52. Kendra
Kendra
Iam going on a date, a real date with Eli.
We are not sneaking around town like the summer I was nineteen.
We aren’t parking out on deserted back roads or in fields where nobody will see us.
At least I hope that’s not what we’re doing.
He said he wanted it to be known that we were together, on a date.
For fuck’s sake I shouldn’t be this nervous. I am living with the man. He kisses me daily. We recently masturbated . . . together. I blush thinking of the memory and tug at the fifth sweater I have tried on.
“Any luck,” Sutton says through the fitting room door.
“No! I hate everything. Or everything hates me. I don’t know.” I open the door showing her the flared jeans I have on with a simple, soft brown sweater.
“That looks beautiful, Kendra! What’s wrong with it?”
“I just don’t think it’s ‘date’ enough, do you?” I step into the open space and look at myself in the trifold mirrors.
“Honestly, I think you could wear a potato sack and Eli would lose his mind.” Sutton grins.
“You’re being the best hype woman.” I squeeze her hand.
“Here, give this a try.” She hands me an oversized, deep V-neck sweater in army green. “Front tuck it,” she instructs.
Stepping back into the fitting room I do as she says and smile because this is a first date outfit.
I open the fitting room door a final time to Sutton’s gasped, “Yes!” and I know we nailed it.
Eli left an hour ago to drop Wren off with Holly who excitedly offered to babysit and keep Wren for the night when Eli told her that he was taking me on a date.
The doorbell rings as I am slipping my new sweater carefully over my head so I don’t mess up my meticulously curled hair. I do the front tuck into my jeans like Sutton told me as I bound down the final few stairs to answer the door.
I look hot, I feel confident . . . until I open the door and come face-to-face with my date who could also moonlight as a freaking model.
“Holy shit.” I stumble back as Eli steps into his own house.
“Hello, sweetheart.” Kissing my cheek, Eli pulls out a huge bouquet of flowers from behind his back. A wild mix of vibrant colors and variety that smell amazing.
“I need to change!” I exclaim.
“What? Fuck no, you look incredible. I’m for sure going to have to scare other men off with my stink eye all night, but no. Do not change.” Eli grabs my hand, lacing our fingers together.
“But look at you.” I point to him. He is wearing a charcoal suit, tailored perfectly to his massive body.
The crisp white button-down underneath is starched, his tie is the same one he wore to Lainey and Rem’s wedding, and his shoes are a black square-toed dress shoe that look like small boats on his size 14 feet.
“What about me?” He worriedly looks up and down his body.
As if there is a flaw. I roll my eyes.
“I’m not dressed as fancy, as nicely, as you are, Hulk. We don’t match. We don’t go together.” I tug at his hand, trying to go toward the stairs, but he won’t allow it.
“If there is one thing I know for sure, it’s that we are always perfect together. Here,” he says, and starts to undress before my eyes.
The suit jacket comes off first and he lays it across the back of the couch. He loosens the tie next. I gulp as he loops it over his head, tossing it on top of the jacket—Eli’s eyes staying locked on mine with every movement so he can have access to how he’s affecting me.
“You doing okay over there?” He smirks, dimple dipping in just enough to be seen.
“Uh-huh.” I trail my eyes down his throat to his hands where he’s undoing the buttons at his collar. Next he rolls up the sleeves of his crisp white dress shirt, flexing his corded forearms with each movement and making me feel like I might pass out from how ruined I am from this simple action.
“There,” Eli says when he’s done, and I practically have to pick my jaw up off the floor. He might look a bit more casual, but he’s still the sexiest man I have ever seen. All those People magazine covers have nothing on the one standing in front of me right now.
He is real.
He is rugged, funny, kind, passionate, flawed, human.
He is trying.
And for this moment, he is mine.
“You look incredible,” Eli says. “I am the luckiest man on Earth. You could have on a trash bag and I would still take you out.”
I double over in laughter, wiping a few tears on my way back up to meet Eli’s kind eyes.
“What?” he asks with amusement.
“It’s just that Sutton told me that you wouldn’t care if I wore a potato sack, so I guess she was right. Trash bag is pretty dang close.” I snort at him.
Stepping closer to me and palming my cheek, Eli says, “I will take you any way I can have you, sweetheart. Any way you want to package yourself is perfect, and I will have fun unwrapping you no matter what.” He leans down and kisses my cheek with a sweetness that contradicts his dirty words.
“Let me just put my flowers in water before we go.” I rush off to the kitchen before I jump on him and we never leave the house at all.
Dimly lit, Gino’s is back to its semi-casual, cozy atmosphere after Rem and Lainey’s wedding.
I was worried that Eli was planning to take me out of town to some crazy fancy place with the way he was first dressed, but this is perfect.
It also makes my heart flutter knowing that he was so dressed up for me, because it was our first official date and he wanted to pull out all the stops to impress me.
“Reservations for Hargrove please,” Eli tells the red-headed high school girl at the hostess stand when we walk in, his hand wrapped firmly around my waist.
“Since when do you need a reservation for Gino’s on a Wednesday night at four thirty?” I smirk at him. He’d insisted that we have a very early dinner. I originally assumed he wanted to pick up Wren for her bedtime before he said she was staying at his mom’s tonight.
“Since I have a surprise after dinner and I needed to be sure we got a table,” Eli says, following the blushing teen, who keeps peeking back at him as she leads us through the sparsely filled tables and booths.
“Here you go, sir.” The flirty little hostess bats her false eyelashes at Eli as she presents the best booth in Gino’s to us, intimate and tucked away but still with a good view of everything.
Eli doesn’t give her more than a cordial half smile and thanks, helping me slide into the booth first, then following close behind, leaving no space between us, his warm leg brushing up against mine.
“Your server will be with you soon,” the girl says disappointedly when Eli doesn’t look at her again, handing us each a menu and then trudging off back to her station.
I tip my head back and laugh, unable to help myself.
“What’s so funny?” Eli asks, shocking me with a trace of his thick, calloused finger down the side of my neck, still pulsing with laughter.
“Just you breaking hearts wherever you go. First with Candace at the salon the other day and now with that girl.” I nod to the front of the restaurant.
“Kimmy was rude,” he says. “And I don’t like when women throw themselves at men that are obviously taken, so I don’t give a shit how she felt.”
I snort at his constant, intentional misuse of names to rile people up when he doesn’t like them. He can’t help himself, even when they aren’t here. He’s not doing it in a malicious way like Lainey’s mom did with Rem; it’s more playful and clearly helps him set a boundary.
“And that girl”—Eli cocks his head—“is like sixteen pretending she is twenty-six. All I ever give a child like that is a kind, brotherly smile.”
“Good answers.” I lay my hand on the white linen tablecloth and Eli covers it with his.
“The only heart I care about is yours,” he says with a raw honesty that I am not ready for this early in the evening . . . on our first official date.
I slip my hand away and snatch up the menu. “Hmmm, what should we order.” Eli leans back, slinging his muscled arm around the back of the booth behind the top of my shoulders, deep blue eyes assessing me. “Want to have an appetizer, or no?” I ask.
Sighing with resignation, he replies, “I think we should have at least two and share a bottle of wine. They have your favorite kind here.”
“How do you know what my favorite wine is?” I lick my bottom lip, watching as his eyes track the movement, knowing I’m playing with fire.
“You and Lainey drink it on most of your girls’ nights. We can get that or something else if you don’t want it tonight.” He leans in, tracing his thumb along my wet bottom lip.
He’s just about to kiss me, my eyelashes fan out across my rosy cheeks, heart thumping with anticipation, when I hear a throat clear.
I lean back, the bubble of lust popping with the appearance of our waitress, who’s blushing and looking directly .
. . at Eli. I roll my eyes up to the ceiling and settle back against the padded booth.
“Hello, I’m Kimmy, and I will be taking care of you tonight,” she introduces herself.
Eli and I both erupt into a fit of giggles that make Kimmy jump.
Once we compose ourselves, I profusely apologize and say, “I’m so sorry, Kimmy . . . we were just . . . it wasn’t you, just a silly inside joke.”
“Right,” she says in a clipped tone, smoothing her apron. “Can I get you started on drinks? An appetizer?”
“Yeah, um, we would love a bottle of the Hummingbird merlot. An order of the cheese bread and stuffed mushrooms, please.” He gives her a full dimple smile and she scuttles off with a deeper blush.
“How’d you know what I wanted to order for appetizers? And you sure turned on the charm, huh?” I poke him in the ribs.
“She probably hates us. I feel like a dick for laughing at her name, but what are the chances? We need to be on our best behavior now, and I need to give her an even more amazing tip that I usually do. Also, I know you, sweetheart.” He takes a gulp of the water from the glass that was in front of him on the table.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I soothe. “I’m sure she will be fine. I bet all was forgotten the second you smiled at her a minute ago. Everything from here on out will just be icing on the cake. And . . . I really like that you know me so well, even after all this time.”
Leaning in, I kiss away his worry, and he deepens the connection, his tongue greedy and demanding, making me dizzy and completely forgetting where we are until a throat clears and Kimmy comes back with our wine.
This time I’m the one left blushing.