Never have I spent more than fifteen minutes getting ready for a date. Not that this was a date. Shit! I hope it wasn’t a date. Was it? Did Jake think it was?
I hadn’t even made it out the front door, and I was already having a panic attack.
“Breathe, Kellie. It’s just Jake.” Mom chuckled from where she leaned on the bathroom door, thoroughly entertained.
“Exactly. It’s Jake.”
“You’ve never been worried before.”
“I’ve never gone on a date with Jake before.”
“Oh. So, it is a date?”
“I don’t know. Ugh!”
“Kellie. Stop. Look at me. Now, take a breath,” Mom instructed, stepping into the bathroom and taking my hands in hers.
I did as she instructed, hoping the dizziness would fade. The last thing I needed was to show up with sweat stains on my dress.
Taking a deep breath, I held it, counted to five, then exhaled before repeating the process several more times.
“Right now, you need to calm down before you end up in the ER. It’s just dinner, and it’s only Jake.”
“Only Jake! Only Jake!” I squealed like a banshee. “Jake’s Cass’s father. He’s the man I planned on spending forever with.”
“I know who he is, Kellie. And so do you. Now, stop being such a drama queen, take a breath, straighten your dress, reapply your lipstick, and get your butt out the door. You don’t want to be late.”
I hated it when Mom talked sense. It was hard to freak out and have my much-warranted meltdown when she was making me see reason.
“Fine,” I replied with a pout. Rolling her eyes, Mom strode out of the bathroom and left me to finish getting ready.
After another fifteen minutes, I was sitting in the back of an Uber on my way to meet the man who owned my heart. I’d fretted about this all day. It's taken me hours to get ready for dinner at a local steak house. I’d squeezed my oversized ass into a knee-length black dress and dressed it up with my favorite red heels and bag. I wore one of Cassidy’s necklaces and a pair of chandelier earrings. For the first time in forever, I felt alive. Sexy even. I could barely remember the last time I’d gone to so much trouble with my appearance.
“We’re here,” the driver announced, and I slid out of the back of the sedan.
The sun was starting to set, and it turned the sky into the most brilliant shades of pink and orange. Completely captivated by the way the clouds drifted across the sky, I didn’t notice someone prowling toward me, so when they touched my bare shoulder, I screeched and jumped at the same time, almost twisting my ankle as I landed, barely managing not to fall on my ass.
Spinning around, I came face to face with a very serious Jake Samuels.
“Geez, Jake. You scared the crap out of me.”
“You were a million miles away. You didn’t even hear me coming.”
“I was…”
“Off dreaming. I’ve seen that look before, but you need to be more careful. Pay attention to your surroundings, especially looking like that,” he added.
“What the fuck does that mean? Looking like what?” I snarled, already annoyed at his judgmental bullshit.
“Whoa! Calm down. You look sexy as fuck, Marshmallow. I just meant not all men are gentlemen like me. They’d take advantage of a pretty girl like you.”
“Oh.” I gulped down my embarrassment, feeling my cheeks burn under his compliment.
“Come on. Let’s go inside,” Jake suggested, offering me his hand.
When he laced his fingers with mine and led me down the path, the butterflies I’d been trying to keep under control took flight.
Inside, it was still quiet, but it was early. With his hand resting on the small of my back and his warmth seeping through my dress, Jake led me toward a table in the back. It was dimly lit but perfect. While this place wasn’t the fanciest restaurant in town, it came with white tablecloths and waiters wearing starched white shirts and black ties.
