By the end of the evening, if I’d had any doubts of my need to be with Hartford, they had all fallen away.
“We should go,” Hartford said, glancing around. “There’s only us and one other couple left.”
“I’d stay here all night listening to you.”
She tilted her head and smiled. “So smooth, Joshua.”
She thought everything I said was a line. But it wasn’t. It never was when I was with her because I didn’t need to fake anything when she was around. I could just come out and say it, tell her how I was feeling—be as open and honest with her as she was with me. It was a risk, and one I wasn’t prepared to take at the moment. I wanted her to know I was serious; my feelings for her weren’t going to change overnight.
I nodded to the nearby waiter, getting his attention for him to bring the bill. “Just a hint. You might want to act a bit more impressed by your next date.”
“I’m immune,” she said, tapping her nose. “Created a Joshua Luca forcefield when my mum said she’d arranged me to sleep in your guest bedroom.”
The waiter interrupted with the bill before I got to ask about the forcefield.
“You’ve been so kind to me with the flat next door and coming to Gerry’s for dinner, introducing me to your friends, setting me up on dates, and now so thoroughly preparing me for one.”
We’d spent a lot of time together the last couple of months. I might have only realized that I wanted Harford recently, but looking back, the feeling had been coming on for . . . since that first day when I picked her up from the airport. “You’ve been a terrible burden, Hartford. But I’ve endured.”
“You can’t call me a terrible burden! I’m your date for the evening. I presume if Mr. Number Three tells me I’m a burden, I should cut the date short?”
“If anyone ever calls you a burden, you need to give me a call and I can remind you of the time you saved a man’s life over dinner.”
We locked eyes again. For a moment, I thought she understood what I was thinking, how I was feeling. Did she understand that this date was anything but fake for me, that I wanted her to see how much I liked her? Then the scrape of tables being moved at the other end of the restaurant broke the spell, and she grabbed her bag. I led her out of the restaurant.
I slipped my hand into hers as we headed back to the residences, strolling along in the warmth of the summer evening. Being with her felt so incredibly right—like life was exactly how it was meant to be.
“If he offers to walk me home, what do I say?” she asked me.
“It depends if you like him. It might be easier to take a cab, even if it’s walkable. Then you don’t have to make a decision about whether or not you want him to come up.” The very thought of another man riding up the elevator with her, his hands at her low back, his lips on her— “He’ll just see you to the cab door if he’s worth knowing, which this guy apparently is.”
She nodded as if she was assimilating what I’d just told her. “That way, I don’t have to deal with any kind of . . . kissing incident.”
“Kissing incident?”
“Yes. Can you imagine if he wants to kiss me?” She made a face like she couldn’t fathom anything worse. I hope she hadn’t felt like that about our kiss.
“You might want to kiss him,” I replied over the dull pang in my gut.
“I can’t imagine I will,” she said. “He’ll be a virtual stranger. And we will have just eaten.”
As we continued back to the residences and up to the penthouse floor, she continued to tell me all the reasons she didn’t think she’d be kissing her date. I was happy to listen.
When we reached her front door, she turned to me. “I had the best time tonight.” She beamed up at me as if she couldn’t have wished for better company. “You’re a great date.” Her bluest of blue eyes sparkled clear and bright.
She pulled out her keys.
“You’ve forgotten one thing,” I said.
She frowned at me.
“The goodnight kiss.” I stepped closer to her and circled one arm around her waist. “I mean, we should be thorough.”
She gazed up at me, and I wasn’t sure what it was I could see in her expression—did she want this as much as I did?
“Okay?” I asked as I cupped her face.
Her mouth opened slightly as if she was going to say something, then she seemed to think better of it and just nodded.
My heart thumped on my ribcage as if it were desperate to be let out. I took a breath to steady myself.