Chapter 24 #2
“It is the best kind of ice cream,” he acknowledged.
“So the chocolate mousse cake,” she said. “With ice cream, but I bet that’s vanilla.”
He grinned at her. “My turn.”
“I want to know if I’m right.”
“We’ll do a tally at the end.” He raised his eyebrows, clearly asking her if that was okay, and when she nodded, Dawson forced his shoulders down. He needed to relax. This was a fun date, not a job interview.
“So for your appetizer, discounting the seafood, you’re going to get the Caprese salad.
Your salad course is also going to be soup, but not French onion.
Mushroom, which I’ve had here before, and it was excellent, so good choice.
Your main….” He took a sideways glance at the menu.
“I’m going to go with chicken cordon bleu.
Feels like you. Dessert is one thousand percent going to be the butterscotch cheesecake. ”
He watched her lips twitch with every menu item he said, and he knew he’d nailed it. “So? How’d I do?”
“Rate me first.”
Their game paused as a waiter appeared alongside another man. “I’m Omar,” he said. “I’ll be your server tonight, assisted by Gregory. He’s got our signature wine tonight, but we have other drinks if you’d like something else.” He beamed at Caroline and then Dawson.
“I’m driving,” he said. “But I’d take a virgin mojito if you can do that.”
“Of course,” Gregory said, looking to Caroline.
“I’ll take that wine,” she said. He poured her a glass, and they all watched as the pink liquid flowed into the goblet prettily. “Thank you.” She lifted it and swirled it, and Dawson had never found anything as attractive as her smelling it, brightening, and then taking a sip. “Mm, that’s good.”
“We’ll give you a couple of minutes with the menu,” Omar said. “You know how things go here?”
“Yes, sir,” Dawson said. “Thank you.”
They left, and he looked at Caroline again. “You got three out of four.”
Her eyes widened, and then her face fell in a pout. “What did I miss?”
“I’m not going to get the scallops for the appetizer,” he said. “I love a good steak tartar.”
“Oh, my word,” she said, a note of horror in her voice. “You like all the things I don’t.”
“Not all of them.” He reached across the table and took both of her hands in both of his. “I like you, and you like you.”
“Funny.”
“We both like ice cream,” he said. “And over-easy eggs. And potatoes. And breakfast for dinner. I’m wild about breakfast for dinner.” He grinned and grinned until she finally cracked a tiny smile for him. “I got all of yours, didn’t I?”
“Yes,” she clipped out. “And quite annoyingly, too.” She didn’t pull her hands away, but she looked toward the dance floor. “I mean, who gets labeled as feels like chicken cordon bleu?”
He laughed then, because he had said that about her. But he hadn’t been wrong.
Everything inside the barn felt touched by magic, or maybe by the hand of God. He wasn’t sure which.
He knew the food came out hot—or cold—and amazing, and he knew he was about to pop by the time the band started setting up. And he knew with one look at Caroline that she liked live music and dancing. Or at least one of those things.
She watched the band for a few minutes, and then she trained her pretty gaze on him. “Do you dance, cowboy?”
“Yes,” he said simply. “It’s a requirement of all true Texas cowboys that we know how to spin a lady around the floor.”
“Spinning?” She lifted her eyebrows in a clear tease. “I just ate so much.”
“Hm, seems like a you-problem.”
Caroline blinked once and then threw her head back and laughed. Her curls had loosened as their dinner had progressed, and Dawson couldn’t wait to run his fingers through them. Maybe fist his hand there while he kissed her good-night.
That was something to be considered too, as she’d mentioned that she didn’t like kissing him on the doorstep. She felt like Belle might be watching, as they had a camera system, or she might realize how long they stood out there, ending their date.
And tonight, Dawson wanted a red-hot, fiery, Valentine’s Day kiss good-night. He wanted one of those every time he kissed Caroline, but especially tonight.
The first strains of music met his ears, and he perked up. He pulled his napkin off his lap and tossed it on the table. “Will you dance with me?” He stood and offered her his hand. When she didn’t immediately slide hers into it, he added, “I won’t spin you.”
“In that case.” She put her hand in his and let him steady her while she got to her feet.
They moved out onto the dance floor as plenty of other people did, and Dawson’s private bubble burst. Of course he wasn’t here with Caroline alone.
Of course he couldn’t kiss her the way he wanted to on the dance floor.
Of course he’d have to mind his manners.
Especially when he saw Link and Misty step onto the floor ahead of them. Dawson hadn’t been out with his friends and Caroline yet, though he, Finn, Alex, and Link had talked about it.
He reminded himself that Caroline knew the cowboys in this town, and she’d chosen to go out with him. It helped that all of his closest friends were married or engaged, but he pushed that thought away as he took her into his arms.
They moved effortlessly, and being with her even in the silence was so easy.
Dawson had labored to talk to other women in the past, but not Caroline.
She was the one who broke the silence between them with, “So what are your nieces doing tonight? Shiloh really didn’t have anything going on with JJ? April is keeping her nose clean?”
“I think they had a party,” he said. “At someone’s house in town.
I guess they decided going to the school dance was lame.
Shiloh was driving them, and Zona lectured her for a solid twenty minutes about driving home late at night, in the dark.
” He smiled just thinking about his sister-in-law.
“And, um, Zona and Duke would like to get together with us again, on a more, uh, formal I think was the word Zona used, basis. Dinner together or something.”
“Sure,” Caroline said easily. “I liked your family, Dawson.”
“Miracles do still happen,” he joked.
Caroline giggled into his shoulder, and he took the opportunity to knead her closer.
“My friends and I go out sometimes too,” he said.
“Finn’s married, and he and Edith have a baby on the way.
Alex and Nicki are married too, and Link and Misty are engaged.
Since we’re to implied dates and all that, I’m wondering if group dates count. ”
“Yes,” she said simply.
“So you’ll go to Link’s wedding with me?”
“Yes, I love weddings.”
“Do you?” Dawson pulled back enough to look at her. “Seems like they’d be on the same level as Valentine’s Day.”
“My wedding was the one thing I liked about my marriage,” she said. “They’re such happy occasions. They hold so much hope. They’re like a window to the future. I like that.”
“All right,” he drawled. The song ended, and another started. This one was definitely a twirling, spinning dance, and he stepped back again.
“I can do this,” Caroline said. “It’s been a while since I’ve danced this way, though, so consider yourself warned.”
“I’ve been warned,” he said, grinning. “My little nephew says, ‘I have to beware you, Uncle Dawson.’” He chuckled. “That reminded me of him.”
Caroline smiled too, shooting joy out into the barn. “All right, then, baby. I have to beware you that I haven’t danced this way in a while. I could fall down or kick you or step all over your feet.”
“All risks I’m willing to take,” he said, taking both of her hands in his.
He waited for the next beat, and then he started the first steps of the swinging dance.
They laughed, and he spun her away in a slow cadence, bringing her back after only one twirl instead of the two or three other women did.
And when that song melted back into something slow and beautiful, he tucked her against his chest and let himself fall and fall and fall toward being in love with Caroline.
It was a scary thing, falling, and Dawson had never done it with a woman before. He loved other things, of course. Ruffin, Rocks, and Nugget. All of his hens and roosters. His parents. His brothers. Duke’s family.
He loved the wide Texas sky, and the town of Three Rivers, and being a cowboy.
And he loved dancing with Caroline, in the perfect place, on the perfect night—and he couldn’t help but wonder: was she the perfect woman for him?
And if so, would it really take her twelve months and a road trip to realize it?
“I have another follow-up question about your twelve-month rule,” he murmured. “But I can ask it another time. Will you just remind me to ask you?”
“Sure, baby,” she said almost sleepily, and then she let him cradle her in his arms exactly the way he wanted to.