Because your opinion on these things is the only one that matters to me.“I think you and Molly are a lot alike. You have similar taste.”
“Oh?” She winked at him. “She’s sporty, classy, and drop dead gorgeous?”
He chuckled. “Exactly.”
“If she’s wonderful enough to have inspired your devotion, then she’s wonderful enough to like you just the way you are, Connor. I’ll tell you the same thing I tell all my other friends and myself. You shouldn’t change who you are for someone else.”
“I don’t want to change who I am.” How could he explain this to her? “I want to... enhance what’s already there so she’ll see me. Look what you did with this place.” When she’d purchased Papery it had been dingy and crumbling. “You’re good at taking something with potential and making it even more itself than it was before.”
She tucked a lock of hair behind one ear. “You simply want me to polish the diamond?”
“Am I”—his brows drew down—“the diamond in this scenario?”
“You’re the diamond. And I don’t want to change a diamond.”
“But you are willing to polish it?”
“Is that what you want? A little polish?”
“Yes. Will you do it?”
For a few seconds, she appeared to weigh the question. “Sure. I’d love to, actually.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.” He grinned at her, relieved.
“What’s your timeline? When do you want to ask Molly out?”
“I want to ask her out before Christmas. I have a few weeks off over the holidays and it would be great to spend time with her while I’m on vacation.”
“In that case, should we start now?”
“Now?”
“Almost all the businesses, including this one, are closing in five minutes,” she said. “But I know for a fact that Brad over at the barber shop is keeping his doors open until ten.”
“You want me to get a haircut?”
“And a shave?”
He’d been so focused on having this conversation with her that he hadn’t prepared for anything else. The rest of the evening had been a blank in his mind. “You want me to shave off my beard?” He wasn’t typically a spontaneous person.
She beamed at him and his heart contracted. “Are you balking at your dating consultant’s very first suggestion?”
“No.”
“Mm,” she teased, unconvinced.
“I’m not balking,” he insisted. “I was surprised, but I’m committed to this process.”
“Are you set on keeping Molly’s identity anonymous?”
“Yes.”
“And you said Molly’s taste is like mine?”
