“Why not?” she found herself asking anyway out of curiosity to see if she was right and to have something to do to kill time since it appeared that Trevor was still busy trying to get the woman to go away.
“Because he’s a Bradford,” the woman explained with a shrug.
“Okay, can you bring him two cheeseburger platters, then?” she asked, knowing that if she didn’t order him enough food that there was a good chance that he’d steal her food and for the first time in weeks, she was ravenous and wasn’t willing to share.
“Sure, it will be about a half-hour,” the waitress said, taking their menus.
A half-hour? She was starving! She was pregnant with Bradford twins and she was very much afraid that for the next seven months, she’d be in a state of constant hunger as she tried uselessly to satisfy the Bradford appetite.
She really wasn’t sure how she was going to survive this pregnancy or, more importantly, survive another thirty minutes without food. That nausea pill had done wonders for her body and she wanted, no needed, food or she was pretty sure that she would die…or kill someone if she didn’t eat something soon.
“If I order an appetizer is there any chance that I can get it quickly? I’m two and a half months pregnant with a Bradford,” she said, not mentioning that it was twins because the thought was actually starting to scare her. She also hadn’t told Trevor yet and she didn’t want him finding out like this. She just hoped the woman understood because she was very close to crying. Judging by the slightly startled expression on the woman’s face, she did.
The waitress shook her head. “No, you’re right. You probably won’t be able to survive the wait,” she said, sending Trevor, who was still trying to get the other woman to leave, a glare. “I’ll bring you out a bowl of clam chowder followed by chicken fingers, they’ll only take a few minutes to prepare. Will that work?”
Zoe nodded solemnly. “You are my hero.”
“I’ll put a rush on your food,” the waitress said before walking away.
“Bless you,” Zoe said, fighting the urge to kiss the woman. She really couldn’t remember ever being this hungry before. Was this how it felt to be a Bradford? she idly wondered as the woman who’d been flirting with Trevor stormed off in a huff.
“I’m really sorry about that,” Trevor said, sighing as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking frustrated.
“It’s fine,” Zoe said, shrugging it off.
There really wasn’t anything that he could do about it. As much as she would have liked one perfect night with him, she wasn’t that angry. It was probably for the best that they didn’t have a perfect night together so that she didn’t have something truly wonderful to reminisce over and have “what if?” thoughts about later.
“No, it’s not. This is our first date,” Trevor said, reaching over and took her hand in his. She tried to pull her hand away, but he wasn’t having that. Holding on to her hand tightly, but not enough to hurt, he shifted his chair closer to her.
“Maybe we should just focus on having a nice time out as friends instead of trying for the impossible,” Zoe suggested, trying to pull her hand away only to find herself tugged forward and her mouth covered.
He brushed his lips over hers several times before pulling back just far enough so that he could look into her eyes as he spoke. “This is a date, Zoe. Don’t try to downplay what we’ve got going on just because you’re afraid to see where this is headed,” Trevor said softly.
“I’m not afraid?” she said, immediately wishing she’d kept her big mouth shut. Seriously, when was she going to lose that irritating habit of not being able to lie? It would come in handy in moments like this or when she was trying to get out of jury duty.
“If it makes you feel better,” Trevor said, pausing to press a quick kiss against her lips that left her wanting more, “I’m just as scared as you are, but you need to remember one thing.”
“What’s that?” Zoe whispered, feeling nervous by the intensity of his gaze, the way he was looking at her as if she made him happy and...whole.
“I’m not going anywhere. We’ll take this one day at a time, but we’re going to give this a chance, Zoe.”
“We are?” she asked breathlessly, feeling herself soften as she leaned forward to meet his lips. Maybe they could give this a try, Zoe thought just as someone yelled his name. Sighing heavily, they both leaned back and Trevor gave the man, whom she’d like to point out looked stunned when he spotted her, a quick wave.
“Zoe-” Trevor started only to be cut off by the waitress as she placed the largest bowl of clam chowder Zoe had ever seen in front of her with an equally large plate of chicken tenders.
“I took the liberty of doubling your order,” she said, giving Trevor a pointed look.
“Thank you,” he murmured, gesturing for Zoe to eat.
“Thank you. It looks really great,” Zoe said just as the waitress started to walk away, barely able to take her eyes away from the food as her stomach growled viciously, startling the hell out of her.
Trevor simply chuckled as he handed her a large spoon. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. From what I heard, Haley out-ate Jason while she was pregnant.”
“Please tell me that you’re kidding,” Zoe said, truly horrified at the prospect of eating as much as Jason and that was only for one baby. Really, how much would she need for twins?
“I’m afraid not,” Trevor said, gesturing once again for her to eat.
She eyed him for a moment, giving her food a chance to cool and trying to figure out a way to make sense of everything. One thing she couldn’t wrap her mind around was the way that he was taking everything. It was a little unnerving actually to have Trevor suddenly declare that he wanted a future with her. She knew that it was because of the babies, but he didn’t realize that. One day, he would figure it out and she didn’t want to be the one to pay when that day came.
