“I’ve got old ladies to drive, you know. Grocery orders to supervise. Phone calls to return.”
It was true, but mostly he just said it to sound hopeless and pathetic so she would laugh with him some more, because the truth was he didn’t especially want to leave her. Which made him feel the slightest bit hopeless and pathetic.
Kal compensated by invading her personal space so she had to look up from her phone, and then look up some more, and then dropped his head to kiss her neck and whisper in her ear, “Hey, princess?”
“Mmm?”
“Get yourself a decent pair of shoes and clothes you can dance in. After we get through this dinner, we have a date.”
“You’re going to take me to a nightclub?”
“I am. If you can still walk.”
“My feet have seen much worse than Queens.”
“I can believe that. C’mere.”
She tipped her head back. He kissed the smile off her face, holding her head in the palm of his hand, and when she giggled at the soft pressure of his lips brushing over the corner of her mouth, he licked right up her cheek in a slow, wet stroke to hear her squeal.
Rosemary Chamberlain didn’t bore him.
Not even close.
Chapter 14
The taxi dropped Rosemary off at the address Kal had given her with ten minutes to spare.
Her shoes felt like heaven. She had no idea how this was possible. The gentleman who’d sold them to her had sworn they would never hurt, no matter what she did in them, and also that they made her arse look like a million bucks.
Rosemary texted Kal that she’d arrived.
Hang on a sec.
She put her phone away. From the sidewalk, she could see through the glass into Kal’s family’s restaurant. It was crowded, every table full, with waiting diners lining the walls. She didn’t see any faces she recognized.
A door opened in a recessed space she hadn’t noticed to one side of the restaurant. The animated face of a small girl appeared. “You’re Rosemary.”
“I am. Are you Patricia?”
“Yes! Kal says to take you upstairs.”
“Excellent.”
The girl turned and began walking up the steps, leaving Rosemary to work out closing and locking the door to the street behind them.
“I like your purse,” Patricia said.
“Thank you.” It was small and sparkly, and had cost the earth.
“I like your shoes, too.”
“They’re the very best shoes I have ever put on my feet.”
The girl turned and hunched down by Rosemary’s feet. “They’re all…like, the way the bottoms are?”
“The soles.”
“Yeah, they’re so tall. What’s that called?” She looked up, her brown eyes wide and interested.