Amanda, I don’t care about the trays,” he assured her. “That was… that was really nice. I’ve never had anyone try to do something like that for me before.”
Hell, he’d told Melinda about his grandfather’s recipe dozens of times, but she’d never taken initiative to make them. He’d made them for her a few times, but he’d never been able to get them quite right, either.
To be fair, when he’d made them, they had at least been edible.
“My grandfather would joke that this recipe was the only thing my grandmother ever let him come into the kitchen for,” he continued. “And I don’t even remember the last time I made them. It means a lot to me that you’d try and do something like this.”
“Really?” Amanda looked up at him now, and the bottom rim of her lashes had the hint of tears beginning to form. She quickly batted them away and cleared her throat. “I wanted to do something special. I wanted to show you that I’m listening to who you are and what you want.”
He lifted her hand slightly, this time interweaving his fingers with hers. “And what is it that I want?”
Amanda leaned one hip against the kitchen counter, moving her body ever closer to his. God, he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked right now in the skinny jeans and white T-shirt that she was wearing—even if she was covered in what looked like smeared chocolate chips and flour.
“Well, I’m hoping,” she began to reply, but her voice trailed off slightly. She paused and glanced up at him. “I’m hoping that it’s me.”
Dominic had not been expecting that response, and he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He squeezed her hand tighter in his, letting his thumb rub gently against the back of her hand.
“Dominic, I know you wanted to talk about the kiss the other day, and I wasn’t receptive. But you’re right. We need to talk about the kiss,” Amanda continued. “And I really want to now.”
“Okay.” He nodded his head. “Let’s talk about it, then.”
She had a deer-in-the-headlights look to her, as if she hadn’t planned the conversation out beyond what she’d already said. She stood straighter. “I made a promise to Nola and Rosie that I’d go on at least four dates this summer—and I did. None of them were for me, and honestly some were just awful. But I did it. I put myself out there, and I tried to see if that was something I could do.”
Dominic was following her so far but couldn’t picture where she was going with this. “I mean, that’s more than I can say for myself. I haven’t been out on a first date since before I got married. So that’s great that you were able to push yourself that way. I’m proud of you.”
He really did mean that, even if he didn’t love the idea of her going out on dates at all. At least, not with anyone else.
“I’m beginning to realize that I’m just repeating a pattern I’ve had for a while,” Amanda continued. “I don’t think I let people close to me. I keep stuff inside, all to myself, for better or worse. I don’t think I believe that they would even want to be close to me if I allowed people to see… the real me.”
“But the real you is amazing.” Dominic frowned. “Amanda, people want to be close to you. I’ve seen you around your friends and in town. Everyone gravitates to you.”
Her eyes stopped on his for a moment, as if debating what he was telling her. “Thank you. That means a lot that you see that. I think I need to see it more often in myself as well. I think I get hung up on the parts of myself that don’t measure up to what I think a woman is supposed to be, or how I’m supposed to be—whatever that even means. I’m trying to embrace the idea that maybe I’m lovable the way that I am.”
He was baffled that she’d think something like that to begin with. He was determined in that moment that whatever happened between them, he was going to make sure he never left her feeling that way. “You absolutely are. We all are.”
“We’ve spent almost every day together over the last month since you’ve moved in, and I really consider you a friend. But I’m not sure I’ve made that clear to you. I’m not sure I’ve opened up to you about how much getting to know you has meant to me. I don’t want to make that mistake with you. I don’t want to hold anything back,” Amanda continued, this time stepping closer to Dominic and closing the gap between them. She placed her free hand on his forearm and lifted her gaze back up to his face. “And I don’t want to just be friends, either. I want to… I want to go out on a date with you, Dominic.”
He could feel his heart beating faster in his chest, and he lifted one brow, a small smirk on one corner of his lips. “You’re asking me out?”
Amanda dropped her gaze to his chest, biting at the edge of her bottom lip “Are you saying yes?”
Dominic slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her body firmly against his. “I’d love to go on a date with you, Amanda.”
“Oh.” Again, she sounded surprised, but then she seemed to melt forward into him in a way that felt like she’d belonged there the entire time. “Well, that’s that then.”
He laughed and shook his head. “That’s that?”
“I didn’t know if you’d say yes,” she admitted, a nervousness in her expression as she let her arms lift until they were wrapped around the back of his neck. “I really hoped you would.”
“There was never a doubt,” he replied, dipping his head lower until the tip of his nose brushed against the tip of her nose. “I’ll warn you, though—I might be a little rusty.”
She pushed up on the tips of her toes and pressed her lips against his. It was hesitant and slow, and he didn’t push them forward. Instead, he just let her lead the way and explore their kiss in whatever way she felt the safest. He exhaled softly against her, every muscle in his body feeling like the tension was melting away.
It just felt cozy. She felt comfortable in the most peaceful and homey way. Like he wanted to wrap himself around her or wrap her around himself. He wasn’t sure which sounded better because both options sounded like luxury.
Finally, she pulled away, and they both just took a moment to breathe, their foreheads pressed together.
“I made a dinner reservation for us tonight at Naan Sense,” Amanda admitted quietly. “Not to make an assumption of how you’d answer or anything, but just wanted to be prepared if you did say yes.”
“Let’s go,” he replied. “That sounds perfect.”
She stepped away from him and grabbed the trays of cookies, dumping them both into the trash can. She was smiling widely now and damn near skipping around the kitchen as she began cleaning up the mess she’d made. “The reservation is at five, so if we leave in the next hour, we’ll make it there with plenty of time to spare.”
She looked so happy, and he felt so happy that he didn’t want to do anything to ruin this moment. But at the same time, he felt the pull of guilt as he thought about the interview he was going on later this week, and what that might mean. He knew he couldn’t wait any longer to tell her, especially not after she’d just been so brave to lay all her cards out there on the table as well.
“Amanda, I want to make sure we’re on the same page before we do this,” Dominic said, leaning his elbow against the counter as he watched her fuss with one of the sunflowers in the vase she must have brought over.
She paused and her eyes cut to him quickly. “What do you mean?”
He licked his lips, trying to figure out how to word the news. “I really like you.”
“I like you, too,” she said, the tensions in her shoulders loosening some. “So, it sounds like we’re on the same page.”
“I mean about going forward,” he continued. “I… I have an interview in New Jersey this week.”
“What kind of interview?” she asked, her brows furrowed now.
“It’s for a sportscaster position—exclusively MLB and baseball. It’s kind of the perfect position for someone who is retired from the game. It’s a way of still being actively involved in baseball without being a player on the field, and they are willing to accommodate any issues that happen with my sight. It’s not guaranteed. There are other people interviewing as well, but my manager seems to think I have a pretty good shot at getting it.”
Amanda dropped her hands from the sunflowers and focused on him. She took a deep breath before speaking. “It sounds like an incredible opportunity.”
“It is,” he admitted. “Selfishly, I do want it. I think you deserve to know that.”
She shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal, but he could tell from the way she was avoiding eye contact that she felt more than that about it. “What’s selfish about that? You’ve been pretty clear about missing being part of the game. This sounds like a great way to still be involved in whatever capacity you can be.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what it might mean for my length of time in Heart Lake,” he continued. “It’s why I didn’t make a long-term commit to Little League with Evan. I love it here, and I wouldn’t have moved here if I’d known this was a possibility. But now it is. And it could be a reality.”
Amanda tapped her fingers against the kitchen counter. “Well, we’d miss you here, of course. But you have to follow what you love. If you get this job, you have to take it.”
“I know,” he agreed, even though it felt like a betrayal coming out of his mouth. “I think I would take it.”
“So, do you still want to go out tonight?” Amanda asked after a quiet, tense moment passed between them.
“Of course, I do,” he replied immediately. “But I guess I’m worried that that information might change your mind. And I would understand if it did. Absolutely no hard feelings.”
Actually, it would be an incredible amount of painful, hard feelings, but he swallowed that fear.
She kept her eyes on her hand, her fingers still tapping against the counter. Finally, she let out a small sigh and licked her lips, then lifted her eyes to look at him. “I think I’d regret it if I didn’t give it a chance. If I didn’t give us a chance.”
He nodded because he agreed. He wanted them to try, even if he couldn’t guarantee where things were going or what any of it might mean. It was still a box he knew he wanted to check. If he took that job and never opened himself up to the possibility of Amanda, he’d think about her forever. “I think I’d like that, too.”
“I’m going to go home and get dressed in something a little fancier,” Amanda said, this time stepping toward him again and wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. “I’ll meet you out front in thirty minutes?”
Dominic agreed, hugging her back and then walking her to his front door.
Despite his best efforts to temper his excitement, he couldn’t stop the butterflies from coming to life inside of him as he thought of spending the evening with her, of actually being on a date with her. Until right now, he hadn’t considered this as a possibility. He’d hoped—he refused to even admit how much he’d hoped—but he had been sure she was not in the space to even be open to it. And frankly, he still wasn’t sure he was, either.
But for Amanda… he was willing to try.