She leaned across the table, her eyes sparkling in the dim light accented by a flickering candle. “Isn’t this place gorgeous?”
“Mmm.” When she frowned at his noncommittal answer, he mustered up a smile. He owed her a good time. “It is.”
Then he was handed a wine list that amounted to a bunch of words that meant nothing to him. He scanned it and his first instinct was to just pick one, but he wasn’t sure how to pronounce anything on the list.
“I’d really prefer coffee,” he told the waiter. Then he handed the list to Hailey. “You can pick one for yourself, if you want.”
“I’ll have coffee, too. And water.” When the waiter left, she grinned at him. “I guess you don’t speak French?”
He knew she was teasing, but he was feeling a little out of his element and it threw him off. “Just a few words I picked up during a trip to Montreal my junior year of college. Probably nothing you’d want me to say in here.”
“Probably not. What are you going to eat?” She was looking at the menu, so he did the same.
“I’m guessing shepherd’s pie isn’t an option.”
She laughed. “Even if it was, it wouldn’t be as good as mine.”
“Since I like simple, home-cooked meals, I’m betting nothing on this menu will be as good.”
He heard her sigh even over the classical music being piped in through well-hidden speakers. He was disappointing her already. “They have steak, Matt. I know you like steak.”
Of course it wasn’t as simple as ordering a steak. They didn’t have mashed potatoes and he didn’t catch half of what the guy said, so he ended up going with a baked potato. And the vegetables couldn’t be plain. There were a number of options, none of which he was familiar with. He just said that one when he got bored.
Once the annoying guy with the snotty attitude went away, he tried to focus on Hailey. She looked so pretty, especially in the romantic lighting, and he tried to relax. It was a restaurant. With food. Who cared if he wasn’t wearing a tie?
“The music’s a little loud,” she said. “I feel like I need to yell at you across the table.”
“Could use a little more country and a little less of this, too. Whatever this is.”
“I think this particular one is Rachmaninoff.” She smiled at him. “Definitely not something I could dance to in my kitchen.”
Or in her living room. He’d gladly watch her dance to almost anything, he thought. “Happily, I don’t see a dance floor.”
“We can go dancing another time.”
And so it began. Dinner. Dancing. Before he knew it, she’d be dragging him to fancy functions and making apologies for him in embarrassed whispers. “We’ll see.”
The waiter brought a salad for each of them, along with a decanter of some oily substance that didn’t remotely resemble ranch dressing. And how many different kinds of lettuce could they find for one plate?
“Thanks,” he said brusquely when the man appeared to be waiting for a response from him.
“Your entrees should be out shortly.”
Hailey was watching him as he dumped some of the oily stuff on his bowl of lettuces, and her mouth quirked up in a grin. “I thought he was waiting to see if you knew which fork to use.”
Because everybody knew he wasn’t good enough to eat in a place like this. “Maybe I’ll exceed everybody’s expectations and eat with my hands.”
She set her fork down. “You know, this whole laughing with you, not at you thing would work better if you actually laughed.”
“I laugh when something’s funny.”
The look she gave him should have incinerated him on the spot, and it only went downhill from there.
He didn’t want to be there and she knew it. And the harder he tried to shake it off and the more guilty he felt, the worse he got. By the time they were done with their entrees, she wasn’t really speaking to him, and she didn’t even consider dessert.
Maybe, subconsciously, he’d been a jerk and taken offense to torpedo the evening deliberately. Her walking away from him now would suck, but maybe it wouldn’t be as painful as ending things with Ciara. But when he looked across the table after paying the bill, he didn’t see disapproval or embarrassment in Hailey’s eyes. He saw hurt.
He’d never been so happy to finish a meal in his entire life, but an hour was a long time to drive with a cold shoulder riding shotgun.
BY THE TIME Matt parked the car in her driveway and turned it off, Hailey had had just about enough of his attitude. When he pulled the keys out of the ignition, she held out her hand, saying nothing, until he dropped them into her palm. Then she pulled her clutch bag out of the door pocket.
“Thanks. It was ever so fun.” She opened her door and started to get out, but he grabbed her arm.
“Hailey, let’s talk about this.”
“Oh, now you want to talk to me? Really? You’ve been a jerk all night.”
“We could have just gone to the diner.” She jerked her arm away and got out of the car. He did the same, then faced off with her over the roof of the car. “You’re the one who pushed to go to a bistro.”
“I got up at the ass crack of dawn to watch the moose. I went four-wheeling with you. I’m sorry you weren’t willing to sit through one dinner in a nice restaurant for me.”
“It was dumb to get all dressed up and drive two hours for a meal.”
“I’ve met your family, so I know you weren’t raised by wolves.” Anger burned through her, further ruining what should have been a lovely night. “You’re perfectly capable of being an adult, including compromising like grown-ups do for each other.”
He pointed a finger at her, which made her want to break it. “I dated a woman just like you, once.”
“Excuse me?”
“I was good enough to sleep with and she loved how all of her friends told her how hot I was, but when things started to get real, she wanted a spiffed-up version of me. I embarrassed her.”
“I wasn’t embarrassed by you tonight, Matt. I was hurt. And I’m not carrying the baggage some other woman saddled you with.” He stared at her, his jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything. She tried not to think about how that woman must have made him feel. It had nothing to do with her. “Is that what’s happening here? Things are starting to get real?”
It took him forever to answer, every second feeling like a lifetime. “You’ve told me all along I’m not your type. Maybe I should have listened.”
“Don’t turn this all around on me. You’ve made it clear all along I’m not your type, either. And yet here we are.”
“Yeah. Here we are. With you pissed off because I didn’t like your fancy date.”
“No, I’m not pissed off that you didn’t like it. I’m pissed off that you couldn’t just enjoy being with me and let me enjoy a night out on the town, even if it wasn’t your favorite thing to do.” She backed away from the car, shaking her head. “I was right from the beginning. You’re definitely not the man for me.”
“No, I’m not. You’ve been waiting for some fairy tale prince in a fancy suit to come waltzing into Whitford and take you dancing in glass slippers. I’m no prince.”
“You’re not Prince Charming, that’s for damn sure.” She slammed her car door. “Prince Asshole, maybe.”
She started walking toward her house and, when she heard the driver’s door close, she hit the button to lock the car, but she didn’t look back.
“Hailey, wait.”
“Good night, Matt. Call me if you need me to take care of Bear. Other than that, you stay in your yard and I’ll stay in mine.”
She slammed her house door, too, just because she could. When her heels were kicked off, she walked through her house and up the stairs without turning on a light. Then she curled up in the middle of her bed, still too angry to cry.
Since the very first minute she’d laid eyes on Matt, she’d told herself he was all wrong for her. She’d known it then, and she should have listened to herself. And she definitely should have ignored her friends. And ignored him, with his big heart and sexy body and ability to touch her the way she’d craved being touched.
Her clutch was still in her hand and she pulled her phone out to pull up Tori’s number. No, I told YOU so.
A couple of minutes passed before she got a response. What happened? Do you want me to come over?
No. I’m going to bed. Just wanted you to know I was right.
I’m sorry.
She’d get over it—over him. It’s not as if she’d had big dreams of a wedding and babies and rocking chairs. They were having fun and she’d known eventually they’d stop having fun. She just hadn’t expected it to be so soon, or so painful.
The first tears filled her eyes as the anger dulled from a flare to a smoldering ember. She knew she should get up and start getting ready for bed, but the tears spilled over and kept on coming.
The daylight streaming through her window woke her up the next morning, which was good since she hadn’t turned on her alarm.
Wincing, she rolled onto her back and squinted at the ceiling. Crying herself to sleep in her makeup and a dress had been a bad idea. Almost as bad as talking Matt into taking her on a real date.