I hold up my hands still inside thick black gloves. “I’ve got protection.”
He takes one of my gloved hands in his. “Got it.” Still holding my hand, he turns to Molly and Celie.
“You guys want to get out of this cold rink and into the colder outdoors?”
Molly laughs. “At least we’ll have a warm car to look forward to.”
I pull my hand away from Cam’s as we walk toward the exit. We’re still in the arena, and I have no idea where Craig is.
When we get outside, we say goodbye to Celie and Molly, and as we reach Cam’s truck, he opens the passenger door for me. The minute he gets inside and turns on the heat, he leans over and kisses me.
“I liked seeing you in the stands,” he murmurs into my lips.
“You did?”
“Mm-hmmm. I’d love to see you there every night. Did you enjoy the game?”
I can barely remember the game right now. In fact, I’m not sure I remember anything before this moment. I melt into Cam as his tongue slides inside my mouth. His hands grip my waist and he kisses me until a sound escapes my throat. Then he wrenches himself back from me. “If I don’t stop now, we’ll never make it on our date.”
I finally answer his question. “I don’t know about the game, but I definitely loved watching you play.”
“Yeah?” His perfect, white teeth flash adorably.
“Uh-huh.” I lean back and put on my seatbelt as Cam puts the car in drive.
* * *
As we leave Main Street and head west, I turn to Cam suspiciously.
“Where are we going?” I say.
“Lovelake. I found a restaurant online I thought we could try. It’s open late, and I’ve already made us a reservation. We’ve got plenty of time. The game ended even earlier than I’d thought it would.”
Lovelake. The town I naively said could be “our place.” The place where I asked him to take my virginity…
I study his profile. “That’s kind of far for just dinner.”
He glances over at me. “Is it too far for you?”
I don’t think I want to touch that question. My cheeks flame, and I hope he can’t tell in the dark because he keeps taking his eyes off the road to look at me.
“This is your first real date, and the last two we tried didn’t work out that well. So I wanted to do something special.”
“Of course.” I touch his leg. “It was a nice idea. I just—”Don’t know if you plan for us to spend the night out there.“—it’s a bit of a drive is all.”
“We’ll play the rest by ear,” he says quickly as if he knows what I’m trying to say.
I turn to look out the window as thoughts bombard my brain. Cam and I together. All night long potentially.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Cam asks me.
I wrinkle my nose. “Do people really say that anymore?”
He laughs. “My grandma says it, and she’s not even that old. She’s sixty-five.”
“Wow, that is young.”
“My mother was twenty-one when she had me, and her mother was twenty,” Cam says.
