“I can’t give away my secrets Savannah,” he says with a conspiratorial wink.
I chuckle at his antics. “Ok”
We get to opening and step in and I’m astonished at the set up. It is huge with two rooms set up as a dining room and living room. He has dinner set up on the table. There are fairy lights on the ceiling, flowers and candles. The other room has two outdoor daybeds set next to each other with pillows and blankets on them. He leads me to the dining table.
“Are you hungry Savvy?” he asked in a tone that conjures all types of hunger not related to food.
“Yes,”I reply breathlessly
“Good.” He pulls out my chair and seats me before he takes his own seat.“You don’t have a problem with seafood, do you?”
“No, I love most seafood.”
“Well, I hope I got the ones you love.”
He proceeds to spread newspaper on the table, then he takes the pot and pours it out on the table. The smell hits me immediately and my mouth began to water. The crab legs, shrimp, crawfish, corn, potatoes, boiled eggs and sausage spills over the table. Warm Cajun butter and peach lemonade rounds out the dinner. He has wet wipes, gloves and giant plastic bibs. I grab a bib and secure around my neck as he pours us peach lemonade.
He picks up the remote and music flows through the tent not too loud but just right to provide a nice filler but not hinder any communication. He really has thought of everything. He puts his own bib and gloves on and he grab my hands and says grace. As Grover Washington croons in the background about the two of us, we dig in. We stuff ourselves as we talk and laugh like we’ve known each other for years and not weeks. Joshua cracks my crab legs and takes the meat out for me and he keeps my glass full of peach lemonade. There is no cuteness or pretenses tonight as we eat to the point of being stuffed.
“Do you have room for dessert?”
Desert! Is he serious right now? He might have to roll me back to my car at this point. The look I give him causes him to laugh.
“Ok I'll put the peach lemon cake away.”
“Excuse me! Peach lemon cake? I never heard of that before.”
“I had a pastry chef make it specifically for you.”
Lord this man. He pays attention. I told him peach and lemon are two of my favorite flavors and he has a pastry chef create a damn cake with them? Who does that?
“Don’t look at me like that Savvy.”
I blink. “Like what?”
He stares at me for a second. “Nothing.”
“Joshua?”
“Yes?”
“Can I have a piece of cake?”
“I thought you were too full.”
“Stop playing with me Joshua.”
He grins at me as he gets up to slice a piece of cake for me.
I hold my arms out towards Joshua with grabby hands, looking like a toddler wanting his favorite toy. Taking the fork, he breaks off a piece and feeds it to me. My eyes literally roll in my head as I close my eyes and release a groan of pleasure.When I open my eyes, Joshua is looking at me with enough heat to burn this damn tent down.
Uh no, nope I don’t stand a snowflake's chance in hell against the passion and heat I see in his eyes. I don’t break eye contact, but my body is primed for fight or flight and flight is the top of the list. He reaches over to the plate that has the rest of my cake on it and literally throws the cake, plate and fork in the garbage. Then he packs that cake right back in the box and put it back in the cooler he took it from.
“I wasn’t finished with that Joshua,”I say poking the bear.
He whips around so fast I sit back in my chair. He stalks over to me and places a hand on the arms of my chair and leans down in my face and tells me.
“Oh, you're done with that damn cake Savannah, and if I were you, I wouldn’t eat that cake in my presence again”. I’m looking at him like a barn owl, eyes huge and blink. “I am trying my best to be a gentleman but another moan like that from your mouth and you're going to be moaning for a different reason, understand?”