After loading everything in the SUV, the kids went off in different directions, all of them at least paired up so they weren’t walking alone in this sketchy part of town. Over the past couple of hours I’d noticed groups of three or four guys wandering around the perimeter of the playground checking us out. They never approached us, so we must’ve looked nonthreatening. Or maybe too threatening, as a group.
Kiley looked around the empty parking lot. “Where’d you park, Brady?”
“At the Walker.”
“That’s five miles from here,” I said.
“Better place to leave my car.” He shrugged. “I needed to run today anyway.”
He ran five miles and then played basketball for two hours? And he wasn’t exhausted?
Obviously the man had great stamina.
Makes you wonder what kind of staying power he has during other physical activities, doesn’t it?
“No,” I said aloud.
Both Kiley and Brady stared at me.
“Sorry. Thinking about something else.”
“Well, if I drop you off at your car, can you take Lennox home?” Kiley asked Brady. “All these supplies belong to the center and I have to return them today.”
What was she doing?
“Besides, you need to know where we live before your date tonight anyway.”
“True.” Brady smiled at me and drained his bottle of water. “A ride would be great.”
I called shotgun like a fifteen-year-old boy.
Kiley was preoccupied on the drive, and I didn’t press her to talk, because chances were she couldn’t tell me anyway if it involved her kids.
Ten minutes after we left the park, we pulled into the parking lot. “Which car is yours?” she asked.
“The black BMW in the corner.”
“Sweet ride.”
“Thanks.”
“Thank you for showing up today.”
“Truly my pleasure, Kiley.” Brady exited the car.
I started to get out, but Kiley put her hand on my thigh. “If Mr. Tall, Dark and Smolderingly Sexy doesn’t demand you grab your stuff and start the date with him right away? Wear your leather skirt tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because you are smokin’ hot in that skirt and you’ll have every man in that fancy club panting after you. Oh—and pair it with that shirt. The one with the chains. Girl, you look fine in that and I never see you wear it.”
“Any suggestions on shoes?” I asked sarcastically.
“Patent leather spike-heeled pumps. And wear your hair up.” She patted my leg. “I won’t barge in tomorrow morning and demand details, just in case you’re not alone.”
“I’m not sleeping with him on the first date, Kiley. Geez.” With that, I got out of the car.
I knocked on the nearly black window on the passenger side of Brady’s car. The locking mechanism clicked and I slid inside.
The interior was gray and molded around me as if I’d strapped into a rocket ship. “Whoa.”
“Like it?”
“It’s . . . space-age. Does it go fast?”
He flashed me a boyish grin. “Oh, yeah. Scared myself the first time I floored it. But it hasn’t stopped me from doing it again and again.”
I laughed.
“What’s your address?” he asked and started poking buttons on the center console.
I gave it to him and he punched it into the GPS.
We weren’t talkative as we cruised along, and for the first time the silence between us was awkward.
“I was really surprised to see you this morning,” he said.
“More surprised than when you saw me last night?”
Brady seemed at a loss for words. He muttered something.
“What did you say?”
“Juice said he sucks at math? I suck at this.”
I frowned. “I’m not following you. You suck at what?”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Making small talk.”
“You did great with those kids today.”
“I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about this.” He gestured between us. “I won’t force you to go on a date with me, Lennox, if you’d rather not. I’ve already had one woman—although calling her that is a bit of a stretch—ditch me mid-date. Granted, it was more of a favor than a date, but I fear that maybe you’ll see this as an obligation, and that’s almost worse.”
I couldn’t have said what made me happier: Brady admitting a previous date had ditched him or that he wasn’t confident when it came to dating. Seeing that imperfection in Mr. Perfect . . . it made him even more perfect in my eyes. I set my hand on his forearm. “You’re not an obligation.”
“Good to know.”