Chapter 23 #2
“It’s a lot to take in,” he said. “I know that. It’s…I manage it really well.”
“I’ve never seen you not manage it really well.”
“Well, we’re still new,” he said.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I might have a rule for us.”
“You might? Or you do?” He took her hand and led her out of the kitchen. “We need to get going. It’s going to be busy tonight.”
“I want a picture,” Caroline said. “Do we have time for that?”
“Sure,” he said.
“Belle,” she called, and her sister came out of the guest bath halfway down the hall. “Will you take our picture?”
Belle shone like a new penny, and she kept her smile hitched in place as she took Caroline’s phone and snapped the pictures. Then Dawson hustled them outside and into his truck, and when they’d both belted themselves in for safety, he looked at her. “I didn’t realize we had any rules at all.”
Caroline clasped her hands together as an internal debate kicked off. “I have some,” she finally admitted. “I made them for myself as I was coming out of my divorce fog. As I started rebuilding myself into who I am now.”
“Okay,” he said quietly. “What’s the rule?”
She looked out the window, where dusk had started to claim the light of day.
He’d been right about one thing—it was easier to talk in the dark.
“I require twelve months of dating,” she said slowly.
“I want to see how you and your family do things for every holiday, every month of the year. I want you to see how I do those things. I want to see how you celebrate my birthday, and I want to celebrate yours with you. I want time to talk about everything that’s important to us, and everything that’s not, and everything in between. ”
Dawson said nothing, but Caroline had to breathe. She did that, only semi-calmed that he hadn’t slammed on the brakes, declared their relationship over, and taken her home. Of course he wouldn’t, but anytime she’d said something Joe hadn’t liked, something that dramatic would’ve happened.
“And a road trip,” she said. “That’s the rule. Twelve months of dating, all the holidays and birthdays and traditions, and a road trip. I need to see how you act when we’re running late, or when we get lost, or when we show up to a hotel and they’ve lost our reservation.”
“I see,” he said.
“And you need to see me in all of those situations too,” she said, so this wasn’t a critique on him. This was about them. This was about truly being able to determine if they were a good fit for one another or not.
She drew in a deep breath. “So that’s the rule.”
Dawson made a turn and then switched his blinker to make another one. “I think I can live with this rule. I have a couple of follow-up questions, though, if you don’t mind.”
“I suppose I don’t.” She turned to look at him, glad when he met her eye.
“Does the twelve-month period start from the first date? Or when we met? Like, what are you counting as Day One?” He drove nonchalantly, like he usually did, and Caroline worried she may have given him one more thing to obsess over.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “That’s a great question.”
“Because we shared breakfast together at the diner, oh, when was that? October?”
“It was October, yes,” Caroline said.
“Or maybe it was when you crashed into my office,” he said, grinning. “And thought I was Duke—which was totally insulting, by the way. Duke’s like, almost twenty years older than me.”
“It’s not from the moment we met,” she said. “I’m going to consider the diner, though. I didn’t like you then, so I’m not sure it’ll count.”
“When did you start liking me?”
“You know what? I’m not sure.”
Dawson ground his voice through his throat. “I’d like to go on the official record and say I’ve always liked you.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” She clapped her hands on her lap. “That is not true. You didn’t even speak a word to me during that diner breakfast.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “That is so not counting as our first date. We didn’t even speak to one another.”
“You seemed like you didn’t want to talk,” he said.
“I didn’t.”
“So I was respecting your wishes.” He threw her a grin, but she sat there open-mouthed, staring at him.
“You did not like me when we met.”
“I thought you were beautiful,” he said.
“So not the same.”
“You badgered me about bogus paperwork.”
She couldn’t even argue, and Dawson was enough of a gentleman not to throw it in her face. “The moment those owls appeared, I filled out your paperwork. I complied with the law.”
“I know you did,” Caroline said quietly. “Maybe that’s when I started liking you.”
“Mm, I think sooner,” he said, his tone thoughtful, making her wonder what he was really thinking. “You didn’t badger Link or Finn about their paperwork. Or Brit Bellamore. No one but me.”
He looked over to her, those sexy eyes devouring her like so much aquamarine water. She couldn’t argue this point either, because she hadn’t cared if anyone else filed their paperwork. Only him.
She shrugged one shoulder, hoping to play this down a little. “Okay, maybe I liked you a little bit at some point before New Year’s.”
“You sure didn’t act like it.”
“I was never going to date again.”
“Ah, another rule.”
“One I broke, I’ll have you know.”
“Obviously.” Dawson chuckled and reached for her hand. She loved the tingle his touch gave her, especially when he brushed his thumb over the back of her hand a couple of times. “So tell me, Miss Thompson. What other rules of yours do I need to start thinking about breaking?”
Oh, Caroline had opened a can of worms now, and she blinked and breathed, trying to find an answer that wouldn’t blow open everything she’d been trying to contain…at least for now.