Aubry stood. “It was definitely enlightening. Thank you so much.” She shook Sheila’s hand, and as Tucker paid, asked her about her house. Sheila told her it had been her grandmother’s house. She’d had it remodeled several years ago.
Aubry’s parents were into the now and the new. She loved this old house, and would love to be able to renovate an older home someday.
After thanking Sheila again, they headed out to the car.
Once they had taken off, Tucker glanced at her. “So . . . what did you think?”
“It was weird.”
“Weird bad or weird good?”
“A little of both, I think. She knew some stuff that no one else would know.”
“Yeah, I got that. With the grandparents. I kept my grandpa’s old baseball glove. She even knew where I keep it.”
“Yes. Same thing with my grandmother’s charm bracelet. How would she know that?”
He shrugged. “No idea. Unless she’s the real deal and was talking to our dead relatives. Pretty cool, huh?”
She looked out the window. “I’m not sure if I’d define that as cool or not. It’s a little . . . unsettling.”
“Really? I found it fascinating. And then the part about you and me and the three times? No one would know that but us.”
She dragged her gaze from the window and settled it on him. “You didn’t tell them anything.”
“No. Just gave our first names and my phone number. Besides, who else would know about us?”
She’d told Katie, but Katie had no idea Tucker was bringing her here tonight.
Fate and destiny, though? She made her own destiny, and the only part of that she was concerned with was her medical career.
The rest of it she decided she didn’t want to think about. So she was going to think of this as a fun interlude and nothing more.
“I had a great time at Madame Sheila’s. Thank you for taking me.”
“You’re welcome. You’ll like what’s next, too.”
“There’s more?”
“Of course there’s more.”
He pulled into the parking lot of . . .
Oh, dear God.
“Bowling? We’re going bowling?”
He grinned and parked, then turned off the car and faced her. “I didn’t want to do a boring first date where all we do is go out to dinner at some restaurant and make small talk. You deserve a fun first date.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. Because I’ll bet you work all the time and when you’re not working you’re probably sleeping. Or doing laundry or paying bills and shit like that.”
He didn’t have to know that’s exactly what she’d been doing earlier. “I can have fun.”
“I’m sure you can. That’s why we’re going bowling.”
He got out and came around to fetch her. She had to admit, this was the most intriguing first date she’d ever been on.
“I don’t remember the last time I went bowling. Maybe my freshman year of undergrad? And I have to tell you, even then I wasn’t good at it.”
“You don’t have to be good at it to have fun.”
“I seem to recall the last time I went bowling with a group, my date at the time made fun of my lousy score.”
He stopped and laced his fingers with hers. “Then you’re dating the wrong guys.”
She laughed. “Apparently.”
She wasn’t about to tell him she hadn’t been dating any guys lately. Let him think what he wanted.
They got inside, and for a weeknight, the place was booming. League play, probably. She wasn’t sure she was going to be okay with that, since she was rusty as hell and would probably throw quite a few gutter balls. She didn’t want everyone in there to notice.
“I hope you’re hungry. They serve the best greasy hamburgers in the restaurant here.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “Is that right?”
“I know you being a doctor and all, you’re probably against the whole greasy hamburger thing.”
“I’m a doctor, not a nutritionist. I have nothing against a nice, greasy burger.”
He put his arm around her. “See how we’re connecting? It’s like we’re meant to be.”
Which got her to thinking about what Sheila said.
She immediately dismissed it. She would not go there with that whole fate and destiny stuff. She was hungry, and a burger sounded like a great idea.
Burgers and bowling—her primary objectives, and all her mind could handle at the moment.