Still shaking her head, she started her car and put it in gear.
Nick was the most impossible man she’d ever met. So what would she do with him? Forever.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Chester loves Julie ten times more than bananas. But did she love him back?”
Chester Gets His Favorite Thing
Nick waited at a table in the rear of the warm restaurant, his back to the wall, watching and praying Shelby wouldn’t stand him up. It was seven o’clock. One of Shelby’s rules of dating was never be late. But he didn’t care, as long as she showed.
At five minutes after seven the doors swung open and a group of six big men crowded in along with a gust of cool air from outside. They mingled up front while waiting to be seated. He craned his neck, searching and hoping she slipped in behind them. But no sign of her.
Shelby being late wasn’t good. He should’ve told her he loved her again. Why had he forgotten that part? And all the other stuff he’d planned to say?
He could text her to be sure she was coming, but then she’d be mad at him for using his phone instead of pretending to wait for that magical-moment thing she said was supposed to happen when they first see each other. He couldn’t afford to make her any angrier.
Five minutes later, another rush of cold air swirled in, but the people gathered up front still stood in the way. He couldn’t see who had entered.
Shelby suddenly appeared, slipping between two of the waiting men, and then swiveled her head, searching for him.
She’d come.
He swiped his napkin from his lap and stood so she could see him. When their eyes met she smiled. He felt the impact like a hot laser pulse to his gut. So it was real after all? Did she feel it too?
Shelby weaved through the tables, making her way toward him as she unbuttoned her coat. She had on the same outfit she’d worn the first time they’d met. That had to be a good sign, right? Like a do-over?
He’d be sure to mention it. Showing he paid attention. Or was it a bad thing to point out an outfit a woman wore twice? Dammit. Maybe he should just keep his yap shut about it and pretend they’d never met? He’d asked her for a clean slate, after all.
He pulled out her chair. “Hi, I’m Nick. Shelby described you perfectly. I’d know you anywhere, Summer.”
She lay her tiny purse on the empty seat beside her. “Nice opening. You get a point for that.”
Relief washed through him. Maybe she was going to give him another chance.
He took her coat and lay it by her purse, then helped her get settled. Wiping his sweaty palms on his slacks, he took his place across from her. “Thanks for coming. I was afraid you’d changed your mind.”
“Changed my mind? That would imply you actually gave me a choice. Which you didn’t. You just told me to be here. So, I was sitting in the car debating. Then I got hungry. I hear the lasagna is good here.”
“Sorry. I was afraid you’d say no if I gave you a choice.” Panic took root in his gut again. Maybe she wasn’t taking him back? He’d better step up his game. Shelby’s dating handbook said to ask probing questions and show interest in the answer. “So, what do you do for a living, Summer?”
As Shelby stared into his eyes, as if deciding if she wanted to play along with the clean-slate game, his heart nearly stopped beating.
Then that mischievous grin he loved so much formed. “Well, I recently made a big life change. Like our pal Lisa, I felt stifled in my job as a writer, so I decided to compete with her and started an online shop. We sell spooky crystals and have a large selection of voodoo dolls. Along with all the ingredients you’d need for any spell you’d like to conjure.”
“Is that so?” He laughed and leaned closer. “Know any good love spells?”
“I might be willing to brew one up . . . for you.” Shelby closed the distance between them and gave him a soft kiss. “But if you screw up again, watch out. I have a voodoo doll with your name on it, pal. I’d keep the monkey suit too, if I were you.”
***
A few months later . . .
Shelby leaned closer to the bathroom mirror as she swiped on mascara. Nick’s voice from downstairs bellowed, “Dammit, Shelby. We’re late!”
She yelled back, “Haven’t you learned by now that screaming at me doesn’t make me go any faster?” She got back to business and applied liner. She was behind because she’d torn the bathroom apart looking for her birth control pills. She couldn’t imagine how she’d misplaced them. They always sat in the same place on her side of Nick’s enormous granite counter top in their bathroom.
The next thing she knew, she was upside down and over Nick’s big shoulder. “Time’s up. You can finish in the car.”