Looking at the time as he ended the call, Beau realized that he was already ten minutes behind and he still had a ten-minute drive to Savannah’s place. For some reason, he still hadn’t secured her phone number from Cassidy. She was holding that information ransom until he disclosed where he and Savannah had gone on Wednesday night. Too bad Beau wasn’t telling. He should have asked Savannah for her number at the clinic, but he had been too excited to spend time with her.
With a quick rub on Belle’s head, Beau grabbed his things and left the apartment. The ten-minute drive to Savannah’s house felt like ten hours, but soon he was parking the truck and jogging across the street.
As he stopped on the top step, Beau glanced down at his attire, sighed, and then rang the doorbell. He wasn’t like the guys she probably dated, but his shirt was clean and his fingers were red as a tomato from all of the scrubbing he did to remove the grease and oil before leaving the apartment.
Savannah didn’t come right away, and for a moment, Beau worried that he was being stood up. It had never happened before, but there was a first for everything he supposed.
Just as Beau began to reach forward and press the doorbell again, the hinges squeaked and the door opened. Savannah stood before him, looking just as stunning as he expected. She wore a royal blue cotton dress that brought out the color of her eyes and skimmed her body in a way that showed off every curve.
He was too dumbstruck to notice that she carried a pair of sandals in one hand and was clasping an earring with the other.
“Thank goodness you weren’t on time. I needed to make a phone call, but then I lost my phone, and when I finally found it, there was no battery. Oh my gosh, I’m rambling. Sorry.”
Beau continued to quietly stand as she grabbed a brown leather bag and her keys, then closed the door.
“Gosh, you smell good,” she mumbled as she reached up to kiss his cheek.
“Thanks. Are you ready to go?” he asked her as he pressed his hand gently to her lower back and escorted her down the stairs and across the street.
“I am. I really needed this tonight,” Savannah said as she glanced up at him before ducking into the vehicle beneath his arm that held the passenger door open.
Beau reached across her lap, secured the older truck's lap belt, and tugged it tight against her hips. She smiled at him in a way that caused his cock to jump from behind his jeans.
He quickly made his way around the truck's hood and entered the vehicle. Beau made sure to start it up and put it in gear before Savannah could change her mind about their date.
He glanced over at her as they passed the end of the downtown area and she had her nose practically pushed into her phone. Savannah’s teeth were going to leave imprints on her bottom lip with the way she was gnawing at the soft skin. Reaching over, Beau tugged her lip free and chuckled.
“Sorry, I was afraid you’d make it bleed.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just waiting for my. . .roommate to call me back. She had something important to talk to me about.”
He could tell that there was something Savannah wasn’t telling him. He could read people pretty well, and she had the tell-tale signs of avoidance.
“If you want to cancel, I can take you back to the house. It’s not a big deal.” Except it was. Savannah had him all twisted up in thoughts of her.
“No!” she cried out and gripped his arm, causing him to jerk the wheel slightly. Luckily he was able to recover it before they ran off the road. “I’m distracted and taking it away from our date. I didn’t mean to.”
“That’s okay. I get it. I had a strange conversation with my mom before I came to pick you up. It’s why I was late.”
When Savannah asked, Beau divulged the phone conversation and waited to hear if she had any advice.
“Wow, I hadn’t realized that you planned on moving away from Carson. I learned as a little girl that people rarely left this town. Even Ryker and Cassidy came back.”
Finally, the small restaurant off the side of the road leading to Cason Mountain Winery came into view. It looked like an old farmhouse but had recently been renovated and turned into a restaurant.
“What is this place?” Savannah asked as the car came to a stop.
“I’m not even sure it has an official name. A chef from New York retired down here and he opened it up. It has the best pizza within a three hundred-mile radius.”
“Pizza? I love pizza. I can’t wait.”
Savannah waited for Beau to make his way over to her side of the truck and helped her down. She didn’t pull away as he slipped his hand around hers and Beau found himself smiling as they entered the restaurant.
One of the servers took them to a table in the back corner and sat some menus on the table. They both agreed that they were happy with the glasses of water and would share a pepperoni and mushroom pizza.
Beau wasn’t surprised by how the conversation flowed between them. Both of them had a soft spot for classic rock and country songs from the late nineteen nineties. Just like him, Savannah had a weird relationship with her parents. They never truly treated her like a daughter, more like an accessory. Beau told her about his mother’s many marriages and how she seemed unable to fill the void in her heart that his father’s death left behind.
True to her word, Savannah didn’t check her phone once during their meal and she seemed equally as disappointed that their date was coming to an end as he was.
After paying, Beau escorted her back to the truck and they both seemed to hesitate before getting inside. He stood beside the open passenger door, waiting for her to decide if she was going to step inside.
“Is it weird that I really don’t want to get in the truck?” she asked, peering up at him with an innocent look that nearly brought him to his knees.
“I don’t want the night to end either. If you’re up for it, we can head back into town and find something to do too.”
A beautiful smile grew on Savannah’s lips and her eyes brightened in joy.
“Yes. I love that idea.”
From her bag, a ringing noise had the smile instantly morphing into a frown.
“Do you mind?” she asked as she held the phone up.