pants.
He reached for the doorbell only to
see the door open before he'd pressed it. She must have been waiting for him.
"Wow." He stepped back and
stared.
"Well, thank you." She
smiled.
"You look…God, you look
amazing." Nerves swamped him as he absorbed the vision of her in something
soft and lacy. It fit her like a glove and took his breath away because it was
so different to what he'd come to think of as her "look".
She waited, and then finally cleared
her throat. "Uh…are we going? Is everything okay?"
He gulped. "Sorry. You look so
incredible I just…well, anyway…" He gave up and shrugged. "Car's out
front."
She didn't seem to mind him opening
the door for her, which he liked. And when he slipped in behind the wheel, he
couldn't help but look at her long legs neatly crossed beside him. She had
really nice legs. Really, really nice legs.
The dashboard illuminated her
features as he turned the key. He caught her movement in his peripheral vision
and shot her a quick look. "Is it too cold in here? You want the heater
turned on?"
Casey smiled. "No, I'm
fine".
"I have to agree with you
there." He couldn't resist the flirtatious comeback.
"So where are we going?"
The silence built for a moment.
"MacDunnald's." He waited for the inevitable response.
She didn't disappoint him.
"Really? You're serious ? McDonalds?"
"Yep. So just sit back and
enjoy the ride."
She shrugged. "Well fine. But
no stealing my French fries."
Chapter Four
"I told you this was a nice
place."
Casey shook her head and sighed.
They were seated by a window looking out over the darkening street in a very
pleasant downtown restaurant and yes, he'd caught her fair and square with his
little play on names.
She'd laughed, punched him in the
arm and told him it wasn't fair to pull crap like that before dinner.
Especially since they had her favorite steak tips on the menu and she was able
to add a fully loaded baked potato to complete her evening's indulgences.
They sat over drinks, waiting for
their entrees and both gazing at the lights which began to come on as the sun
set outside.
"This is nice." Casey
looked across the table.
"I'm glad you think so. I've
been here a couple of times, but never with a date. It's casual but the
ambience is a little more romantic than some of the more formal places."
She toyed with the stem of her
glass. "Is this a date? I thought it was a payoff."
"Did you? Really ?"
She couldn't quite meet his gaze and
turned to look out the window once more. "Okay. That was low. If it had
been a payoff, I wouldn't be here. Yes, I'm grateful as hell you caught my
screw-up, but I would never go to dinner with anyone out of gratitude."
He blew out a little breath.
"Good to know."
"Still doesn't make it a date
though." She held up a cautionary finger. "There are implications in
the word date . I'm not sure those implications apply here."
"Implications?" He raised
an eyebrow.
She paused. Yes, for her there were
implications. A date meant being with someone who could potentially be
important. Someone who one might get naked with—not a trivial consideration.
And beside the sex, someone who
might matter more than others.
Someone who might end up not being
there any more through no fault of their own.
Casey knew this was grief talking.
She was aware of her irrational fears and determined to overcome them. But
something was telling her this nice man with his gentle humor and bedroom eyes
might be all of those things she'd just listed to herself.
And she was definitely still scared.
So she met his gaze squarely. "Yeah. Implications."
"I like implications. Wanna get
naked and discuss them in depth?"
Her shout of laughter rang out over
the trays of fragrant food the waiter was placing in front of them.
Okay. Memo to self. This guy is
definitely not predictable .
Phil mentally gave himself a high
five as she continued to chuckle.
At the back of his mind lurked the
suspicion that in spite of her protests she was only