As if he could sense my presence, he turned around and saw me watching him through the door and gave me that broad, dimpled grin of his. Holy heaven, he was one beautiful man. I finally exhaled.
My dad always told Anna and me that you could tell a lot about a man from his eyes. I couldn’t put into words what made a man’s eyes kind, dishonest, deep or uncomplicated, but when you looked into them, you just knew. It was a gut feeling. Right now, Ryan’s blue eyes looked a thousand leagues deep and they were pulling me in. They were warm and calming and gazing at me with frank appreciation.
“You look beautiful, Julia,” he said admiringly.
I blushed again. “Thank you. You clean up pretty well yourself.”
Ryan reached out his hand and took mine, holding it warmly as we walked to the restaurant.
“So, I need to warn you about Anna,” I said, breaking the enjoyable silence of walking hand in hand.
“God, do I need to sit down?” he joked dramatically, making me laugh.
“She’s … well, she can just sometimes be over the top. I think this particular occasion might be one of those times.”
“Consider me warned. I think I can handle her,” he said confidently.
“We’ll see about that,” I mumbled.
We were going to a restaurant called Crowe, which I’d heard was owned by the same people as Betty’s. I always thought it was the oddest name for a restaurant, but that didn’t seem to deter the patrons.
I saw Anna and Ethan walking down the street toward us from the opposite direction as we neared the restaurant. Anna was bouncing up and down in her heels as she rushed to greet us, not taking her eyes off of Ryan. Ethan trailed a few steps behind her, as usual. Ryan looked to me with an amused I’m glad you warned me now grin.
I took a deep breath. Here we go.
We ordered a bottle of red wine as soon as we were seated. When the server returned in a few minutes to present us the bottle, I noticed Dexter coming in through the front door. His timing was always impeccable.
Dexter had dark brown hair that was almost black and matching dark eyes. He was average height, I guess, and thin, but where he lacked in size and stature, he more than made up for in charm and personality. He was that guy at a party that was always attracting people to him with his great exuberance and witty storytelling. He was always fashionably hip, like he was tonight—fitted designer jeans, white button down shirt, blue and white striped summer blazer. He even had a blue and pink polka-dotted handkerchief sticking out just barely from his front pocket and white Converse shoes to finish the look. I loved it. It was so Dexter.
He saw us from the door and sauntered over to our table. “Hi, beautiful! You are just glowing, Julia!” he gushed. “Something is agreeing with you these days.” He kissed me on the cheek before moving on to greet Anna and Ethan, hugging and kissing each of them, too. I loved Europeans and Dexter was essentially one of them after having lived there for the last decade.
I introduced him to Ryan. When he thought Ryan wasn’t looking, Dexter gave me the hmm … curious, where is Andrew? I know better than to ask look. I just planted a smile on my face, knowing Dexter would eventually figure it out. He was seriously one of my most favorite people in the world. Dexter’s smile, warmth and exuberant spirit could always lift me out of my worst funk. And he had the best laugh, strong and memorable, and the honesty of it caressed you like a welcome breeze on a warm summer day, making you smile right along with him. I was tickled pink that he was able to join us tonight and meet Ryan.
“Dexter, what brings you into town?” Anna asked as soon as he sat.
“Oh, just traveling for work again. And since I was in the country, I thought I’d stop over and say hi to my folks for the weekend. It’s a really short trip. I just got into town last night and I’m heading back to London in the morning.” He looked at his watch. “In about eleven hours, actually …” This was pretty typical of Dexter’s visits home.
“How’s Jamie?” I asked.
“Good, good. He’s Jamie.”
Anna and I both giggled and Dexter rolled his eyes, though talking about Jamie still made his eyes twinkle.
He filled us in on what he called the longest remodeling project ever. About a year ago, Dexter and Jamie purchased their first home, a total fixer upper in need of a major makeover. They’ve been working on fixing it up since then and Dexter regaled us with their latest home remodeling disasters; mainly Jamie’s inability to make progress while Dexter worked. Dexter did business development for a major international hotel chain and he found it difficult to find the time to do both a remodel and work full time. Dexter had always been such a great storyteller and conversationalist, and tonight he didn’t disappoint as he elaborated on the trials and tribulations of home remodeling. We all laughed and joked good-naturedly at Jamie’s expense.