“I don’t know. I’ve never been.”
He looked surprised. “You’ve never camped?”
“No. You have to understand, my dad was almost fifty when I was born. He had his first heart attack when I was only nine. My mom was forty-five when they were shocked by her pregnancy with me. She was diagnosed with lupus when I was still in junior high and her health was never good after that. Neither of them was interested in outdoor pursuits. Usually we just went out to eat or to watch Nina perform in pageants or at college. She majored in music, though she only attended for two years before she left school to marry Ken. She has a beautiful voice, but she sings only in her church choir now.”
“What were your extracurricular activities in high school and college? Do you sing, too?”
“Oh, no, not really. I can carry a tune, but I don’t have Nina’s talent. By the time I was in high school my parents were both in such poor health that I had to help out at home a lot. I was on the school newspaper and yearbook staffs, because those were activities I could do during the schoolday. Nina was a young bride with small children, so she couldn’t help much at our house. I contributed as much as I could preparing meals and doing housework.”
Realizing she might sound as if she was whining, she shook her head and spoke more brightly. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a good life. My parents made sure I had everything I needed. They paid for my tuition and made sure I had a little nest egg to set me up in this condo when they were gone. I have good friends. I have a job I love, thank you very much. My relationship with my sister isn’t really close, but it’s not as if we’re actually estranged. Considering the age difference and the lack of anything in common, we get by okay.”
He covered her hand with his and gave her fingers a warm squeeze. “I’m glad you feel free to speak candidly with me. I don’t think you’d have said those things to just anyone—not even to me had we had this discussion just a couple weeks ago. Right?”
“No, probably not,” she conceded. “I’d have just said everything was fine. But if you come to my cousin’s party with me, I’m sure you’ll see how it is with my sister and me, so I wanted you to be prepared.”
“When I come with you to your cousin’s party,” he murmured, emphasizing the first word, “I’m sure we’ll get along fine with your family.”
“Oh, undoubtedly. We’re all very civil when we get together.” Mostly because she bit her tongue until it almost bled to keep from snapping when they criticized her, she added silently, choosing to keep that comment to herself.
He laced his fingers with hers. “Maybe you and I could go camping sometime. I think you’d like it.”
Her heart gave a quick thump at the thought of spending a night in a tent—or anywhere else—with him, but she managed to smile. “Both of us out of the office at the same time? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.”
“I suppose we’ll have to figure out how to handle that situation in the future,” he said with a slight shrug and a smile that almost made her sigh aloud. “We’ve both been working damned hard for a lot of years. Now our company is well established, we have good people on our payroll that we can trust to take care of things occasionally, and we can be reached in a multitude of ways if we’re needed. I think we both deserve to take some time away from work occasionally, don’t you?”
Several things about that little speech stood out to her, but his use of the plural possessive was particularly startling. Our company. Our payroll.
“I’ve been giving it a lot of thought lately,” he continued before she could answer what must have been a rhetorical question. “I’m closer to forty than thirty now, and all my energy thus far has gone into the company. Buying it, growing it, securing its future. As you know, I pretty much ignored my personal life. I made the one attempt at getting engaged, but that would have been a mistake even if it hadn’t fallen apart due to my own negligence. Now I’m ready for more. Commitment. Marriage. Kids. Soccer games and teacher meetings and dance recitals. Eventually cutting back on work to travel and see the world with my wife.”
“That sounds very nice.” She almost sighed in response to the lovely images he’d invoked.
“But first,” he said briskly, “we have to get through the holidays. What’s next on our social agenda?”
There was that word again. Our.
She moistened her lips and drew her attention back to the topic. “I’m sure you remember that tomorrow afternoon is the reception at the Best Burger home office to celebrate the holidays and the opening of their twentieth restaurant.” The relatively new, locally based fast-food chain was rapidly expanding throughout Arkansas and two neighboring states and had contracted with Scott to handle its new construction. It was one of the more lucrative deals Scott had signed during the past few years. He spent a lot of time making sure the owner of the chain was happy with the construction, including one currently under way in Little Rock. The three-to-five drop-in reception was for store managers, vendors and other professional associates, and Scott was expected to make an appearance. “I don’t know if you want me to attend that with you...?”
“Absolutely. This was the deal, remember? We’re doing all the holiday stuff together.”
The deal. Was that the way he viewed their dating agreement? She supposed it summed it up well enough. She cleared her throat silently and nodded to indicate she was on board.
“So we’ll stop by the Best Burger thing tomorrow afternoon. Do you have plans for tomorrow evening?”
This felt so familiar, she thought with wry amusement. How many hours had they spent coordinating their office calendars, planning business commitments for weeks or months at a time? She supposed it was only natural that they’d handle their personal plans in much the same way. “No, I don’t have anything specific planned for tomorrow night.”
“I have tickets for the symphony’s holiday performance. I know it’s short notice, but would you like to go with me? You know—a real date?” he added with a crooked smile that was too charming to resist. “Just the two of us.”
“I would like that. I love the symphony.”
Looking pleased, he nodded. “We’ll pop back in to the office after the reception, then leave from there to have dinner and go to the concert, if it’s okay with you.”
She made a quick mental note to choose a day-into-evening outfit for the next day, and to take a sparkly jacket to slip on for the concert. “That’ll work.”
“What about the rest of the weekend? Do you have personal plans?”
“Saturday is my niece’s birthday, and Nina has made reservations at that popular new Japanese restaurant.”
Should she ask him to accompany her? She supposed the reservation could be changed to add one more, but was it too soon for Scott to join her at a family celebration? Would it make the evening better or even more awkward to have him there with her?