“I want to hear you sing and play,” Cavin insisted.
“You do?”Noel questioned not expecting him to show interest.
“Of course.”
“Maybe one day,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders noncommittally.
“I will let you watch me play golf if you let me watch you play the piano,” Cavin teased, although somewhat seriously.
“That doesn’t sound like a fair trade,” Noel contested.
“Why not?”
“Golf takes a long time, so I would be doing a lot of watching,” she pointed out with a wink, her head tilted ever so slightly.“I would want to play, too.”
Cavin’s ears perked up.“Really?You would play golf with me?”
“Sure, why not?”Noel offered before realizing what that meant.A second date was what that meant, she quickly understood if this was a first date although an official label didn’t exist.It did and didn’t seem like a date even though that made no sense.
As Cavin peered into Noel Puckett’s emerald green eyes, he wondered what thoughts traveled through her mind.Of all the women he dated over the years, not one ever offered to play golf with him.They didn’t even play when invited.One did drive the golf cart once and drank a lot of booze, but the country club nearly kicked him out for that incident.
“I am going to hold you to it,” Cavin declared.
Noel thought through the idea a bit more and decided to add a disclaimer.“If I play golf with you, you have to sing with me while I play piano,” she insisted, and then a voice in her head reminded her:that's three dates.
“Wait a minute, you should have made that arrangement before agreeing to golf,” Cavin pointed out grinning.
Noel chuckled.“I won’t hold you to it, but if you are the gentleman I think you might be, I imagine you will oblige.”
“What makes you think I am a gentleman?”he asked curiously.
“Let’s see.You opened every door for me this evening, you rubbed my back when I was crying, and I noticed some other things that will remain unsaid.”
“Like what?”he queried.
Like you not turning to check out Georgia’s strut as she walked away this morning.“There are some things a lady doesn’t share,” she contended, batting her eyelashes.
“Fair enough, but I will warn you that I may be a terrible singer.”
“I might be a terrible golfer,” she countered.
Cavin encountered his fair share of those over the years, and many athletes claimed the sport to be the most difficult.“Once we are out there, if you grow tired of chasing balls, you can always just drive the cart.Most people enjoy that aspect of golf,” he inserted.“However, you aren’t allowed to get drunk.”
“Oh yeah, how come?”she asked, playing along.
Cavin communicated the PG-13 version of the story that popped into his mind earlier, and as their conversation shifted amongst other topics, it didn’t take Noel long to decipher that Cavin’s family was relatively wealthy although she didn’t ask or comment about it specifically.Within the stories he told, Cavin randomly mentioned limousines, maids, butlers, and even a helicopter his dad once wanted to buy.On the other hand, Noel grew up having all her needs met, but looking back she realized Cavin had a lot of opportunities she didn’t.At the same time she could tell his parents focused far more on success than spending time together as a family.
The dinner table discussion never ceased nor did their dialogue during the entire ride home.Cavin talked more than she did, but Noel held her own and surprised herself with some of the details she opened up about, like how sales had been lower than she hoped these last two days.For some reason, being in Cavin’s presence felt easy which came as somewhat of a surprise since Noel initially labeled him as an arrogant businessman.
Somehow they didn’t talk in depth about what Cavin did for work, and Noel was admittedly relieved that job-related conversations didn’t dominate theirbusiness meeting—she laughed privately every time she recalled her description to Chelsea and Rainey.Once inside her house in the dark, Noel chuckled again at the thought of those two words.The night never seemed like a business meeting at all, she considered as her back slid down the same door at the top of the steps.
“Thanks, God,” she whispered.She thought about saying thanks to Fletcher, too, but for some reason that didn’t feel quite right as a few tears of gratitude trickled down her face reaching the corners of her lips—somewhat forming a smile.Noel felt a twinge of guilt for having such a nice time with Cavin.Honestly the whole experience surprised her.She anticipated coming home much earlier and wishing she never agreed, or let Mrs.Madelyn agree on her behalf, to have dinner with a man who felt like a stranger a handful of hours before.She imagined it would be one big mistake that she might beat herself up about for days or possibly weeks or months.
However, Cavin proved to be a gentleman and true to his word.Other than consoling her with a few gentle, harmless back rubs, he never attempted to touch her although he assisted her with her coat after dinner and escorted her to the door at the end of the night.Even though the evening went well, when they said goodbye, it came as somewhat of a surprise to her when she found herself wondering when she would see him again.
During the ride home from Swansboro, she called Mrs.Madelyn to let her know their evening ran later than expected, and she could hear Mrs.Madelyn’s smile through the phone.
“You deserved a night where you lost track of time,” her dear friend said quietly knowing Cavin sat on the other side of the vehicle.
