“Are you hungry?” he asked, knowing that she must be starving.
“Yes, but I think-”
“We should go out on a date tonight? I totally agree,” Trevor said, cutting her off because he had a feeling that she was about to suggest something that he wouldn’t like.
“A date?” she repeated, sounding a bit confused.
“Yeah, a date,” Trevor said, grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet while she still looked confused as hell. He gave her a little nudge to get her moving in the direction of the stairs. “You know where I pick you up, you keep me waiting for a half-hour, we go out, and I charm you while you hang on my every word. We eat, we talk and then at the end of the night, you invite me in for a cup of coffee and I pretend to think it over since I’m such a gentleman,” Trevor said, choosing to ignore her snort of disbelief as he guided her towards the stairs.
“But-”
“No, buts,” he said, giving her another nudge to get her up the stairs. “Get your little butt up there and put something on that will drive me out of my mind.”
“But-”
“Go,” he said, giving her another nudge that thankfully got her moving. “The sooner you get dressed, the sooner you can start fawning over me like a proper date. And remember, just because I agreed to go out on this date with you doesn’t mean that I’m easy. I expect you to do a little work to get me out of my pants.”
He couldn’t have his future wife thinking he was easy, after all.
Chapter 30
“What do you think, the blue one or the green one?” Zoe asked, holding up two of the pretty tops that she’d bought a few months back but hadn’t had the chance or reason to wear.
Until now.
She couldn’t believe that she was going on a date with Trevor. Although she was nervous about what people would say after their one and only date, especially when she started to show, right now she really couldn’t care less. She knew that people were going to talk after the babies were born. A lot of them were going to make an issue out of the fact that Trevor was the father and because of that, they’d probably always think the babies were either conceived out of pity or a night of drunken stupidity.
If worse came to worst, she would move out of town and hopefully be able to keep her children away from the majority of the gossip. There would always be talk, but as long as her children knew they were loved, she could deal with all the nonsense. There was plenty of time later to deal with the drama. Right now, she was going to enjoy her night with Trevor.
“Well?” she asked, holding the blouses up higher, but the two dogs lounging on Trevor’s bed weren’t exactly helpful as they took turns licking Mr. Cuddles’ face. “I guess I’ll go with the green one,” Zoe decided. They matched Trevor’s eyes, but she didn’t say that out loud, mostly because she didn’t know where Trevor was exactly and she didn’t want to take the chance of coming off as even more pathetic.
It was bad enough that he knew that she was in love with him. He didn’t need to know that she was also pathetic. Even though she had no plans of accepting his ludicrous proposal, she fully planned on enjoying this night with him.
Tonight, he was hers and not just when they were alone. Tonight, she was going to know how it felt to have every woman wish that they were her, because she was with Trevor. For once, people weren’t going to assume that she was his frumpy little sister because tonight she didn’t have to hide her feelings for him.
Even though she had absolutely no doubt that he cared for her, she really didn’t think he loved her. How could he? She wasn’t beautiful or special in any way, besides if he loved her, he would have shown her long before he found out that she was pregnant. It was kind of nice that he was willing to lie to her to make her feel better, and for tonight, just tonight, she was going to pretend that he really did love her and enjoy her one special night with him. When the kids asked about their relationship, she would honestly be able to tell them after tonight that they’d dated and it just hadn’t worked out.
Tomorrow she would find a new place, a smaller place that she’d be able to afford with her savings for the few months that she wouldn’t be able to work. She didn’t have to ask to know that Trevor would help her financially, at least where the kids were concerned. It was more than her mother ever had, so at least she wouldn’t have to worry that she wouldn’t be able to support her kids because Trevor wasn’t the kind of guy to skip town just to get out of child support like her own father had.
If she got desperate, she could always ask Trevor to rent her one of his apartments. It wouldn’t be an ideal situation, especially once he got married, but if she had no choice, she’d suck it up for her kids. This really wasn’t the way she wanted to start a family, but none of that mattered now.
Tonight was her one special night with Trevor and she was going to enjoy it, Zoe decided as she pulled on her green blouse and fixed her hair. Everything was going to be perfect.
A small knock at her door caught her attention. She gave her hair another look and decided that there just wasn’t any way to hide the small white bandage on her forehead. Taking a deep breath, Zoe shoved away her disappointment that she wasn’t more of a girly girl, opened her bedroom door and forgot how to breathe as she came face-to-face with a bouquet of baby pink roses held by one of the best-looking men she’d ever seen and tonight, he was all hers.
Tonight was going to be perfect.
“This is my date,” Trevor bit out tightly, gesturing towards her and looking more irritated than he had a minute ago when the hot brunette came sauntering over to their table and started flirting outrageously with him.
So much for her one perfect night, Zoe thought with a small sigh as she picked up her apple juice and took a sip as she looked around for their waitress. When she spotted her across the room, Zoe gestured for the woman, deciding that she’d waited long enough to place their order. Since they’d walked into Joe’s Tavern forty-five minutes ago, they hadn’t been able to say more than two words to each other because of the constant flow of women coming over to flirt with him and guys from work coming over to chat with him.
If they saw her sitting at the small round table with Trevor, they didn’t show it. While most of them smoothly stepped in front of Trevor to block her out, a few guys had invited him to join them at their tables and one woman had actually asked Zoe for her seat so that she could sit next to Trevor. When Trevor explained that he was with someone, a.k.a. her, a few had looked a little stunned, one guy had laughed like it was a joke until he caught sight of Trevor’s glare. Sadly, more than a few women had told Trevor how sweet it was to see a man spend time with his sister and left their numbers on the table for him.
“Oh, really?” the woman asked, looking her over and frowning down at her before she clearly dismissed her and went back to flirting with Trevor.
Oh well, Zoe thought as she gave the woman and Trevor her back and placed her order with the waitress. Trevor tried to get the waitress’ attention, but the bombshell next to him wasn’t giving up so easily, so Zoe just went ahead and ordered him the “All you can eat chicken wing” platter.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t serve him that item,” the waitress said, only somewhat surprising her since she had a pretty good idea why.
