"Who's your favorite?" she asked.
"Sinatra," he answered easily.
Grinning, she shook her head. "I cannot believe it. I would have never pegged you as a Sinatra guy."
"Don't judge a book by its cover," he told her, shooting her a sideways glance.
As Julie shut up and listened to the song—she had never actually heard the song before, she just knew that voice from "The Way You Look Tonight"—she was really surprised by it. Just listening to it made her feel like they should be dressed up, and he should be twirling her on a dance floor as she wore her high heels, her classic pearls, and red lipstick.
But as the songs kept playing, she was overwhelmingly surprised by the fact that just about every song had the recurring theme of love. Since Aaron was about as far from the type of guy she would have imagined would listen to Sinatra singing about how some woman made him forget about the grey skies… well, it was safe to say she was surprised.
By the time the first CD was finished, Julie considered herself converted—but a little lonely. With Sinatra singing about how great it is when someone loves you and needs you, it led her back to the knowledge that she didn't have that. She couldn't help wondering why Aaron— who didn't even date—would torment himself with love songs all the time.
She found herself wondering just what Aaron might have been like before he was hurt.
The kind of man who listened to Frank Sinatra when he was alone in his car.
She wondered for the first time if Aaron might have been romantic at one time.
"So, I think that we need to take road trips more often," Julie stated as she unwrapped her taco.
Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, Aaron took his quesadilla out of its package. "Why's that?"
"Because it's fun," she stated. "And I'm pretty sure that I love Frank Sinatra now that I've spent the last two and half hours listening to him."
"Hey, I tried to put in Anka, you took it back out."
"I didn't care for him," she stated. "But I've decided that if I have a boy poppy seed I'm naming him Frankie."
Smiling, he said, "Middle name Sinatra?"
"I don't know, I'll have to give Dean a chance when I get done with Sinatra."
"Frankie Dean?" he questioned.
"Assuming Dean lives up to Frankie's high expectations," she said with a decisive nod.
"You might change your mind," he suggested before taking a bite.
"Nope," she said, pulling the baby name book out of her purse and grabbing a highlighter out of the side pocket, flipping through it until she got to the page she was looking for, then highlighting the passage she wanted.
"And if it's a girl?" he asked.
"I'm not sure yet," she said, flipping over some more pages. "I kind of like Ali, so I was considering maybe Allison," she said, pointing out the name in the book.
He took the book from her and read the page for a couple minutes, his eyes moving down the page. After a moment, he said, "What do you think of Alyssa? It means logic."
"Alyssa," she repeated, liking the way it sounded. "I actually like that a lot more than Allison,"' she said, popping the cap off her highlighter and handing it to him. "Will you highlight it for me?" She took another bite of her taco and chewed it, then she went on, "I want her to have a name of substance, you know? I'd like to give her a strong middle name, like a famous author or a famous woman in history. Antoinette or Georgiana, or even Victoria or Elizabeth… but none of those go with Alyssa, do they?" she murmured.
"Not really. Alyssa Victoria is okay," he said. "The first two don't really go with our century."
"What about Jane, like after Jane Austen?" she asked.
"Alyssa Jane," Aaron said.
Grinning, she said, "I love it!"
"Frankie Dean or Alyssa Jane," he said, shaking his head.