I smile so wide my cheeks ache. “Okay. A date.”
He extends his elbow. “Shall we?”
My hand rests in the crook of his arm as he walks me to the car. I’ve seen his truck, but this is a cute little convertible that has never been in the driveway before. The top is up, thankfully, since my hair is down and the last thing I want to look is windblown.
He opens my door and all of this is like a dream.
I know that sounds stupid, but it’s…surreal.
This man, who is just supposed to be a casual fling, is doing something that no one else has done for me before.
I watch as he walks around the front, trying to calm my racing heart and frantic mind.
“You really didn’t have to do this,” I say once he’s settled in the driver’s seat, placing his hat on the backseat, not even knowing what we’re doing.
“I know I didn’thaveto do it.”
I sigh. “I just mean that…”
He leans in, giving me a sweet kiss, silencing my objection. Once I’m effectively dazed by his sweetness, he speaks. “I’m not doing anything that I don’t want to do. Tonight, I want to go out for dinner with a beautiful woman. I want to take her somewhere that I love and then, maybe at the end of the night, she’ll let me walk her to her door and kiss her goodnight. We don’thaveto do anything, but I really hope she wants to.”
I reach my hand out, cupping his face. “I want it more than anything.”
Killian brings my hand to his lips, kissing my palm, and I melt. “Then let’s go on our date.”
The drive is quiet, and he holds my hand the entire time. We see each other all day so there’s not much small talk, but he still asks me about the plans for the rodeo, and I tell him about my very exhausting call with my mother earlier.
“I just don’t understand her. Nothing is ever enough,” I complain. “I sent her what I could and she still wasn’t happy.”
He squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry. What if you were to stop sending her anything?”
I can’t even imagine. Well, I can, but there’s no chance of it. “She’d probably lose her house. I don’t know.”
“It’s not your job to take care of everyone. You know that, right?”
Isn’t it? My job is literally taking care of people. Throughout my life, that’s what’s been expected of me and I’ve just done it.
Even if I hate it.
“Maybe so, but I can’t let my mother and brother be homeless.”
“Yeah,” he agrees. “I wouldn’t be able to either.”
He definitely wouldn’t.
He couldn’t even handle the idea of me being in that room above the store. Killian and I are a lot alike. Every morning when I come downstairs, he has a yogurt ready for me or sometimes it’s a fancy omelet. I know he likes to cook, but it’s more than that. He’s always making sure that I’m taken care of and am fed. Then, when we’re together at night, he doesn’t stop until I’ve orgasmed before taking his own.
We both put others’ needs before our own.
It’s what I like the most about him. He cares.
“I think you like to take care of people too.”
He glances over at me before returning to the road. “You do, huh?”
“Yes. You wouldn’t let someone go hungry any more than I could. You give to your friends, the community, your family. It's probably why I’m so drawn to you.”
“I knew you liked me,” he jokes.
