“Then why has your smile turned to a frown?”
“I’m still afraid to lose myself in a relationship. The last time really hurt. I don’t think I can survive if it happens again.”
“It won’t. You need to be positive about this.”
“I know. You’re right, Aunt Doll. I need to move on.”
“Good. Then let’s see what you’re going to wear tonight.”
I had most of the afternoon alone. Toby had volunteered to take my aunt to the lottie for a few hours, then he was cooking her dinner. I offered to swing by after my date and pick her up. As much as I loved being physical with Luke, I still needed to process what had happened. This way, I had an excuse not to stay the night with him.
I’d pulled up at Luke’s door about ten minutes early and swallowed down my nerves. This was stupid. How could I be nervous after what we’d shared the night before? And yet, the anxiety was there. For a couple of minutes, I sat and did breathing exercises. After I’d calmed, I got out of the car. My foot had somehow got caught up in my seatbelt. Shit, I was going to hit the pavement. But before that happened, a pair of strong arms reached down to grab me.
“I’ve never had a woman fall at my feet before, but I like it.”
Looking up, I saw gorgeous green eyes gazing down at me. For a moment, I was mesmerised by them. He really was handsome.
Luke helped me to my feet. He pulled me into his chest, and I rested my head, listening to the comforting beat of his heart. After regaining my composure, I went up on tiptoe and kissed his lips chastely.
“You shouldn’t be so hot to look at then, should you? Mind you, I think I can blame the seatbelt for this, not you.”
He placed his hands over his heart, feigning hurt. “I’m crushed.”
Once in the car, I started the engine. “So, where are we going?”
“Do you have SatNav?”
“Do I have SatNav? Hey, you’re talking to the queen of tech here. No self-respecting geek would ever leave their home without one.”
I indicated to it, Luke punched in a postcode, and then we were on our way. We went through the town and out onto country roads that I didn’t recognise.
“I’ve never been to this side of town before.”
“There are some great country pubs out this way. Great food and great places to sit and talk without loud music in the background. Don’t get me wrong, I love my music, but tonight is about us getting to know each other.”
“Sounds good to me.” I smiled and focused on where the SatNav directed me.
We ended up at a pretty country pub. It had a duck pond at the front, with lots of mature trees and shrubs. We went in through the back entrance. The garden there was massive, with picnic tables, an outdoor barbecue, a pizza oven, and a kids’ play area at the very bottom. The pub had a thatched roof. Inside, there were all the old beams, with quirky, old-fashioned antiques and paintings adorning the walls. Once we had our drinks, we sat in a secluded corner of the smaller bar area.
“I love it in here. Shame we’re not eating. The meals on the specials board sound delish,” I remarked.
“The food is good. We’ll have to eat here sometime.”
I agreed with him.
“So,” he said, holding my hand. “Where do you want to start? What happened to you to make you so wary around people?”
I closed my eyes and replayed the memory over and over. It made me shudder. A slight squeeze on my hand brought me back from that place.
“I met Nigel at a games convention. He was the type I usually went for. Super nerdy and super smart at the same time. We hit it off and began dating. We’d been together a couple of years and I thought everything was going great.”
“What changed?”
I laughed without humour. “I was invited to give a presentation about evaluating new games and consoles. It was at a huge conference in the US. A pretty big deal for me. I thought Nigel would be happy for me. Turns out he wasn’t, and he messed up my presentation.”
“How? Surely your information was on a secure laptop.”
“I paid for Nigel to come along with me. I booked extra nights so we could make a holiday out of it. I paid for everything.” I closed my eyes against the pain.