“My apologies,” he said in his gorgeously accented English. “I am not usually so prompt, but Mrs. Wheeler said prompt is better here.”
The apology amused me, I gotta admit. “Prompt is fine,” I said, pulling the door wide to let him in. Tall—maybe not as tall as my guys, but tall enough I had to look up—with rich, chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair with a natural curly wave that made me think of the word tousled. His tousled hair was gorgeous. “And I should have mentioned…I have cats.”
“Oui?” He smiled, and the strength of it just lit his whole face up. “I love cats.”
“Whew.” Once he was inside, I closed the door and he held up a canvas bag.
“I brought supper and some iced tea. It’s actually quite good. I will admit, however, the penchant for drinking cold tea must be uniquely American.”
Chuckling, I led him to the kitchen. Now that he was there, I didn’t really care that my hair was still damp or that I’d just got off work. “It gets pretty hot here, so cold drinks are better. I, myself, love iced coffee.”
“I shall have to try that. I am working on eating only American foods and tex-mex while I am here.”
I made a face at the Tex-Mex comment, I couldn’t help it. Texas had alotof Tex-Mex and sometimes I got tired of it.
“You don’t like the food?” He removed the Tupperware containers. They were much larger than I expected. In fact, they looked like fully served meals rather than leftovers.
“I like Tex-Mex fine. I’ve had Spanish tapas before and those are good and tacos, fajitas and enchiladas—they are all great. But I eat it all the time so it’s not…”
“It’s common, not as appealing,” he finished for me.
I popped open the lids and then set the first one in the nuke with the lid resting on top and started it warming the food before getting down a couple of plates. “More or less. Where I work, we serve burgers all the time.”
“Those were very good,” he complimented me in all seriousness. The sincerity in his tone made me grin. Okay, my face was going to end up aching at this rate.
“I’m glad. Next time you come in, try the bacon cheeseburger. The applewood smoked bacon is pretty good.” We sold a lot of them.
“I shall.” He glanced around our kitchen and then at me. When the food came out of the nuke, he took over serving it onto a plate as I got the second one going. “I am… a little nervous about tonight,” he admitted.
Surprised, I stared at him before I turned the nuke back on to get the food heated. “Why?” I mean, I was definitely nervous. A real date—okay a real pseudo-date, he might not think it was a date. I did.
“You are very beautiful,” he told me, his eyes gentling. He kept stealing glances at me as he got the now steaming food onto a plate.
Warmth scalded my cheeks, so I shifted to get him some silverware.
“You are very popular with the boys—you have boyfriends? Yes?”
Boyfriends? As in plural? “I…”
“This is fine,” he hurried on to add. “I find competition healthy, but I was uncertain that you would accept my invitation… At first it was just about getting a chance to know you. But the more I have seen you this week, the more I see why your boyfriends are so protective.”
“Are you talking about Coop and the guys?”
“The tall blond one who walks with you to lunch?”
“That’s Coop.” The microwave beeped, and I jumped a little. He carried his plate over to the table and set it down, then returned to serve the food out of the second container onto a plate for me. “They’re…”
“Protective. I have noticed. I thought to ask you to eat at lunch, but they are always there.”
The observation made me uneasy and nerves fluttered in my stomach. “This is probably better.” I motioned to my kitchen. “We’ll have more time.”
“Yes, and we can work on the dessert.”
The dessert. Yep. That was what we were going to work on. I got out some glasses and then we sat down with our respective meals. Instead of sitting opposite me, Mathieu moved his chair so that we could sit closer. It was a little weird, but not uncomfortable.
“Thank you for dinner,” I said, lifting the iced tea glass. He touched his glass to mine.
“This would be a better toast with wine.”