The smile slid right off his face. “You do?”
“Yes, sirree, and I’m afraid it’s a deal-breaker.”
She could flirt all right, and something in Dawson’s chest warmed that she was flirting with him again. “Lay it on me then.”
“You have to smile when we go out,” she said. “You can’t act like you want to be back home by yourself or that you might blow up if they don’t have the soda you like, or that you want to stab my cat when you drop me off.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I would never harm a cat.” He rolled his shoulders as she cocked her eyebrows at him, clearly challenging him on the rest. “I mean, they’re not dogs, but I still wouldn’t hurt one.”
He quirked up one side of his mouth, the other following quickly. “I’ll smile.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I mean, if you aren’t happy to be with me, you don’t have to, but otherwise, I’d like a sign that you want to be with me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He tucked his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t grab onto her. “Should I text you for your schedule?”
“What about tomorrow night?” she asked. “I’m still not working until Monday, so I’m free.”
Dawson nodded, wondering what it would be like to have a job with real vacation days. “Tomorrow night, then. Six? Seven?” He hated his tongue and vocal cords then, because he kept saying too much.
Caroline smiled at him again, this time putting her palm flat against his breastbone. “Six would be great. Is that enough time for you to get here?”
“I’ll be here,” he promised, already sifting through ideas for their first real date. Based on what he knew about Caroline, she liked eating out and specific foods were very important to her. Dawson hadn’t spent a lot of time dating, but he had friends, and he could text Finn, Alex, and Link to get some ideas.
He nodded again, forgot to smile, and headed back to the truck. “See ya tomorrow,” he said, almost imitating her when she’d gotten out of the truck.
He buckled in and looked at her, and still she stood there watching him, a somewhat incredulous look on her face. Or maybe that was annoyance. “Something not good,” he muttered.
He left before she could break their date, though surely she could do that with a text any time between now and six p.m. tomorrow night.
“Lord, I’ve had a bad enough day already, okay?” he prayed. “She doesn’t need to cancel the date and make it worse.”
“Uncle Dawson!” The front door burst open with all the energy of a seven-year-old boy. “I lost a tooth! Uncle Dawson, look at my tooth!”
Dawson sat at the kitchen table with his brother, and they both looked over to Dallas, Duke and Arizona’s youngest boy.
Two dogs came into the cabin next, followed by Dwayne, then April, and then Shiloh. The girls carried plates in their hands, and that only meant one thing: cookies.
“Has your mom been baking today?” Brandon asked, already on his feet to receive the nieces and nephews.
“Yep,” Shiloh said as she reached the counter and slid the plate of cookies onto it.
“Uncle Dawson, look.” Dallas arrived in front of him, pressing in so close, Dawson had to back up to see him properly. He pulled down his lip to show Dawson the gap in his teeth, and then he held up the lost tooth.
“Holy hole in your mouth,” Dawson said, his smile in full force whenever the kids came over. “What are you gonna do now? You won’t be able to eat those chocolate chip cookies your momma made.”
“I will too.” Dallas grinned at Dawson. “I had two of ‘em this morning.”
“What are you gonna do with that tooth?” Dawsonasked, glancing up as April put a couple of cookies in front of him. “Thanks, missy.”
She grinned at him, and Dawson’s heart expanded with love. April was Duke and Zona’s second child, and she had a wild streak that probably stemmed from both of them. It gave her parents fits sometimes, and she’d come to work with Dawson on the ranch anytime any of them needed a break.
She flirted with a lot of boys, which worried her parents, and she hated homework, reading, and doing anything her momma and daddy asked her to do. Dawson hadn’t been old enough to understand why Duke had left the ranch for over fifteen years, but he knew his half-brother had run into some trouble—the kind that had driven him from town, from his family, for years.
Zona could be all smile or all thorns, so it wasn’t all that surprising that the two of them had a daughter with all the same qualities as they did.
She pulled out the chair beside him and sat down. “Can I go out and see the owls with you?”
“In the morning,” he said. “After my run, I’ll stop by and knock, and by the time I’m ready, if you’re here, you can.”
