“Where are you guys going?” Tiegan asked, oblivious to the fact it wasn’t any of her business.
Juliette pressed her lips together as if trying not to either smile or laugh and looked at him briefly before turning her attention back to Tiegan. Finally, she cleared her throat. “Just to dinner and stuff. Nothing super exciting.”
“You guys should go to Adventure Park. I went to a birthday party there for my friend Jasmine. They have indoor skydiving and surfing in a gigantic wave pool. It’s so much fun. I don’t remember where it was, but I can ask Mom. She drove me there.”
While indoor skydiving or even surfing might be a blast, it didn’t strike him as a great place for a first date. And although they’d spent considerable time together, tonight was their first date.
“It sounds like a great place, and I love surfing. Maybe your uncle and I can go some other time.”
“You know how to surf?” Tiegan’s eyes grew wide, and her voice went up a notch. “I so want to try it. It looked like so much fun.”
Juliette nodded. “I think you’d love it. If it’s okay with your mom, the two of us can go to Adventure Park and do it together.”
For the umpteenth time since Saturday, his conscience took the opportunity to point out he’d unfairly judged Juliette before getting to know her.
“Mom, did you hear Juliette?” Tiegan asked when she spotted Candace headed toward them. “Can she take me?”
“I did. And we’ll discuss it later. For now, I need you to set the table for dinner. And don’t forget napkins this time.” She walked past him and hugged Juliette. He’d never understood why so many women insisted on greeting each other that way. “Thank you for taking my brother off my hands tonight, Juliette. I owe you one.”
The laugh she’d been holding in during her conversation with Tiegan escaped. “Consider it repayment for the baking lessons. Does he have a curfew I need to keep in mind?”
Candace seemed to consider the question before she answered. “No, but he has to work tomorrow, so don’t keep him out too late. And if he doesn’t behave himself, let me know.”
“I’ll try to get him home before midnight,” Juliette promised, taking his hand and opening the door at the same time. Juliette led him outside, but once the door stood between them and the house’s occupants, she turned to face. “I missed you today.” An easy smile played at the corners of her mouth as she put her arms over his shoulders.
Her breasts brushed against his chest first, and all the blood in his body started its descent south. Before he could do one of the many things he’d been thinking about all day, she pressed a featherlight kiss against his mouth. As they stood there, he wondered how she’d react if he suggested they spend the next several hours at her cottage instead of doing whatever she had planned.
Pulling her lips away, she allowed her hands to slowly slip from his shoulders and across his chest before falling back to her sides. “We should go.”
Somehow his brain strung some words together. Exactly how, he had no idea. “Do you want me to drive tonight?” He knew the area, she didn’t, and regardless of where she intended to take him, he could get there without the use of GPS.
“Nope. I’ve got it.”
He’d hoped she’d hand over her car keys and ask him to drive. Even as a kid, he’d had a thing for cars, and he’d love a chance to drive Juliette’s Porsche. But he didn’t argue as he followed her to the plum-colored vehicle. He’d never seen a Porsche or any other car painted that color. If her car had a custom paint job, he wondered what other extras it might have under the hood.
Juliette looked at the shoes on the counter. She’d worn some ugly footwear on various photoshoots, but the footwear the bowling alley employee had just set down elevated the word to a whole new level. Whoever had designed them needed to have their eyesight checked.
Aaron accepted his pair of shoes with no hesitation and thanked the employee. “Something wrong?”
Yep, I’m wondering if we should have gone someplace else.
Like she’d planned, they’d eaten dinner at the Stomping Ground, a restaurant in Ashford right on the lake. If anyone recognized her, they left her alone and went about their business. Aaron hadn’t been so lucky. First, their waitress, a woman who looked old enough to be Juliette’s mom, recognized Aaron and spent time inquiring about how he’d been, as well as his sisters. Once she left, he’d shared the woman had been his and Candace’s eighth grade math teacher and that he’d heard she worked at the restaurant to keep herself busy since retiring. Later, while they’d been enjoying dessert, his friend Hunter and his wife sat down at the table next to them. It hadn’t escaped her that when Aaron made introductions, he didn’t mention her last name, where she was from, or how they’d met.
“Nope.” She picked up her shoes and promised her feet a pedicure soon to make up for forcing them to wear footwear that was sure to be as uncomfortable as it was ugly.
Although a Tuesday night, many of the lanes were already being used, and they walked toward the far end of the building. “The last time I bowled, I was with my nephew, Mason. That had to be more than a year ago, but I think we spent more time in the arcade that day than we did out here bowling,” Aaron said.
The
y’d passed the noisy arcade when they’d walked inside. She’d never been big into video games, but for someone who enjoyed them, the room they’d passed would be like heaven.
“This is my first time.”
Aaron stopped at an empty lane. “You’ve never been bowling?”
Shaking her head, she sat down so she could change her shoes.
“Let me get this right. You’ve been surfing but not bowling?” Sitting down next to her, Aaron untied his shoes.