I’ll live.” He was heading for the breezeway leading back to the restaurant. “I have a closet full of ’em.”
“If I can’t replace your shirt, maybe I can buy you dinner.” The words came out in a rush, surprising them both if the silence that followed was any indication.
He glanced back at her, one eyebrow lifted. “What was that?”
She swallowed, stiffening her spine a little. “You heard me.”
His eyes narrowed slightly, which only served to emphasize how dark and thick his eyelashes were. “A bleach-stained T-shirt isn’t worth dinner.”
“I know,” she managed, albeit a shade breathlessly. “But a, um, a gentleman might be worth it.”
He let out another short snort of laughter. “Just because I like my women conscious doesn’t make me a gentleman.” He spread his hand. “But I’m not gonna turn down a meal that doesn’t involve my own microwave.”
“Great.” She rubbed her damp palms down the sides of her jeans. “Uh...great. Any place you’d like to go?”
A faint smile was playing around his lips. “You don’t ask guys out very often, do you.” It wasn’t a question but an observation.
“Never,” she admitted. “Clearly, it’s just another thing at which I excel, like ruining a man’s work shirt.”
His long fingers splayed against the bleach spots across his abdomen. “Why don’t we start with lunch? Tomorrow. In the new park out past your office. Willow Park, I think it’s called.”
She wasn’t sure whether to feel elated or deflated. “I haven’t been there. I usually go to the community park right here downtown even though it’s farther from my office.” The park was just across the road from Colbys, in fact. It’s where she ran every weekend with Sam. It’s where he ran, though admittedly, she’d done her level best the past few months to avoid him, just as he’d accused her of doing.
He shrugged. “Just a suggestion. Thought you might relax more if you weren’t worried about encountering a lot of people you know.”
Now she definitely felt deflated. And indignant. “Because you’re a security guard?” Her voice was tart. “You’d be less worried about that if you knew how many student loans I am still paying off. And as it happens, I’m not free tomorrow during lunch. But I am for dinner. I’ll pick you up. Seven o’clock if that works for you.”
His voice, however, was smooth. And amused. “Seven’s fine.”
Still buoyed by indignation, she nodded sharply. “Good.”
But after he disappeared back through the doorway to the restaurant side of Colbys Bar & Grill, she couldn’t shake the vague sense that, while she’d finally found the nerve to ask out a man she was admittedly interested in, he’d been the one who’d gotten exactly what he wanted.
She shook her head sharply. Because it was already late and only getting later the longer she dawdled there, she quickly went about upending the chairs on top of the wiped-down tables. Then she swept up the bits of confetti on the floor, unloaded the dishwasher and steeled herself to go through the doorway to the restaurant to let Jerry know she was ready to leave.
Fortunately, only the cook was left. He was sitting at the counter nursing a cup of coffee.
Even better, there was no sign of Seth.
Which left her a solid twenty hours to get used to the idea that everything she’d believed for the past three months where he was concerned had been wrong.
And to get accustomed to the idea that she had done something she’d never done before in her life.
Asked a man out on a date.
“So you didn’t sleep with pretty boy Seth Banyon.” Samantha Dawson sat on the bed in Hayley’s room, watching her paw through her closet for something to wear that would be appropriate for her dinner with Seth that evening.
“No. Thank God.” She pushed through a few more hangers. “I need to go shopping. The only things I own are suits and blue jeans.”
Sam laughed and made a point of looking at her watch. “And more sexy shoes than anyone I know. But I don’t think you’re going to have time for a shopping spree, Hay. You’re supposed to be picking up the guy in a half hour.”
“A half hour!” Aghast that she’d spent so much time dithering over what to wear, she grabbed the next hanger and pulled off her dove gray suit. “Why didn’t you say so?”
Sam propped her head in her hand, watching her with amused eyes. As usual, because she wasn’t working out, she was wearing her uniform. “Strangely enough, I figured you were still in possession of your typical perception of time. You going to finally sleep with him?”
“Sam!”
Her friend shrugged. “What? It’s a valid question.”
“I don’t intend to sleep with him.”
“Ever?”
Busy slipping her pencil skirt up her thighs, Hayley choked on a laugh. “You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”
“Well, yeah,” Sam retorted as if it were obvious. “Gotta live vicariously through someone, don’t I?”
“Jane’s getting married. You want to envy someone’s love life, she’s a better bet.”
“Hell, no. Married sex? Marriage, period? No thank you.” Shuddering comically, Sam pushed off the bed and pulled on the suit jacket, turning this way and that as she stood in front of the mirror. To say it clashed with her dark green uniform was an understatement. But Sam filled out the bust of the jacket better than Hayley did.
Resigned to the fact that she’d never possess the figure with which Sam had been blessed, Hayley returned to the closet to select a blouse. “I know it’s a wild theory, but there are some who believe that being married to a person you love actually enhances sex.” She started to slide the blouse over her head.
“Married people just say that so they’ll feel better about what they’ve sacrificed since the vows.” Sam removed the jacket and held it out. “Ditch the blouse,” she advised.
“What?”
Sam wagged the jacket. “Bad enough you’re wearing a suit. You don’t need to button up in a blouse, too.”
“I figured we could go to China Palace in Braden. It’s the only place around that uses linen tablecloths. But I’ll probably know half the people there, so I’m not going without a blouse.”
Sam shrugged. “Suit yourself. No pun intended. I’m sure pretty boy will be impressed to go out with a woman dressed for the office.” Her wicked smile took away any sting and she pulled
