“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured just before he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his door. “Stay there, sweetheart. I’ll come get your door.”
His door closed, and Winnie breathed out, feeling flushed and semi-whiplashed about. She’d always felt like that after being with Ty, and she actually liked it. He opened her door and crowded into her, his chest about the same height as hers now.
He reached up and tucked her curls behind her ear, and wow, Winnie hadn’t been touched that intimately in a long, long time. A yawning need for it opened in her heart and soul, and all of the flirtatiousness between her and Ty evaporated.
This wasreal, and this wasgood, and Winnie didn’t want to sugarcoat it. “Ty.” She fiddled with that top button again. “I don’t care if you go to church or not, but you should go because you want to, not because you’ll get to hold my hand.”
She met his eyes and found a storm in his before he blinked it into submission.
“You’re right,” he said as he backed up, took her hand in his, and gave her space to use the runner to get out of the truck. “I could check the weather for tomorrow, though, and we could definitely have a picnic after the sermon.”
He led her down the street, which had a great small-town vibe, with Saturday evening shoppers, couples heading to their restaurant of choice, and that bubbling fountain in the middle of the roundabout.
“I don’t know if I can get a basket and a red-checkered blanket in less than twenty-four hours, but I’m pretty sure my momma said the weather would hold for another week or so.”
“I believe you can do anything you set your mind to.” She grinned over to him, but he scoffed.
“Well, you’d be wrong about that,” he said. “Because I can set my mind to hear again out of my left ear, but that ain’t gonna happen.” He nodded toward a door, and Winnie stepped that way.
He reached past her to open it, and she entered Squared Away first, her pulse stampeding through her veins. She quickly turned into Ty in the tight space, as others had arrived ahead of them and currently milled about in the front waiting area. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” she said. “I just meant I think you’re amazing, and if I wanted a basket and a red-checkered blanket in less than twenty-four hours, I know you’d get it for me. That’s all.”
He wore a tightness in his jaw that relaxed as he nodded. Heopened his mouth to say something, but a deafening country music song began to play, and Winnie blinked as she turned to see what in the world was happening here.
Ty’s hand in hers tightened, and the next thing she knew, he’d pulled her back out onto the sidewalk. “I don’t want to eat here,” he said. “It’s too loud.”
Flustered, Winnie looked down the block. “Where are we going to go, then?” She certainly didn’t know all the options, and it was a Saturday night at peak dinnertime. In that moment, her stomach growled, just to remind her she hadn’t fed it in hours.
“Come on.” He dropped her hand and started back down the street toward where they’d parked, drawing his phone out of his back pocket as he moved. “I know the perfect place, and I just have to make a phone call real quick….”
Winnie scampered after him, because he was her ride and she needed to eat. Oh, and wherever Ty was, she wanted to be too.
9
“Yeah, I know where Goose Creek Lane is,” Ty said. “Thanks so much, Link.”
“I’ll call right now,” he said. “They should be able to get you a table that will be exactly what you’re looking for.”
“Thanks,” Ty said again, and he ended the call as he took a deep breath. He really did need to calm down a little bit. He, once again, felt the pressure of a Saturday night date having to be absolutely perfect for him and Winnie. Maybe because it was their first one, maybe because she looked so pretty with her hair curled and her lips all shiny, or maybe because it had started with her face as pale as the moon and her eyes as wide as that, and her body shaking against his as he held her.
No matter what, he didn’t want to go back to Squared Away, where the music played too loud, Winnie wouldn’t dance with him, and they wouldn’t even be able to hear each other talk.
He turned toward her, and his left leg sent a twinge of pain up to his hip. “It’s only a five-minute drive from here,” he said, new hesitation inside him that hadn’t been there a few moments ago.
Thankfully, Winnie linked her arm through his and took the firststep toward the truck. “Okay, cowboy. I’m willing to go five more minutes.”
Ty smiled at her. “Link says he’s gonna call ahead, and he has enough clout to pull some strings.” Link’s status around town, as well as his money, did that, even though he didn’t use them.
Ty got Winnie settled back in the truck, and he made the quick five-minute drive over to Goose Creek Lane, which was far quieter than Main Street had been. Festive Christmas lights decorated the house which bore the label ofHomethat Ty parked across the street from.
“Home,” Winnie said the word out loud and then turned to look at him.
“Yeah, it’s supposed to be really good,” Ty said. “Down-home, good Southern cooking. Quiet tables, and Link says the Americano is to die for.” He chuckled as he unbuckled his seat belt. “Of course, I’ve never met anyone who loves an Americano more than Link.”
He once again collected Winnie from the truck, and they crossed the street to the house, which still had Christmas decorations in the windows and a couple of birdhouses out front, with Santa Claus gnomes and rocks with painted handprints on them.
“This is really cute,” Winnie said. “I like it already.”
He had to climb nine steps to get to the porch, which spanned the entire front of the house and had a table for two on each end of it. They went inside, and no bells rang as they did, and his boots landed on carpet as he approached the hostess stand.
