“I understand,” she said. “Were you raised in Heraklion?”
“Mostly. You?”
“Yep. I’ve never even been to Athens. Can you believe it?”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
“Really. One of these days, I will, but it always seems to be bad timing.”
It gave me an idea for our next date. If only I really was wealthy and could charter a private jet. “Maybe we can go together one of these days.”
She smirked. “One date. That’s all we’re talking about right now.”
I held up a hand. “I forgot I’m on probation. I won’t push my luck.”
She smiled, a bright, full smile that hit me square in the chest.
The waiter came by, and we ordered our meals. I wasn’t going to worry about the cost. I didn’t splurge a lot, and this was an occasion worth dipping into my savings to cover.
I was completely enamored with her. I knew I would be. I had felt it the moment we’d met. She didn’t believe in that kind of thing, and I wasn’t sure I did, but there was no denying what I felt.
After we ate, the waiter came by with the check. Inside the leather binder, the receipt said that the bill was already paid. Maceo. I owed him big.
“Thank you,” I said, nodding at the waiter.
The man smiled. “Thank you for the generous tip.”
“You’re welcome. The food was excellent, as was your service.” I hoped I sounded like a rich dude.
Eliana was watching me.
I smiled and winked, hoping she caught the part about the generous tip.
Chapter 14
Eliana
Dinner had been delicious. I guessed there was a reason a person paid a week’s wages for a single meal when it was that good. I was enjoying myself. That was a little surprising to me.
I had come prepared to get through one dinner and then leave, never to see him again. I had treated the whole thing like something I was stuck doing, not something I wanted to do.
“Would you like to go down to the beach?” Cade asked.
“Yes,” I answered before I could think twice about it.
He smiled, his eyes squinting at the corners. “Great.”
We walked across the street, strolling toward the beach where more shops and little cafes lined the roadway. We hit the sand, and both of us stopped to look at each other before bursting into laughter.
“Sand!” I exclaimed, stopping to slip off my sandals.
He took off his shoes, stuck his socks inside, and rolled up his pant legs before we headed closer to the water. “Do you spend a lot of time at the beach?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Probably no more and no less than everyone else that lives here. You?”
“I didn’t used to, but I have lately.”
“Why? What’s changed?”
He grinned. “I took up running, and running on the beach provides a little more resistance. I don’t want to sound like a jock, but it’s a natural resistance, and I like the feel of the sand under my feet.”
“Really, running?” I asked with some surprise.
“I know,” he said. “I never thought I would be one of those guys, but I’ve been working with a personal trainer, and he suggested it. It’s better than hanging out in the gym, and it helps burn calories without really feeling it. I hate the treadmill. I don’t really like being in the gym in general, but I need to.”
“I see.”
“I was kind of a tubby dude before I decided to change things,” he revealed.
I looked at him. “Really? You?”
He laughed. “I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that you’re surprised.”
“I think good. You look like you’re in great shape. I would have never guessed.”
“Yep, I had a certain fondness for cheeseburgers and meatball subs and a very big lack of interest in exercising. One of my best friends was one of those guys that was just kind of naturally built and had good genes. I would hang out with him and just always be his pudgy friend. He used to give me shit about it a lot. Then one day, I was bent over at work, and I realized I couldn’t reach for something because my belly was in the way. It was then I decided enough was enough.”
“Good,” I said. “You did it for you.”
“I did,” he said. “Do you like to run?”
I chuckled. “No. I admire you for doing it, but it is not my thing.”
“You don’t need to. Plus, if you walk to and from work, you get plenty of exercise.”
We changed direction, heading toward the darker, more sparsely populated part of the beach. I wasn’t worried. I didn’t mind being alone with him. I felt a certain peace with him that I didn’t often feel with other guys.
Something caught my eye in the water. I stopped walking and turned to strain my eyes, trying to see what it was.
“Have you ever been out on one of those whale-watching cruises?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “No. You?”
“Nope, it’s one of those things I always say I’m going to do and just don’t,” I said, feeling a little philosophical. “Do you ever think you spend a lot of time dreaming about things you want to do instead of actually planning to do them?”
“I know exactly what you mean,” he said quietly. “Which is why I was so insistent on taking you to dinner. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get to know a beautiful woman.”
“Sweet talker,” I teased.
“I’m serious. My best friend moved away. For so long, he and I hung out and wasted time thinking about what we wanted to do with our lives.”
“Where did he move to?”
“West Virginia,” he answered with a laugh.
“Where is that?” I asked, trying to pull up the geography memory banks and coming up with nothing.
“The United States. He’s a country boy now.” He laughed, revealing his disbelief.
“No kidding?”
“Yep. He was a playboy. Man, that guy had women—” He stopped talking. “He’s settled now and very happy.”
“I see,” I said as we walked along. The sand felt good between my toes and talking with him was actually very pleasant. “Do you like to travel?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t really travel. I used to when I was young. We went back to Italy often, and then once I got older, I was sent to boarding school. I stopped going home on holidays and just kind of dug in at school.”
“Why didn’t you go home?”
“Remember what you said about parents?” he asked. “That’s why. It was always criticism and lectures about doing better in school and staying out of trouble. I never got the feeling my dad cared one way or another if I went home. I just kind of stopped.”
I felt bad for him. “I’m sorry. That couldn’t have been easy. My mom was the one who was always leaving me. The first time, I was maybe twelve or thirteen. She left for a week with some guy she was dating.”
“Alone?” he gasped.
“Yes. She was sure I was old enough to take care of myself. I guess since I’m still here, she was right.”
“Wow. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I said. “I think we had similar yet different childhoods. Our parents don’t sound like they are in the running for parents of the year awards.”
He laughed. “No kidding. I once read that your experiences all shape who you are, no matter if those experiences were good or bad. You have the power to make them work for you or against you.” He stopped and turned to face me.
I smiled. “That’s very true. We seem to be normalish—despite our parents.”
“Exactly. We chose to use those rough times to drive us on.”
He reached out and put a hand on my cheek. I knew what was coming. Part of me wanted to step away and tell him not to try it. The other part of me was very interested in knowing what it would be like to kiss him.
His hand stayed on my cheek, silently asking me if he could. I looked straight
into his dark, soulful eyes and didn’t pull away.
His mouth lowered to mine, and his full lips gently pressed against mine. It felt good. I didn’t want to pull away. I expected him to take it to the next level, but he didn’t.
He pulled back, ran the pad of his thumb over my cheek, and smiled at me.
“Don’t get used to that,” I told him.
He chuckled. “What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t want this to get too involved,” I said. “I agreed to one dinner.”
He nodded. “You did. We had dinner. Now we’re on a nice walk.”
“Yes, but it means nothing.”
He grinned. “It definitely means something.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I retorted, realizing my comeback was rather childish.
“All right. I won’t push. We’ll do this one day at a time. One meal at a time. I’m okay with slow and easy. I like slow and easy. I like to take my time and savor every moment in everything.” He said it in a way that made me think he was talking about something else entirely.
“We should probably start walking back.” I turned and went back in the direction we came.
“Can I drive you home?” he offered.
I thought about it, then thought better of it. “Not this time,” I answered, not giving him a total rejection.
“I’ll take it,” he said with a laugh.
“I did have a nice time tonight,” I said as we stopped at the edge of the sidewalk to put our shoes back on.
“I did too,” he said. “I’m not going to ask you right now, but I want to take you out again.”
I laughed. “Cade—”
He shook his head. “Don’t say no. Give it a day or two. I’ll text you.”
“I’m warning you, this isn’t going to be a thing,” I said firmly.
He winked. “We’ll see about that.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. He was persistent but not pushy.
“Goodbye Cade.” I waved and got into the cab he had insisted I take home, giving the driver more than enough to cover the fare.
I got home and was still buzzing after what I was going to call a very nice date. I didn’t have a lot of those. Usually, I ended up bored out of my mind and begging for the night to be over. Not with Cade. He was different.
He seemed to be interested in what I had to say and didn’t spend the night talking about himself. He was nothing like the men I had met at the many parties at the event center. Lola’s men were always so arrogant and stuffy. I had always felt they were looking down at me.
Cade was tall, and while he did look down on me, he didn’t look down on me. He talked to me like an equal. He was polite to the waiter, something else I found to be a very important trait when dating. An asshole to the server was going to be an asshole in general. Time and experience had proven that over and over again.
He smiled a lot. It was a natural smile, not something forced, and his smiles didn’t have those hints of nasty that I sometimes got from other guys. They smiled, but you just knew they were either thinking about you naked or thinking you were a complete moron. Cade was fun and flirty and had honest eyes. I didn’t think he knew how to be mean or rude.
I changed out of the dress I had picked up at a shop for half-price and hung it up to take to the cleaners later. When he’d texted me the change in restaurant, I had almost canceled. I knew the place and knew I had nothing in my closet that was nice enough to wear to it.
Instead of backing out, I had used the tips I had made over the week and bought myself a new dress. I felt pretty in it. I felt stylish, which was a rarity because I didn’t have the body type that most of the trendiest fashions looked appropriate on.
Overall, I was going to call the date a success. I wasn’t ready to say I would date him again, but I was less inclined to shoot him down right away if he asked. Baby steps.
I knew Lola was going to ask me a million questions about the date. I smiled, kind of excited to actually have something to tell her for the first time in a long time. I’d had a date—a real date—and the guy was a good one.
Chapter 15
Cade
I carried up a fresh container of the ever-popular chocolate gelato and put it on the small counter. Kacia was serving a customer while I restocked after a rush.
It had been a nice wave of business that I absolutely appreciated. I needed to fatten up the bank account. I wanted to take Eliana out on one of those whale-watching expeditions—assuming she agreed to go out with me again.
The customers left, and Kacia immediately spun around. “Okay, you walked on the beach, and then what?” she asked excitedly.
I shook my head. “It amazes me you can pick up a conversation an hour after it started without missing a beat. That has to be some kind of inherited skill. I can’t remember what I was thinking five minutes ago.”
“I’m sure whatever it was you were thinking had something to do with your lovely lady.”
I grinned. “Probably.”
“So, what happened? Did you kiss her?”
I nodded. “I did.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my god, did you—” She made a very obscene gesture with her hips.
“No!” I said quickly. “What kind of man do you think I am?”
“I think you’re the kind of man that hasn’t been on a date in a very long time,” she said pointedly.
“Still, I’m not like that,” I argued.
“Okay, fine, fine. You kissed her. Then what?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. That was it. She told me she didn’t want to get too deep into things. We walked back to the restaurant, I got her a cab, and she left.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That was very anticlimactic.”
I shrugged. “No shit. I was there.”
“Are you going to ask her out again?”
I sighed. “I’d like to, but I’m going to give it a couple days. She’s very standoffish and very certain she doesn’t want to date me. I have to take this slow, or she’s going to block my number.”
“Cade, before you ask her out again, I think you need to tell her the truth about your finances.”
I didn’t like that suggestion. “Not yet.”
“You’re going to keep saying that. You can’t afford to keep taking her out to places like that. What’s she going to say when your credit card gets declined?”
“I’m not that poor,” I said. “I can afford to take her out a few more times before things get to that point.”
“Can you? You’re about one of the brokest guys I know.”
“I am not. I make a decent living.”
“Maybe she won’t care,” Kacia said. “You took her out once. You sound like you had a good time, and you managed to get a kiss. That has to be a good sign, right?”
“Maybe she won’t, but what if she does? I only got one kiss and a warning not to push. I think I need to wait until after at least one more date.” I really didn’t want to tell Eliana the truth. It was going to be mortifying.
Kacia gave me a look that said that was unlikely. “I think you’re just digging a bigger hole. You need to get it out there now, before it goes too far. If you sleep with her under false pretenses, I will kick your ass. That is not okay.”
“Back up. What’s with you and all this talk about sex? You’re a kid. You shouldn’t know about these things.” I had a hard time seeing her as an actual grown woman.
“Not a kid and definitely not a virgin,” she said.
“Oh god, stop!” I groaned, holding up my hand. She might not have a problem talking about my sex life, but I did not want to know the details about hers. It was right up there with thinking about my mom and sex. It was just one of those images I never wanted to have in my head—ever.
I noticed movement through the large window that faced the street. My eyes widened with horror. I looked left, then right, trying to find an escape.
“What are you doing?” Kacia asked.
“It’s her!�
�
“Her, who?”
“Her! Eliana!” I shrieked, sounding very much like a teenage girl.
Kacia looked out the window and grinned. “Well, you better come up with a story quick because she’s coming in.”
I dropped to the floor like a boulder dropping off a mountain. “Shh! Do not tell her I’m here.”
“You’re an idiot,” she hissed under her breath. “How would she know to ask, dipshit?”
“Stop talking to me!” I whisper-shouted.
“Hello!” she greeted the customers—and the woman I was lying to.
“Hi,” I heard Eliana say.
Hearing her voice made me think of the kiss. Oh god, how I wanted to see her again.
If I hadn’t lied, I could be flirting with her just then. I could be offering her gelato and sitting down to share it with her. If only I hadn’t let my stupid mouth get in the way of being honest. I supposed that was how everyone got themselves into trouble.
“What can I get for you ladies?” Kacia asked, stepping to the side and purposely nudging me, sending me flying backward while I squatted.
I couldn’t reach up for the counter to support myself, so I fell right on my ass.
I pinched her calf muscle. She kicked out, nearly hitting me where no man should ever be hit. I was going to get her as soon as Eliana left the shop.
“I don’t know,” Eliana said. “I haven’t had gelato before. Is it just like ice cream?”
Her friend answered. “Yes and no. Fewer calories and it’s much thicker.”
“I don’t believe you,” Eliana said. “You’ll say anything to make yourself feel better about cheating on the diet you’re always on. What about you? What do you say?” I knew she was talking to Kacia.
Kacia laughed. “My boss is an authentic Italian dude. Gelato has more milk and does use less sugar. It’s churned slow and easy and tends to be thicker and creamier than ice cream. It’s not as cold as ice cream either, so you can gorge without getting a brain freeze. I can give you a sample to test.”
Pretending to be Rich Page 9
