Page 6 of Only Be Mine

Before Amy could interrogate me, and before John could watch me turn beet red, I tugged her toward the car.

“Cate!” she protested. “I haven’t even gone in yet!”

“Too bad,” I said. “You made me go in alone.”

She groaned. “Fine. Next time you pick.”

“You bet your ass I do.”

We’d barely made it halfway across the parking lot when…

“Cate!”

I turned to see John jogging toward us, breath visible in the cold. Amy immediately drifted toward the car.

“I’m sorry about all of that.”

“That’s okay,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Happens all the time. And your secret’s safe with me.”

“Thanks,” I managed, pulse tripping over itself. “Well… now that I’ve humiliated myself thoroughly in front of a complete stranger…”

“We’re not strangers,” he said. “I’m John. You’re Cate. Short for… Katie? Kaitlyn? Kathleen?”

“Catherine,” I said. “With a C.”

He smiled, and something inside me softened.

“Can I call you sometime?”

I shook my head. “I don’t really… do the whole dating thing.”

“How about coffee instead?” he offered. “As a thank you. For letting me break your fall.”

Amy’s car pulled up behind me.

John hesitated. “Meeting someone like this doesn’t happen every day.”

Something warm, and a little dangerous, fluttered in my chest.

“I’ll be at The Scot & Barrel tomorrow around six,” he said, stepping back. “If you show, great. If not…” He shrugged. “I’m still glad I met you.”

I slid into the car, heart pounding.

“What was that?” Amy demanded as she pulled onto the road.

“He wanted my number,” I whispered.

“And?”

“And I didn’t give it to him.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because I don’t know anything about him.”

“You didn’t know anything about Mr. Dreamy-Eyes from the bar last night…”

“That was different,” I snapped. Then softer, “And he wasn’t wearing a ring.”