“No,” she admitted. “But I’m not off again until Sunday. I figured you’d be long gone from Cornwall by then.”
Xander smiled wide and Rose quickly realized that her alibi wouldn’t be good enough. “As luck would have it,” he said, “I’m going to be in town for a while. A few weeks at least.”
“Oh.” Knowing Xander, he would ask her to dinner every day until she relented. She didn’t have the strength to fight him off for that long.
“So I can take you out to dinner Sunday night?”
No. No, no, no. Her brain could see the problems a mile away. Eventually, she would slip up and say the wrong thing. She’d mention school or Little League or her dad.... That or she’d lose her mind and think it wouldn’t hurt to sleep with him again. Then he would leave and she would be crushed. History could not repeat itself. Her heart couldn’t take it.
Rose caught a whiff of his cologne. It was a warm, spicy scent that reminded her of hot summer nights and foggy windows. “Okay,” she said before she could stop the words. Her body seemed to have different plans from her brain and at the moment, it had control of her vocal cords.
“Great. Where are you living now? I’ll pick you up.”
“You can pick me up here,” she said a touch too quickly, and then felt the need to explain herself. “I live a couple towns over. There’s no sense in you driving all the way out there.” That was true enough, although there were more reasons for not wanting Xander at her apartment.
“Fair enough, although it’s no imposition.”
Rose shook her head and glanced down at her watch. She needed to check on his food, warm up Gary’s and Pete’s coffees, and get some distance between her and Xander so she could think straight again.
“I’d better go grab your burger,” she said sliding out of the booth with the book in her hands. With an awkward parting smile, she disappeared into the kitchen. Safely hidden away, she whacked her forehead against the refrigerator door and groaned.
“Order’s up,” Oscar said, sliding the plate across the counter. “Don’t whack your head so hard you forget which table to take it to.”
Oh, there was no way she was going to forget, no matter how many times she hit her head. She also couldn’t forget that she was an idiot. She was playing with fire. Somehow the idea both thrilled and horrified her. She glanced down at the book in her hands and the handsome face staring back at her before taking a deep, calming breath. It didn’t help. Nothing would.
Rose had a date with Xander Langston.
Copyright © 2014 by Andrea Laurence
ISBN-13: 9781460338681
Single Man Meets Single Mom
Copyright © 2014 by Jules Bennett
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