I started walking toward the small building. “Why?”
He opened the door, and warm air rushed out to greet us. “Because you don’t put on airs and pretend to be something you are not.”
“I don’t know how to be anyone else but me,” I told him.
The place was packed, but the waitress led the way to a booth in the back corner. Jackson ushered me with his hand on my back, and again, his touch sent shock waves of desire down my spine. I might not have been on a real date before, but that didn’t mean I was stupid when it came to attraction for a sexy man. He helped me with my coat and then looked around for a coatrack or a place to hang it.
I held out a hand. “Just give it to me, and I’ll put it right here beside me.”
“Looks like everyone in town has gone out to eat before they get stuck at home for a few days,” he said as he slid into the booth across from me. “Do all the women in here have twenty-twenty vision, too?”
“Probably not, but I bet most of them have a lot of common sense,” I shot back.
He chuckled and then laughed out loud. “I guess they do at that.”
“Hello, Jackson.” A waitress appeared at our table with two menus, a basket of chips, and a bowl of salsa. She was somewhere between fifty and sixty years old, but the way she lowered her voice to make it sexier and batted her fake eyelashes didn’t leave a single doubt that she was flirting with him.
He concentrated on the menu. “How are you tonight, Yolanda?”
“I’d be fine if you’d ask me to marry you,” she answered.
He looked up and slid a sly wink toward me. “I hired your husband at the drilling site last week. He could break me in half like a twig.”
Her dark eyes twinkled. “I should have never married that man. He won’t let me have any fun.”
“That’s not the truth. You love him,” Jackson said.
“Yeah, and only God knows why,” she said.
Jackson laid the menu to the side. “Come on, now. He’s got lots of good qualities.”
“Yes, he does, and he’s almost as pretty as you are—but since you won’t run away with me, then tell me what y’all want to drink.”
“Sweet tea for me, and bring us a bowl of queso,” Jackson answered and glanced over at me.
“I’ll have sweet tea, too.”
“Okay, then, I’ll get that ready while y’all look over the menu.” She shifted her gaze to me. “You are the new owner of the Tumbleweed, aren’t you?”
When she eyed me from my hair all the way down to my waist, I knew how a bug would feel under a microscope. “Yes, I am, as of New Year’s Day.”
I must have passed a test of some kind, because she smiled. “I clean the church with Rosie, and she has good things to say about you. Treat Jackson right, and I might have good things to say about you, too.” She turned around and headed for the drink fountain.
“Point proven?” I said when she was across the room.
He met my eyes and smiled. “What?”
“That all women flirt with you,” I answered.
“Yolanda and I always joke around,” he said. “Not all women.”
Two girls who couldn’t have been more than sixteen passed by our table and smiled at him. I could hear their giggles the moment they were in the small hallway leading to the ladies’ room. It didn’t take much imagination to know what they were whispering about.
“Want to retract that now or argue about it?” I tried to be serious but lost the battle with a grin.
“I don’t quarrel on second dates. I save that for the eighth or ninth.”
“Why? And this is our first date, not second.”
