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“Hey, Liza. It’s Ty.” The sound of his voice provided a bit of comfort, and I breathed a quick little sigh. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
Since leaving Cecily’s, my time had gotten so much better. “Nope, I just finished up at a client’s house.” I shook my head. “Well, ex-client.”
“Oh.” Ty laughed. “That sounds interesting. Care to share?”
“Umm, no. I’d rather not give that person another second of my brain power today.” I didn’t want to talk about Cecily, and I preferred to not badmouth my clients, even if they were evil little shits.
“Gotcha. Well, I just wanted to tell you that you’ve been on my mind all day, so I thought I’d call and see how your day was going.”
It was very sweet. My heart tingled. “Except for dropping a client, it’s been fairly uneventful. I have a lot of other clients to visit, though. It’s a full day. How about you?”
“I’m pretty busy myself. I plan on visiting most of our businesses to make sure everything’s running smoothly.”
“Sounds exciting.” It absolutely did not.
Ty laughed. “No, not in the slightest. Let’s not talk about work, though. Maybe we should talk about more important things.”
Oh, crap. What was he referring to? “Like what?”
“How about you tell me your favorite sport?” I could tell in his voice that he was smiling. He thought he’d found a stumper of a question.
“My favorite sport?” I giggled. “I was expecting something much deeper.”
“I’d really like to get to know you, and that means everything. Favorite color, favorite band, favorite everything. But if you’d prefer a deeper, more philosophical question, I can do that, too.” He chuckled, and every cell in my body flared to life. That was a sound I wanted to hear again… And again. And again.
He was flirting, and I wasn’t mad about it. On the contrary, I wanted the questions and the laughs to keep coming.
“No, that won’t be necessary. We can do this. My favorite sport is baseball. Well, softball, really.” Once upon a time, I was one of the great ones and could’ve had a future in the sport. I paused to check my blind spot before merging onto the highway. “My parents started me with tee-ball when I was four, then I graduated to coach pitch softball, then kid pitch, and I continued to play throughout high school.”
“Really? I would’ve never imagined you playing softball.” For a second, I wondered what he could imagine me doing, but I was too shy to ask.
I stayed on topic instead. “Why is that?”
“Well, you just seem like more of an indoor kind of person. You know, like cooking or baking. Maybe reading.” His laugh sent flames of heat to my cheeks.
Why did the sound of his voice almost send me into convulsions?
“Maybe so,” I admitted, my own smile sliding across my mouth, making my voice thinner and lighter. “I do love to cook, though that’s not my only hobby.”
“What else do you like to do?”
I thought for a moment. I didn’t have a lot of time for other things since I started the catering business, but I had fond memories of hobbies I’d once enjoyed. “Well, I like hiking and camping, and I’m an avid reader. Oh, and I love to travel.”
“Ah, that’s all right up my alley. What kind of books do you read?” he asked, and I could have fallen right then for the amount of enthusiasm in his tone.
“Just about anything, but mostly non-fiction. I like reading about different cultures and exploring new places through books.” I’d read about every continent and had a list of places I wanted to see, things I wanted to do. “Although, I do love a good edge-of-my-seat thriller.”
“That’s cool. I’m a fan of the classics myself, so you’ll have to share some of your favorite reads with me sometime.” As fated mates, I should’ve expected that we would talk about the future, but it still made my pulse quicken when he did, and right now, it was off to the races.
“I’d be happy to.” Another surge of something, maybe contentment, shot through me. It was still hard to believe this was all happening. I didn’t want it to end.
Was I really feeling a rush of adrenaline from the idea of recommending books to him?
I pulled into my next client’s driveway and switched the call to my headset. These were clients who were at work and school, so I always let myself in and prepped their meals before they returned home in the afternoon. It was one of my easiest jobs.
Ty and I continued to talk for the next hour while I chopped vegetables and whipped up a large pot of stew.
Eventually, though, Ty sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to go, but I have to pop into a business meeting. I’ll call you later before you go to bed… if that’s all right with you?” I had a feeling that a man like Ty wasn’t used to asking permission, and that he was taking such care to make sure he didn’t overstep the boundaries made me like him more.
