She shrugs. “It wasn’t supposed to be. My husband and I wanted a name fitting and classy, but we couldn’t agree. He’s a little hardheaded and stupid so we just put up a sign that said my first name. It stuck, despite how ridiculous it is. But regardless of the name, the food will be wonderful. I can promise you that. Now, Everett said this is your first date?”
I nod. “It is.”
“Wonderful. Come, come, this way.”
Killian shakes his head with a smile and places his hand on the small of my back, leading me to the table.
Marge seats us in the back where it’s secluded. The restaurant only has two other couples there, but I appreciate that it’s a little quieter. “Thank-you,” Killian says to Marge as he pulls my chair out for me.
“Oh,” she sighs, clutching her hands to her chest. “You’re a gentleman. Nothing like those other fools.” Then Marge turns her attention to me. “You should keep this one.”
I wish I could.
She heads off, informing us she’ll bring the wine and then our first course.
“So, we have dinner and then what?” I ask, smiling warmly as he takes my hands in his.
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
“Now I’m intrigued.”
Killian leans in. “You should be.”
He’s so cute. Not only in the attractive way, but in his heart. “You’re really going to make any man that comes after this work for it, huh?”
“Damn right.”
“Is this what you’d do if we weren’t just having casual sex?”
I don’t know why I just asked that. It’s stupid. No matter what his answer is, the facts remain that we are not dating. We’re having a lot of sex, working through his company’s issues, and then I’ll be on my way back to New York.
His thumb brushes the top of my hand. “If we were dating, and not justhaving casual sex—as you call it—we would be doing this. I’d take you out on horseback rides, which we’ve done now. We’d definitely do dinners, movie nights?—”
“Which we do now,” I say.
He chuckles. “I guess we do.”
As much as I want to guard my heart and keep it locked away, with Killian, it’s as though I can’t.
Before I met him, there wasn’t a chance in hell anyone could get this close to me. I dated a guy, which is a generous description for what we did, in college for two months and I don’t think he even knew I had a brother. I definitely didn’t disclose personal information about my parents.
With Killian, it just comes out. As though I know that my heart is safe and he won’t break it.
Although, I think I’ll be the one who breaks it when I have to leave Ember Falls.
It’s nights like this that will cause the ache in my chest. He’s giving me things that I will never be able to forget.
“Killian,” I say his name softly.
His green eyes find mine in the candlelight. “Yes?”
“Thank you for being my first real date.”
He releases my hand, moving it to my face, before pulling me gently across the table while leaning in. His lips are soft, sweet, and tender. I catalog every second, the way it feels. The warmth of his lips, the callus on his thumb that grazes my cheek just a little, the smell of his cologne—a little leather, a little woodsy, and a note of musk. All of it is him. All of it I will hold on to.
Too soon, he pulls away, his hand still resting on my cheek. “Thank-you for being the one who came to Ember Falls.”
Marge clears her throat and smiles knowingly as she places our first course down, and I do whatever I can to focus on the food and not on the man who is taking my heart bit by bit.
