10. Figure It Out
FIGURE IT OUT
S he was about to have a date and wasn’t sure the last time she was scared crapless over it!
Daphne drove home faster than normal, her mind distracted over her willingness to be alone with Abe.
In the store just now, he looked more like the guy in the casino.
Shorts on, a fitted T-shirt that had images in her head of her hands on his naked skin, and no hat or sunglasses on.
His brown hair was a little messy as if he was a towel dry-and-go type of person.
Just what she’d always liked since she was about the same.
“Calm down,” she told herself. She had to get under control before she went and made a fool out of herself yet again in front of him.
She got home and parked, then pulled out her four bags of food at once and walked in through the back door to unload them in the kitchen.
She had two hours to make a salad and drive to his house, but she didn’t even know where he lived or how long it’d take her.
Once she got the water started for the pasta, she put his address into a map and realized it was only about fifteen minutes away. Not bad.
But trying to relax her nerves wasn’t going to come easy.
Making the pasta salad didn’t take long enough to distract her, so she went to her room in search of something to wear and then decided not to change.
She wasn’t going to be who she wasn’t.
This was a casual dinner and if she put a ton of effort into it, she might give off the wrong impression.
She needed to take this slow and figure it out first.
For now, it was best to go as she looked, maybe put something nicer on her feet than her old athletic flip-flops that were her go-to on the weekend.
She rooted around in her closet—the biggest closet she’d ever had that she only used half of—found a pair of brown leather sandals and exchanged her black Nikes for them.
She went into the bathroom and pulled her hair out of the ponytail. She could at least do something with that.
After spritzing it down with some water and running her fingers through it, she managed to bring some life back into it and let it fall past her shoulders.
She had no makeup on and rarely wore it unless she was going out.
This could be considered going out, but she wasn’t going to layer it on. Not like she ever did anyway.
But she applied some foundation, a little bit of shimmer on her eyelids, and mascara.
Good enough.
After killing as much time as she could, she grabbed her pasta salad out of the fridge, put Abe’s address into her phone again, and then started her car. The map popped up and gave her directions.
Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty, and her mind was scattered.
Nerves, definitely.
But she was also worried that she might lose her mind and jump him again.
God, no, don’t let her do it.
It was the last thing she wanted to happen.
Too many stupid decisions in her life and this couldn’t be another.
She’d never been this attracted to a man before and hated that her actions might come off as if she was some whore jumping from man to man.
She took several deep breaths before she pulled onto his street, then parked behind his truck in the driveway.
The house was older, but it was an established neighborhood where many cared for their properties.
She wondered how long he’d lived here.
She grabbed the bowl and then made her way up his front porch. Before she could ring the bell, he was opening the door.
“Come in,” he said.
“You look relieved to see me,” she said. “I already feel bad about that night, but do I have to worry that you think I’m going to keep disappearing or you can’t trust what I say?”
“Wow,” he said, pulling the bowl out of her hand. “You don’t pull any punches. I love it.”
“Really?” she asked. “I’m not normally this vocal, but I’m a bit on edge.”
“Hey,” he said softly. “No reason to be. We are just having dinner and conversation. Maybe I’m on edge I’m going to burn the burgers. My mother taught Easton and me to cook, but I have to admit my cousin is much better than me. I might be a tad bit distracted by you and the flames could shoot up.”
“I’m sure you’ll have it under control,” she said.
“I hope. Come in,” he said.
“Do you want my shoes off?” she asked. He had some nice old hardwood floors. There was a big living room off the front, but it didn’t look as if it was used often. Even had some older-looking furniture in it.
“No,” he said. “I’m not fussy about those things.”
“This is a nice house. Big for one person.”
“My childhood home,” he said. “I grew up here. My father passed away several years ago and I took over the family business. My mother struggled to stay here and moved to Florida. I’m happy for her.
I bought the house. We wanted to keep it in the family and I wasn’t letting her give it to me.
She needed to be able to buy something there. ”
She found that so sweet.
First that his mother was willing to just hand it over. A far cry from her parents.
“I’m sorry about your father. So it was his business that you inherited?”
“Yes,” he said. “My mother still owns some shares of it, but she’s almost hands-off.
She did the books for years and still looks after a small part of that.
Even after she moved she was trying to do it all, but it was too hard.
I finally hired someone to run my office and pay the bills, write up the contracts and stuff.
My Mom goes in and closes things for the month or anything else I need her to do. ”
“It seems like your business is big,” she said.
“It is,” he said. “But the bulk of the staff are guys doing the work. It’s been growing and this year I’m going to have to think about a few more things.”
“Like what?” she asked, following him through the back of the house. The kitchen was updated and modern. They’d passed an office that she’d noticed and there was a family room off one side of the kitchen, a dining room off the other.
“Expanding staffing inside and out. I’ve got more work than I can handle and I don’t want to turn it away, but don’t want to burn myself out.
I’m trying to hire some more guys this summer to knock out projects that I’ve told people might not get done until next year.
The phone is ringing faster than I can answer. ”
“Sounds like all good things to me,” she said. “If you can keep it organized.”
“I’m trying damn hard,” he said. “And you didn’t come here to talk about my business. You were going to let me know how you knew Easton and Laurel. Then maybe we can get into things like why you moved from Texas to here and ended up as Poppy’s nanny?”
“We can do that,” she said.
“How about a drink?” he asked. “I grabbed some lime seltzer that I noticed you had in your cart. I didn’t think you’d mind since you knew I didn’t have ground beef in mine.”
It was his wink that had her smiling. “That’s fine. I drink that or water.”
He put her bowl in the fridge. “That looks good.”
“I didn’t ask if there were vegetables you don’t eat,” she said. “I cut everything big enough for you to pick out if you want.”
“I’ll eat most things other than broccoli and that leafy colorful lettuce that looks like weeds in a garden.”
“Spring mix?” she asked.
“Whatever comes in a bag. Yep. That stuff.” He shivered and she laughed. She had a feeling there was a story behind it, but she was more interested in the fact that he’d managed to relax her in a few short minutes.
“I’ll know not to bring it around you,” she said.
“Meaning I’ll see you again?” he asked
She was getting ahead of herself here. “Maybe,” she said. “Who knows?”
“We will,” he said. “I’m good at predicting things.”
“I hope you aren’t predicting we are going to end up in your bed again.”
“Not today,” he said. “Not unless you want to or you tell me you’re ready. Cards are on the table and you get to pick them up and hold them to your chest as long and as tight as you want.”
“Really?”
“Cross my heart,” he said, doing the action. He was totally adorable and she wondered how she was going to resist his charm.
“Guess we’ll have to see how things go then,” she said.
“I’ll take anything I can get,” he said, grinning again.