“Well, okay, not totally open. That would be weird.”
“Why don’t you just call her?” he asked, taking Grace’s hand in his.
“You know Alma, right? I think you’ve met her once or twice before? She is not going to be satisfied with a phone call. And I just need to get my head in order.”
Grace was right about Alma. A phone call was not going to satisfy her in this instance, but he didn’t know what Grace could possibly mean about her head. What part of her head was not in order? Everything in Rafael’s head felt perfectly ordered. In fact, he’d never felt so sure about anything in his life.
“What’s wrong with your head?”
Grace bit her lip, which he knew meant there was something she didn’t want to say. A flash of panic struck him in the chest.
She leaned back from him and twisted a strand of hair between her fingers. “I was just thinking maybe we should take this slow,” she said. “I don’t want to rush into anything.”
His mouth formed a hard line. “We haven’t rushed, Graciela. We lived together for over a month. We spent every single day together, and now one day is too much?”
She took his hand, rubbing her thumb again his knuckles. “It’s not too much. I just thought maybe we should go out and have dinner a few times and ease into it…like regular dating for a while.”
Rafael nodded slowly. He could handle that. It seemed completely unnecessary, but if Grace wanted to be courted, that was definitely something he could excel at. What he really wanted was to spend every second with her and tell her he was already in love with her anyway, but that probably didn’t count as taking things slow, so he would go along with whatever she needed.
“Okay,” he said.
“Yeah?” She leaned toward him, pressing her shoulder to his.
Rafael kept his tone casual. “If that’s what you think will work best for us, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“Really?”
He took a moment to inhale her scent—it was his soap and shampoo, but there was something more underneath, something sweet and delicious and completelyher.“Yes, really. See? I’m not so stubborn after all.”
Grace’s mouth tilted in a half-smile. “Debatable.”
Rafael pressed a kiss to her temple and decided to take his chances. “Could we have dinner this evening, then? If that’s what we’re doing now?”
Grace eyed him for a moment, and he held his breath. “Yes,” she said.
“Good.” He exhaled. He could handle one step at a time, as long as the next step was in sight.
Grace’s eyes crinkled with delight. “Good. Then I guess I should go home.”
“I’ll admit I’m still used to the days when you thought this was home.”Shit.He didn’t mean to say that. Did it sound like he was suggesting she should live with him again? So much for having no problem taking things slow.
Grace faltered for a moment like she wasn’t quite sure how to take his statement either. “It’s nice to know my room is still available pending any unnatural disasters,” she said calmly.
He tried to relax and make a joke. “Oh, you still think of that asyourroom, do you?”
She elbowed him in the side. “You know what I mean.”
He did know what she meant, because it still felt that way to him too, like she belonged there. And that meant taking things slow was going to be a struggle.
Grace wanted a proper date, and that’s what she was going to get. He knocked on the door of her apartment that evening and didn’t even flinch when Alma answered the door. He’d brought flowers, and Alma gave him a thorough once over before shaking her head and opening the door wider to let him inside.
“He’s here,” Alma called. She crossed her arms. “Where are you taking her?” she asked Rafael in Spanish.
“Ummm, La Tomasas,” he said.
“Fancy.”
He shrugged.
