“He’s in Prague,” Owen said with a scowl. “Which means he’s far away from me, thank God.”
“You’d be happier if you’d just forgive him for whatever he did and make up,” Chad said.
So Chad didn’t know why Owen was so angry with Kellen either. She’d figured that Owen shared every secret with his brother and now wondered if Owen had even told Caitlyn.
“Fuck that.”
“Then go play your bass,” Chad suggested. “That used to always cheer you up.”
“It reminds me of Kellen,” he said. “I’d rather rip the cabinets out of your kitchen and take a sledgehammer to a wall or two.”
“Be my guest,” Chad said, “but remember: no open concept.”
“You made your plans perfectly clear.”
To Owen perhaps, but to Lindsey he’d been entirely tight-lipped about what was going on with the house.
“You’re tearing out the kitchen?” Lindsey said.
“Nope,” Chad said. “Owen is. Are you ready? Our reservations are at seven thirty.”
“We needed reservations?” she said. “Am I underdressed?”
She’d donned her only dress for the occasion—an ankle-length turquoise shift with beadwork along the edge of the round neckline. She didn’t have many clothes. Everything she’d owned before she’d lost her job was now woefully too small. She’d lucked into some fantastic buys, including the dress she was wearing, at a new-mom’s yard sale, but the pieces weren’t really her style. She preferred shorter hem lengths and pastels.
“You look amazing,” Chad said. “And it’s not an overly fancy place, just popular. I wanted to make sure we got a table and were seated as soon as we arrived.”
So they weren’t standing around waiting, she presumed. Did he feel comfortable going to a crowded restaurant? She was honored to be his date, and happy to show him off to the world, but she knew he still had issues with the inevitable staring.
“I’m ready if you are,” she said, hoping he’d tell her if he wasn’t up for a public appearance. She’d be just as happy to stay home and order a pizza as long as he stayed to share it with her.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” He spun toward the front door, using his crutches to maneuver in that direction. She had to admit that she preferred the crutches over the wheelchair too. Not because the chair bothered her—he seemed safer in the chair—but because he seemed so much happier and more confident when he was standing. And she also got a nice view of his perfect ass as she followed him from the house.
He paused to hold the door for her, and she pulled her eyes up to meet his.
“Are you checking me out?” Chad asked.
“Guilty.”
He laughed. “I’m glad I didn’t wear the baggy shorts then.”
“Me too.”
He struggled a bit going down the porch steps on his crutches, and she had to ball both hands into fists to keep from helping him. She knew that offering assistance—which he never wanted—would annoy him and start their evening off on the wrong note.
“Stairs,” he muttered under his breath. “The bane of my existence.”
“Yet you conquered them.”
“Try not to sound so proud,” he said, maneuvering toward the black sedan parked in Owen’s driveway.
“I am proud,” she said. “You amaze me.”
“Don’t be too amazed. Sitting around feeling sorry for myself isn’t my style.”
He was far better at picking himself up and moving forward than she was. And since he’d come into her life, she’d found a new level of confidence in herself. If Chad could get through his struggles, then she could overcome her much smaller problems.
“Nice car,” she said. “Does it belong to your parents?”
He gave her a look that made her question her sanity.
“I saw it parked in their garage,” she explained why she’d thought it belonged to his folks.
“They were storing it for me while I was deployed.”
“Well, it’s nice.” She examined the sleek lines and the Starfleet-like emblem on the trunk. Beam me up, Scotty. “An Acura, right?” she asked as she followed him around to the passenger side.
“Yep, it’s a TLX.”
She’d always wondered why Acuras had letters instead of real names. It made them seem cold and lacking personality. She didn’t know a TLX from a BLT, but she did know a nice car when she saw one.
He opened the door for her, and she was greeted by a red-leather interior that made her toes curl. “Sexy,” she said, a little breathless. Compared to her twenty-year-old Toyota Celica, this thing was a Lamborghini.
He smirked at her. “Me or the car?”
She ran a hand along his jaw and stole a kiss. “Both.”
“What can I say? I’m a total babe magnet.”
There was no denying that. And he was dating her. Sleeping with her. Maybe someday he’d love her. He was so much more to her than a good lay and a thoughtful friend, but she was too damn afraid of losing him like she’d lost everyone else she cared about to tell him how she felt.
She slipped into the passenger seat, wondering exactly how much bigger her belly would get in the next six weeks. Soon she wouldn’t have a lap at all, and then where would Chad put his head when she stroked his hair to help him sleep?
“You look great in my car, angel,” he said before he shut the door.
She tried not to grin too stupidly at his flattery. It was bad enough that he made her palms sweat and her heart throb. She could hide those things. The goofy grin was a sure sign that she was completely smitten. He was just getting over a particularly cruel breakup. Hard to believe Josie
had dumped him only a month ago. Even harder to believe he’d only been in Lindsey’s life for a month. She felt like she’d known him since before she’d taken her first breath. Still, Chad probably wouldn’t appreciate his rebound pussy falling for him, and no matter how good he was to her, she knew it was unlikely that he’d get truly serious about the first woman he’d been with after such a terrible breakup. He and Josie had been together almost ten years, even if they hadn’t touched each other for more than a few days in the last six.
Lindsey took a deep breath and tried to locate her poker face before he climbed behind the wheel. After he opened the driver’s side door, he stuck his crutches in the back and slipped into the car beside her. She couldn’t help but notice his grin was almost as goofy as the one she sported whenever he was near and that his car had an automatic transmission.
“I’m glad I got up the nerve to ask you out,” he said, using both hands to shift himself into a more comfortable position in his seat.
The nerve to ask her out? The man had more nerve than an entire bomb squad, and it wasn’t like she had dozens of men begging for dates.
“I’m glad too,” she said. “Why did you wait until now to start driving your car again?”
“My parents put it in the shop,” he said. “To have the pedals adjusted to the left. Just got it back today.”
“So you can drive it with your left foot!” She wasn’t sure why that was such an amazing revelation for her. “Your parents are so great.”
“Yeah,” he said with a smile, “they are. I have something important to ask you later. Don’t let me chicken out.”
“Something important?” Her mind raced through possibilities.
“Not marriage or anything.”
She swallowed. That was a possibility she hadn’t even considered until he mentioned it. Was he thinking about marriage? With her?
“At least not yet,” he added, starting the car.
Yet? Surely, he wasn’t thinking of her as wife material. She was knocked up with some other guy’s baby, and she didn’t even know for sure who that guy was. Jacob’s sample had been sent off for testing, but the results were still days away. And she wasn’t sure whether Madison had talked Adam into getting tested or not. She hadn’t heard a word from either of them.