Oh no! There was yet another emotion competing with the others! Anger.
Shaking her head and sighing, she turned on the faucet to wash her hands. She needed to get back to work. Her little self-therapy session was over.
Yet nothing had been resolved. Her stomach was still in knots.
“It’s just one date,” she repeated. “Have fun tonight, then cut it off.”
He’d probably do that for her, saving the trouble. What man really wanted to be with her? Give him a few hours, and he’d run away. Like they all did.
She’d be alone again soon enough. But until then, she was going to enjoy her time.
Her time with the sexiest guy to ever walk the earth!
Chapter Ten
“Are you sure I’m not keeping you up too late?”
The question barely registered to Kendrick. He was lost admiring Samantha’s beauty as she appeared at top of the staircase that led to her garage apartment.
Snapping to attention, he gave her a smile and said, “I’m sure. Back when I was on the force, I did a lot of night shifts. I can stay up late. But it’s only 9:30. That’s nothing.”
She’d actually gotten off from the diner a bit early as there hadn’t been many customers. He figured it had to suck as far as the tips went. But he was glad they were able to start their late-night date a bit earlier.
As it turned out, he’d occupied the booth for hours, long after his pie had finished, chatting with Samantha in between her customers and waiting for her to get off work.
He hadn’t minded one bit. It was already clear to him that the more time he spent with her the better.
After she’d gotten off, he’d driven her to her place so she could change and freshen up. It made him happy that she trusted him enough to not only accept his offer of a ride but let him know where she lived.
He’d stayed downstairs, though, giving her some privacy. He assumed it was a one-bedroom setup based on the size of the boxy building. The apartment was over a detached garage that itself rested behind an old house that had seen better days.
He also assumed that she was embarrassed about her apartment, though she needn’t be. No one should ever be ashamed of where they came from or where they were at now, he opined.
Mental snapshots played across his mind like a slideshow. He saw his grandma’s old house in the Tennessee hills. The wooden siding had long ago faded and was no longer white, the gray of the decaying wood showing through in more places than not.
As a teenager and then as a young man, he’d offered to paint it for her. Kendrick would have done anything for his grandma. But she’d declined the help. He later realized it was because none of them could even afford the paint.
He had been able to patch up the holes in her porch, though, using old scrap wood and boards he’d found in piles of discards around various construction sites. At least then she could safely make it to her rocking chair and watch the sunset or hope a neighbor passed by for a chat. No more avoiding the gaping holes that littered the porch’s floor.
He’d also fixed a few other things around that place. But no one would ever accuse a rich person of living there.
In fact, there were times growing up, when had it not been for the food pantry at a mountain church, she, Kendrick, and the rest of their family would have gone hungry. He hadn’t always lived in a mansion. That was for damn sure.
So yeah, he thought, as he watched Samantha descend the stairs and walk toward him, there was no reason at all for her to be embarrassed by her situation.
“You all good? Or are you hurt?”
He could tell she was thinking about the meaning of his question, so he elaborated.
“Coming down the stairs, you kind of stopped a few times. Did you hurt yourself or anything?”
“Oh. The awkward walk,” she said with a chuckle, her cheeks flashing a hint of humiliated red for a moment. “Just… some weak spots I have to avoid on the stairs.”
“Won’t be a problem come tomorrow. I’ll fix them.”
She looked surprised but also happy. Still, she said, “You don’t have to do that.”
“I can’t have you falling. And it’s too dangerous to keep going up and down these things without reinforcing them.” He walked past her to the stairs and examined them from the front before walking behind them and looking up. It was obvious where the weak spots were.
