What the Heart Knows

He walked in and smiled when he spotted the woman in question seated on a bench with an e-reader in her hand.

“Am I late, or are you early?” He was careful to keep his voice light as he stood in front of her.

“You’re on time. I just got here a bit early to finish up some reading I was doing.” She closed the e-reader, and stood. He blinked rapidly when her once chocolate brown eyes appeared to have a turned green. How could he have missed the fact that they were hazel?

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just an eyelash.”

Oliver felt foolish when a closer look showed they were the same rich hue they’d been when he first meet her. Maybe the lack of sleep was affecting him more than he wanted to admit. Time to start taking those sleeping pills more often.

“Are you ready to go in?” he asked.

“Definitely.”

She stood from the bench and he led them over to the ticket booth.

“I asked you out on the date, so it’s my treat.”

“I won’t argue. I appreciate a bit of old-fashioned thinking in my men.”

“Oh, so I’ve moved to being one of your men. Do you have a harem I’m not aware of?”

She snorted and shook her head.

“You could not be further from the truth. The ‘my men’ statement was a generalization.”

“I don’t know about that, Ms. Bloom. You have an air of mystery about you.”

He turned to face the ticket seller and smiled.

“Two adults, please.”

“That’ll be twenty dollars even.” He dug into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed her a crisp twenty-dollar bill. She printed out the tickets and pushed them across the desk.

“Here you are, sir. Enjoy your visit.”

Oliver nodded his thanks and offered his arm to Juni.

“Are you laying it on thick now that I mentioned old-fashioned values?”

“You wound me.” He glanced d

own at the woman at his side and felt his heart skip a beat.

“So you’re telling me this is just your natural inclination?”

“My mother raised a gentleman.” And Hannah had never been one to stand for anything less than respect and adoration. She’d made it clear from the start if he wasn’t willing to step up his game and be the man she’d envisioned spending her life with, he could just find some other girl to date.

“We’ll see about that, Mr. Young.”

Juni glanced up at him coyly from beneath impossibly long eyelashes. She was dressed in an ankle length, light pink dress covered in tiny pink roses. The bodice was modest. It fit her upper body snug enough to hint at the curves that lay beneath, but covered her completely. The concealment was more erotic than any of the scantily clad bodies he’d viewed recently, both on television and in real life. This was odd, given that he was more attracted to the punk rock, alternative woman.

Nothing about Juni matched what he’d come to think of as his type. Maybe that was what he needed. He forced his gaze away from her as they rounded a hallway and the aquarium displays began.

“Ooh, look at the sea horses,” she said.

The awe in her voice made him smile. He liked that she appreciated the small things. He turned to look at the tiny creatures with a pair of fresh eyes.