“Thank you,” she murmured, and there was that adorable blush again.
Turning away from the workers that seemed to be laughing and joking with each other while they wrapped box after box, he looked down into her pretty blue eyes. “Have dinner with me tonight,” he commanded, watching her carefully. If she wasn’t interested, he’d walk away and get her out of his mind. But if there was even the smallest possibility…
Her fingers moved from her back pockets to her front pockets, then back again nervously. “Dinner?”
Bingo, he thought. She felt it too. She wanted him, but was probably too nervous to admit it. He’d take it slowly, ease her into a relationship. He wasn’t here for the long haul, but there was no reason they couldn’t have a steamy affair, warm up the cold, winter months a bit, and enjoy each other’s company.
He smiled slightly when her fingers slipped into her belt loops. The pockets must not be working well enough for her, he thought with amusement. “It’s the last meal of the day,” he teased. “Usually has meat, a salad. A good bottle of wine.”
Violet laughed and looked down at her shoes again. “It sounds lovely,” she told him, then lifted her head, smiling up at him. “I’d love it.”
“Tonight? Seven o’clock?”
She nodded her head. “Where should I meet you?”
He tried to hide his surprise at that question. “I’ll pick you up,” he told her, angry for some reason that her previous dates obviously hadn’t treated her with the respect she deserved. A lady should be picked up at her door, damn it! No way was she going to drive to whatever restaurant and meet him there. Hell no!
“Seven o’clock,” she repeated, nodding her head.
“I’ll see you then,” he told her, and touched her arm lightly. He wanted to bend down and kiss her, feel her soft lips and taste her honey, but he suspected that would be moving too fast. But he had to touch her, even briefly. He needed some contact with this woman. The light touch on her arm, and then he pulled back, was all he would allow himself.
For now.
He walked out of the shop, picked up his motorcycle helmet and leather gloves, put both on and then threw his leg over the bike. With one last look inside the shop, he nodded to her before he flipped the visor down on his helmet. With a swift kick to the starter, he sped off down the street, eagerly anticipating a night with a beautiful woman.
Thirty minutes later, he walked into The Rotten Apple, unaware of the way the other two men were watching him curiously.
“What’s up with you?” Tucker asked as he leaned back in the wooden chair.
Saeger Rollins smirked. “He found a new woman.”
Tucker chuckled. “A woman isn’t cause for that kind of spring in his step.”
Saeger shrugged his shoulder. “He must have found his little butterfly from the other night.”
Knox would have added his two cents into the fray, but he was out of the country on business, checking out another company he might invest in.
Creek sat down across from his two friends, ignoring the ribbing and opened his computer. “You’re both idiots,” he told them, and started typing something into his laptop.
“So what’s her name?” Tucker asked, leaning forward with a wicked glint in his eye.
“None of your business,” he told them. “Isn’t your stock up? Shouldn’t you be worrying about why that’s happening and not focusing on my love life?”
“His stock is up because he released that new fertilizer,” Saeger interjected, then leaned forward. “So this is love?” he asked, ignoring his friend’s dangerous glare.
“Back off,” Creek growled.
Both men laughed even as Sarah placed a glass of iced tea in front of each of them. “I thought you boys were off to the slopes this morning,” she asked. Sarah was the afternoon waitress that pretended to be the town mother, especially to the four men who pretended they were above all of her mothering.
She saw through all the gruffness of these men and loved them anyway. They’d come into this town, one by one over the past five or six years and had brought jobs and wealth to the area. Just building each of their houses had employed every person in the town who wanted a job. The Rotten Apple employed several of the others and the food served in the place was excellent and could be purchased for crazy low prices. The liquor was top shelf even though most of the people who came in ordered the beer. Locals knew the prices while annoying tourists received a different rate for their requests. All because of these four men.
“Creek’s found himself a woman!” Saeger teased, earning him another dark look, which he continued to ignore.