Between yes and no? Sophie tried not to let her panic show on her face.
“I’m torn between watching you try to hide how nervous you are and telling you I was going to ask you out too.”
Her shoulders relaxed, and she breathed out. “Cruel.”
“Maybe a little. Guys shouldn’t have to do all the sweating.”
“Maybe not, but I’m glad they do most of it.”
Nate brushed her hair behind her shoulder, then ran his fingers over her cheek, making her heart skip a few beats. “A guy would be crazy to say no to you.”
She stifled the urge to turn her head just enough to press her lips to his fingers. “Is that a yes?”
“As long as it’s more than just dinner. I’d hate for you to go through all this pain and torment just for an hour-and-a-half date. There should be something afterwards.”
She could think of a few somethings afterwards, but she didn’t have the nerve to say so, even as a joke. His fingers trailed back into her hair, onto her neck, giving her shivers and making her think of being alone with him and his hands and the rest of him. Her body responded with an ache between her legs.
Clearing her throat, she reined her thoughts in. “I came up with dinner, so you get to figure out what’s after that. Whatever you want, as long it’s doctor approved.”
“Doctor approved. So no marathon running. No boxing. No contact sports. I think I can work around those.”
She endeavored not to think too hard about contact sports with him. “Friday?” she asked.
“It’s a date.”
A date had been her objective from the start, so why, as they forgot about the rest of the truck tour and walked back toward the main door, did she feel suddenly sick with nerves?
10
The night had been too good. Better than any other date Sophie had been on, and it hopefully wasn’t close to over yet, because there was enough tension between her and Nate — the good kind of tension — that a simple good-night kiss at her door wasn’t what she wanted.
Even the setting was romantic. After their superb, no-frills dinner at Raul’s, Nate had whisked her away to their mysterious destination, which turned out to be the miniature golf course overlooking the bay on the south side of the island. Sophie had never been there, as it was usually overrun with tourists, and golf had never been her thing. Oh, who was she kidding? The idea to go mini golfing had never even remotely crossed her mind.
The course was nearly deserted tonight, thanks to temperatures in the fifties and Texans’ general tendency to consider anything under seventy-five downright freezing. With a thick sweater and a date who liked to touch her, it was bearable. More than. In fact, fifty degrees might become her new favorite temperature if it meant she got to have Nate’s arm around her all the time, with his body pressed next to hers, infusing her with even more than ninety-eight-point-six degrees of heat.
“Do you like your cocoa with whipped cream or without?” Nate asked as he sat down next to her on the picnic bench near the water.
“Without, if I have a choice.” She rarely allowed herself to drink cocoa — hello, carb city — but tonight had the feel of a special occasion.
Nate handed her a steaming cup with a cardboard strip around it to protect her fingers from the heat. Their hands touched — for the two hundredth time tonight — and the spark of interest still jolted her, made her long to touch him more.
“Thank you.”
Though she’d been marginally interested in the guys she’d dated in the past and she’d had sex with a couple of them, this was different somehow. She’d never been this attracted to a man before, never ever in her life considered inviting a guy to come home with her. They seemed in tune with each other, like Nate was as into her as she was him. There was a connection there, something she couldn’t put into words. Something she couldn’t allow herself to think about too hard.
It’d been a couple of years — okay, more than three — since she’d been on a date. Maybe this was just the difference between twenty-eight and thirty-one years old. Weren’t women supposed to be at their sexual peak in their thirties?
“Still can’t get over it that you’ve never played mini golf before,” Nate said as he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her into him so that their bodies touched all along their sides, from their thighs to their shoulders. “Or that you won that first game.”
“I was close on the third game, don’t forget. Next time, I will prevail.”
“Beginner’s luck.”
“Never.” Sophie laughed. “I may be more than a little competitive.”
“I thought you were going to ask them to turn the background music off so you could concentrate on that last shot.”
“Hey, a free game was at stake. That would obligate you to take me out again.”
