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Slowly, easily, a silence fell over us. I almost didn’t want to break it, seeing it as good practice for us becoming comfortable with each other, but in reality, it was more her that needed to adjust. I knew I would be fine with all of this, as long as I knew enough about her. Being around women was second nature to me.
“Shall we have the first date tonight, then?” I asked.
“Tonight?” Her eyes blew wide as if I was springing this on her without warning, as if we hadn’t just agreed to spend time together up until the wedding. “I’ll need to call the caregiver and see if she can stay late.”
“That’s fine. Pay her extra. I’ll get payroll to send you another advance.”
Unblinking, she stared at me as if in awe. As if she didn’t believe me. “You sure?”
“Yes,” I grinned. “Now go call her then get to work, Ray. You’ve got a lot of scheduling to do.”
————
“How are you not hungry? It’s six o’clock.”
“I don’t normally eat until late,” she quipped, her jacket tucked in close around her neck as she leaned against her car. She still hadn’t gotten the window fixed. “I’m not exactly dressed for a fancy restaurant, anyway. And I’d rather not have the same issue I did last time with my car since it’s snowing.”
“Then ride with me,” I insisted. I patted on the back of my car for emphasis.
She looked between my car and her beat-up old Toyota, temptation glinting in her eyes. “I don’t like to ride with people. If something were to happen with Mom…”
I chewed on my lip, mulling it over, and nodded. “If something happens with your mom, I’ll get you where you need to go. Riding around in that thing is just asking to break down.”
She snorted. “This thing is better than nothing. Unless you want to add getting me a new car to your growing list of money you’ll be spending to keep me in this deal, this thing will have to do.”
“I’ll get you a new car if that’s what you want.” It wasn’t even a question. If she needed it, if she had to be somewhere in an emergency and she broke down in the freezing cold, she’d be fucked. I would happily dish out an extra thirty thousand.
Her laugh caught me off guard. “Very funny, Wade, but I don’t need you to buy me a new car. I’m sure I can afford to get this one fixed soon enough.”
“Then ride with me, at least.”
She leveled a gaze at me and leaned into the trunk of her car, rummaging through boxes and bags of items, pulling out a black, unbranded sports bag. “Can we go to the recreation center?”
I stared at her bag, begging it to grant me x-ray vision to see what was inside. Convince her. “We can go to the rec center for our date if you ride with me.”
Her grin widened. “Deal.”
————
The car ride had been short and awkward. Ray had spent half of it staring at the monitor she kept on her at all times, and the other half fiddling with the buttons on the main dashboard, trying to get her seat heater working and refusing my help.
This was going to be so much fun.
As it turned out, Ray’s idea of a date where we got to get to know each other was her skating laps around me on the ice rink. In truth, however, I wasn’t complaining—the look of her in those fucking leggings was enough to make my head swim, and every time she passed me, she unintentionally gave me a view I’d drop to my knees for if my right one wasn’t so screwed.
“Ray,” I called, grabbing her attention from the other side of the rink. Her caramel eyes collided with mine across the empty space as she skidded precisely to a stop. “Come here.”
Her blank stare morphed into something more daring, her lips slanting up at the edges. “You come here.”
For fuck’s sake. I hadn’t been able to peel myself from the wall yet—one of the many reasons why she’d lapped me so many times—and she knew damn well that I had little to no confidence skating across to her. Of all the extreme and winter sports, ice skating had never appealed to me. I’d only done it a handful of times, not finding a thrill in the activity. “Ray,” I growled. I dug my nails into the wall, the rented skates on my feet barely doing anything to keep me upright in comparison to her sharpened, owned ones.
“What?” she cooed, her feet gliding forward effortlessly to the center of the empty rink. “You’ve barely moved since we got on the ice. Do you need me to teach you?”
I steeled my jaw and found my balance to the best of my ability, forcing my feet to work for me like they did on skis. It couldn’t be that different and I didn’t remember it being that hard. But then again, the last time I’d been in ice skates I’d been seven years old, and I’d had one of those penguins you can push around for stability. Didn’t have a penguin now. “No more than you need skiing lessons,” I grumbled. I took a deep breath and pushed off the wall toward her.
Her answering grin as I managed to keep my balance was enough to excite me that much more. Why do I care if she’s impressed? “Good job. It’s like rollerblading if you’ve done that before. Easier to stay upright if you keep moving.”
I resisted the urge to put my arms out to either side for balance as I slowly glided past her. Didn’t need to look any more like a fool than I already did.
