Patience nudged me playfully. “You could have chosen something different if you wanted.”
I placed my elbows on the table and leaned a little closer to her, whispering conspiratorially. “Do I look like the type of man who does anything that I don’t want to do?”
“No.” She took a deep breath. “No, you don’t. Which reminds me, you told Grant we were dating. Now, we are here at Nonna’s together after we were seen shopping together, and we are going to the grocery store next—”
I looked at her questioningly. “Yeah, so?”
“This is a small town, Tucker. People will talk, and everyone will assume we are dating.”
“That’s not a bad thing with your ex around, Patience. I deter him from being an asshole even more than he already has been.”
“Here are your drinks.” Giana said breaking into the conversation as she brought our drinks to the table. “Your appetizers will be up in a minute. Do you know what you want to eat for your meal?”
I nodded for Patience to order first. She didn’t even need the menu to decide what she wanted. “I’ll have the mushroom and spinach ravioli, please.” She ordered with a smile.
“I should have known.” Her friend smiled at her and sent me a conspiratory wink. “Creature of habit this one, although, that seems to be rapidly changing.” She grinned. “And for you?” Giana asked as she scribbled down Patience’s order on her notepad.
“I’ll take the spaghetti and meatballs.” I handed her the menus before she could ask for it. No self-respecting Italian restaurant didn’t have spaghetti and meatballs.
“Thanks, Giana,” Patience said quickly.
“Thank you,” I echoed before turning back to the woman beside me as her friend walked away with a grin and a nod.
“I’m just saying, Tucker. I have a track record where men are concerned. If you stay for any length of time, and it still appears we are dating, people are going to assume this is real.”
I leaned back to study her face. Her brows were furrowed with concern, and her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. “What exactly is your track record, Patience? That statement is a bit broad and can mean a few different things.”
“Let me just put it this way. Grant isn’t the first boyfriend to end up mad at me because things don’t progress where they would like them to.” She held up her hand. “He is the first to get physical with me, but I’ve been called more than a few vulgar names because I don’t let the relationships go far enough to get physical in other ways.”
I studied her and let her words fully sink in. Surely, she wasn’t telling me that she was still a virgin? She was twenty-one years old. Most girls don’t make it out of high school with their virginity intact, let alone into their early twenties.
“You’re telling me you’re a—” Her hand shot out to cover my mouth before I could say the word. I laughed behind her hand at the expression on her face as her eyes darted around the room like she’d been hiding some top-secret piece of information that she didn’t want leaked.
“Yes,” she whispered harshly. “So, if you stay too long and we keep up this ruse, people will suspect this is real.”
“And you don’t want them to think it’s real?” I asked quietly when she removed her hand from my mouth. I couldn’t give two shits what anyone thought about our situation, except for Patience, but I didn’t grow up in this town either. My family wasn’t here; not that I had any family to speak of, anyway.
She fiddled nervously with the napkin in front of her. “I just want you to know what you’re in for. I get bored with guys easily, which is why I break it off before anything happens. They say I’m cold, or worse, but it’s not true.”
“Patience, you don’t have to convince me of that fact. I know for damn sure you aren’t cold. There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin or selective. If it bothers you that people will think thisis more than it is, then you can fake break up with me whenever you want.”
A look of relief was written all over her face, and I didn’t know whether to be insulted or amused by that fact. I settled on amusement because I didn’t want to dig into the reason I felt slightly annoyed at her relief.
We stopped talking as her friend walked up to the table and set the appetizers down in front of us. The air around us was charged with sexual tension that made my dick uncomfortably hard in my jeans.
She chewed on her lip, and I could all but see the wheels in her head turning like the cogs of a clock. “What is it?” I asked after her friend walked away and she hadn’t spoken up. She was just watching me with questions in her eyes.
“How do you know?”
“Know what?”
She hesitated and licked her lips. “Know that I’m not cold. You seem so sure of it, but I have a list of boyfriends who would say otherwise.”
Un-fucking-believable, I said to myself. The guys in this town were pieces of shit to make a girl feel like that. No wonder she won’t let her guard down around them if this is how they’ve treated her.
I dropped the fork I was about to use to pick up a piece of calamari and rubbed my hand over my jaw. How do you explain to an innocent that you’ve seen her body language around you? How her eyes light up like fireworks when she’s verbally sparring with you?
“I know the same way I know that at some point, this thing building up between us is like a volcano just waiting to erupt.”
