I nodded. As much as Dylan intrigued me—and I was pretty sure it would happen, hoped it would—I wanted to feel comfortable with it, with him.
“Okay, I can respect that. How do you want to go about this?”
This conversation was definitely odd. “Um, I don’t know. I’ve never negotiated a temporary fling before.” But it was kind of fun.
He grinned. “That makes two of us. Tell me how you’d like to go forward from here.”
I liked that he was asking, letting me do this at my comfort level. “Basically I want to get to know you better, for you to know me.”
“Anything else?”
“Only that you don’t push me before I’m ready.”
“To the first, that’s a fair request, and to the second…” He stared at his beer bottle as he traced the lip with his finger, then he raised his eyes to mine. “I don’t make love to a woman unless she wants it, too.”
I believed him. And the way he looked at me when he said that last part, heat flaming in his eyes, sent a shiver through me that started somewhere near my chest and went all the way down to my toes.
“So how was work?” He leaned back and stretched his arms along the back of the booth, then about charmed my panties off with that killer smile. “This is me getting to know you better.”
I blinked at the sudden change in our conversation. The man was constantly surprising me. I liked that. A lot. “Work was the same as always. Well, until Chad showed up.” Dylan went from relaxed to alert and tense in a nanosecond. I waved a hand at him. “Stand down, tiger. I didn’t even talk to him. He came in a few minutes before we closed, and I snuck out the back.”
“I think you should reconsider getting a restraining order.”
The last thing I wanted to talk about was Chad. “I’ll think about it if he keeps coming around. So, how do you like Blue Ridge Valley? It has to be a cultural shock, coming from a big city.”
“Tell me about it. The hardest thing is the nights. It’s so damn quiet.” He chuckled. “Except for my owl.”
“Your owl?” Who had an owl for a pet?
“Yeah. He’s very vocal at night. I guess he’s hunting?”
“Oh, I thought you meant you had a pet owl.” I shrugged. “I think they hunt at night. I guess it would be a lot different here than in a big city like Chicago. You’ll get used to it.”
“It’s already better than my first night here.” He paused and took a sip of beer. “So tell me where this travel bug you have came from.”
“Growing up, we always went somewhere for two weeks every year for vacation.” I twirled my beer bottle. “Sometimes the beach. Sometimes a state park. We would get so excited. When we were old enough, my parents let us help plan where we’d go.”
“Us?”
“Me and Natalie, my twin.” I still couldn’t talk about her without tearing up, but she was a big part of why I planned to take off on a world tour. It was impossible to explain everything to Dylan without including her. Everyone in the valley knew about her, and eventually he’d hear the story. I’d rather he hear it from me.
I blinked away my tears. “When we were fourteen, we did my mom’s dream trip, Ireland and Scotland. It was awesome. Natalie and I decided that one day we’d travel around the world. We wanted to see everything. The Mayan ruins, the Great Wall of China, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We wanted to swim in the Mediterranean Sea and eat olives while sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Greece.”
“I wish you could see how your face lights up when you talk about”—he made air quotes—“seeing the world. I’m glad you have someone to go with you who loves to travel as much as you.”
“That’s just it. I don’t.” Willing myself not to cry, I trailed my finger through the moisture ring from my beer bottle. “Natalie died.” I lifted my gaze to Dylan’s. “She made me promise to still go, to travel for both of us.”
“Saying I’m sorry is inadequate. Believe me, I know. But I am sorry you lost someone you loved.”
He glanced away, and I wondered who he’d lost. “Yeah, it was really hard, but she’s not gone.” I tapped my heart. “She’ll always be a part of me.”
“Another round?” our waitress asked, coming up to the table.
We both passed, and to change the subject before I embarrassed myself by crying, I said, “What about you? What kind of things do you like to do?”
“In Chicago I went to restaurants, the theater, museums when I had the time. My hours were sometimes long, but I liked to explore when I could. Here? Haven’t figured that out yet, aside from work. What’s there to do in Blue Ridge Valley?”
“Lots of things. I could be your guide if you want.”
