Ever since this past weekend, I’d felt like she’d been trying her hardest to avoid me. That gutted me to the core because the last thing I wanted to do was make her feel uncomfortable. I knew that we needed to sit down and have a conversation, but I was not too much of an idiot to admit that the thought of that scares me.
A small knock came from across the room, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts. Glancing up, there stood my sweet girl.Damn it, Beau! Stop thinking about her like that.She looked like the wall might fall from beneath her if she wasn’t careful.
“The wall can hold itself up, you know.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t have to just stand there, Rebekah. You can come inside and sit.”
She rolled her eyes at me, and I noticed the last of the tension she had been holding in her shoulders had disappeared. That was the exact reaction I was hoping for. I let out a small chuckle as she dropped into the chair dramatically.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” I ask, folding my hands in front of me, offering her my undivided attention.
“Nothing, I was just done helping Seth. I figured I would see if you needed anything or were almost done for the day.”
With a quick look at the clock on my computer, I realized that time had moved faster than it normally did. It was almost five in the evening, which meant it was getting close to when I took her home.
Ever since I told her I would be bringing her to and from work, I tried my hardest to keep from working extra-long hours into the night. The last thing I wanted was to keep her waiting for me until God knew when, and I definitely didn’t want one of the other guys to take her home. Though that had happened once or twice when it was clear that I wasn’t going to catch a break.
“Of course. Give me a few minutes to finish wrapping up this email, and then we can head out.”
Rebekah nodded at me before grabbing her Kindle and curling up on my couch. I had learned that her favorite place to sit was on my couch, and my heart loved to see her waiting for me. She always looked adorable, wrapped up in the blanket thatI might have ordered online just for her, with her Kindle in hand, reading away.
Twenty minutes later, I shut down my computer, deciding the rest of my work could wait until tomorrow. “Have dinner with me?”
She must have been engrossed in her book because she whipped her head up like she had forgotten that she wasn’t sitting in here alone.
“What did you say?”
“I asked you to have dinner with me tonight.”
“Why would you do that?”
What kind of question is that? Why wouldn’t I want to have dinner with a pretty lady?
“Because I need to eat, you need to eat, and there’s no reason we can’t eat together,” I replied, shooting her a puzzled look.
“Okay, well, when you put it like that, I sound stupid for asking why.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t call yourself stupid, Rebekah. I won’t stand for that kind of language from you.”
She bit down hard on her tongue as if she was trying to stop a sassy reply from tumbling out of her gorgeous lips.
“You aren’t stupid. Not in the slightest, and I don’t want to hear you say that again. Am I understood?”
“Sir, yes, Sir!” she replied with a salute.
Oh, the little cheeky brat. Rolling my eyes at her antics, I grabbed her bag from in front of my desk and headed over to where she was curled up on the couch.
“Come on, Rebekah. I’m starving, and I’m sure you are, too.”
She reached up and took her bag from my hand, slipping her Kindle inside before standing and following me out of the office.After locking up, I directed her to my truck and helped her inside before driving down the block toward Gene’s Diner.
Parked and out of the truck, I guided Rebekah toward the back of the diner. It wasn’t busy yet, but being a Wednesday night, I knew that it was only a matter of time before it filled up. This was the best place to get a home-cooked meal that had you missing your granny’s southern cooking, so it made sense that it was a popular venue.
