Clara took a hit off her cigar and blew out the smoke. “Are we just pretending, or is this a real date?”
“Depends on whether I get a good-night kiss,” he teased.
Clara turned to face him. “That would mean we would spend thewholeday together.”
“If you get tired or bored, it could be a good-afternoon kiss.” He flashed a brilliant smile toward her. “Can you be ready to go at ten fifteen? Our services start at ten thirty and are over in an hour.”
“I don’t date coworkers, and definitely not someone who will probably be my boss,” she told him.
“Then we won’t call it a date,” Nash said. “It will be going to church with a friend and having dinner at his grandparents’ house.”
“That sounds like the beginning of a relationship to me,” Clara argued.
“If you don’t go out with me, will you regret it in a year, or even six months?” he asked. “And why won’t you date coworkers?”
“I’ve told you about my ex,” she answered. “And he wasn’t the first person I dated from a job. Not a single one of them ended well.”
“Don’t judge all experiences by the bad ones in the past. This one might be like grabbing the golden ring at the carousel.”
“It will make things awkward if our relationship…” she started.
Nash laid a hand on her arm. “But what if it turns out to be awesome?”
“Why would you want to date me anyhow?” she asked bluntly.
“Because I like you a lot, and there’s been chemistry between us since we first met,” he answered.
“When I was blubbering like a two-year-old who didn’t get her way?” Clara shot back at him.
“Yep, and I thought you were beautiful even then, but the feelings I have got even more pronounced every time after that. Didn’t you feel the same?”
“I did, but…”
He gently squeezed her arm. “I won’t beg, Clara. If you don’t want to take this any further, just say the word and I will back off. But know that I feel something that I haven’t ever experienced before, and I really want to spend more time with you.”
“Okay, then,” Clara agreed, “but if we’re going to wake up and be dressed that early for church, we had better call it a night.”
“I agree.” Nash put out his cigar and downed the last sip of his whiskey. He bent at the waist and brushed a sweet kiss across Clara’s lips. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” he whispered before he disappeared into the night.
In an attempt to cool her whining hormones, Clara took several deep breaths and let them out slowly. Had she just jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, or had she made the best decision in her whole life?
Chapter 13
The sky was divided that Sunday morning with dark clouds rolling in from the southwest and the sun shining brightly in the northeast. Clara could hear Bernie and Pepper both snoring as she had a bowl of cereal and a cup of instant coffee for breakfast. One loud noise that sounded like a constipated elephant, and then a tiny little snort that was almost like a sneeze from an aristocratic lady. She made a mental note to tell Mary Jane to be grateful that Bernie would not be living in the Paradise.
She finished eating and tiptoed to her bedroom, got dressed, and wrote a short note to Bernie telling her that she was going to church and afterward to dinner with Nash and his grandparents. When Nash knocked on the back door, she had just finished setting the piece of paper up beside the coffeepot.
She opened the door and Pepper ran out ahead of her, chased a squirrel up a tree, and hiked a leg on a nearby bush. “Good mornin’,” she said with a sheepish grin.
“It is now.” Nash’s eyes traveled from the hem of herdenim skirt, up to the lacy western shirt she had chosen, and on to her long, red hair that she’d twisted up into a messy bun on top of her head. “You look amazing. I should have brought a big stick with me.”
“Do people take sticks to your church?” She wondered what she had gotten herself into, and if she could back out. If Pepper didn’t come back in a few seconds, could she use the excuse that she had to chase him down to skip the strange services that required the member of their congregation to bring such things into the building?
“No, darlin’.” he chuckled. “But I might need one to beat off all the young guys who want to ask you for a date. I guess I can use the hymnal if things get out of hand.”
“Thank you for that, but what you probably need is a new set of contact lenses,” she teased, but was inwardly grateful that the place didn’t require anything weird.
Pepper ran back into the house, and she quickly closed the door.
