“I dinnae ken,” he answered. “Though, think we might want to try first before we worry about it not working.”
“You’re a family friend.”
“Your mother was friends with my father, and we know where that’s at,” he retorted. “This goes sour, we live in different countries, lass. It’s not like we’re going to be bumping into each other at the market.”
This was true.
“Why are ye determined to drive a wedge into this?” he asked.
Why indeed.
“Blake,” he pushed.
The server came to set our mains in front of us and Dair—being honest, let-it-all hang-out Dair—expelled a frustrated breath when she did.
She glanced at him and her cheeks went pink, because he was glorious, and he’d just shared he was annoyed she interrupted us.
“We’re having a difficult conversation,” I explained to her.
“I’m sorry to intrude,” she mumbled.
“No intrusion. Maybe feeding the beast will make him more patient,” I joked.
The woman smiled at me and ducked away.
“Now that you’ve made our waitress feel better,” Dair said. “How about ye do a wee bit of that for me?”
“Can we just have normal date?” I requested.
“How are we to accomplish that if you’re sitting across from me making up shite to keep distant from me?”
I skewered him with another look, because his continued logic in the face of my determined illogic was highly vexing.
“Blake, I think you can see why this is important,” he pointed out.
“I like you,” I stated sourly.
“And?” he pushed.
“That’s it,” I said, cutting into my tenderloin and scooping polenta onto the bite before eating it.
So good.
When I refocused on Dair, he was staring at me like I was crazy.
“What?” I asked.
“You don’t want us to give this a go because you like me?” he asked like I was what he was looking at me like I was.
Crazy.
I put my cutlery down on my plate and leaned toward him.
“You want honesty, bucko?”
His eyebrows shot up at “bucko,” and under them, his eyes lit with mirth, but I ignored both.
“Here it is. I’ve had two dates in four years since Chad, mostly because everyone in the world knows what I did and the heterosexual male component of that wants nothing to do with it.”
