“So… the ride home?”
She ran her hands together, already prepping to warm them before heading outside. “I would really like to get in the habit of walking but since I’m not dressed for this, yes. I’d love a ride home.”
“Good. Truck’s out front and already warm.”
She grinned up at me. “You went and got it?”
“Close. Took an Uber home and brought it back a while ago. Figured there was no point in us freezing on the walk home.”
She grinned up at me with a soft, awed expression. “That was sweet of you.”
I pushed open the door to the building, holding it open for and as she ducked past me, I smirked. “I’m a sweet guy.”
A blush that had nothing to do with the chilling wind crept to her cheeks and she dipped her head, hurrying to the truck.
“Man. I might need to go get a warmer coat,” she said, scrubbing her arms while I unlocked the doors. “Funny how it can go from fall to feeling like winter so quick. It’s like I forget, every year.”
After I followed her into the truck, and we were buckled, I threw my arm over her headrest so I could check for traffic before pulling out onto the street. “So, any chance you’d want to go to dinner and tell me all about your day?”
She rubbed her hands down her thighs. Sometimes she did this from nerves being in the car. Tonight I suspected it had more to do with the weather.
“Oh.” She tucked hair behind her ear and cringed. “I, well… I have a meeting tonight, but sure. I can do something before then, but I’d have to have something fast, so I have time to change and get to the church. And I need to look into the bus schedule.”
The church. Of course. I’d forgotten about her meetings.
“How about I let you change and have a few minutes to relax. Then we’ll do dinner and I’ll take you?”
“I feel like you have an issue with me taking public transportation.”
Based on the gleam in her eye, she was teasing me. She was also right. It wasn’t the public transportation, it was what happened the last night she came home after dark. My building was safe. The area was nicer than her last one. That didn’t mean bad things didn’t happen to good people once the sun set.
It did.
“If I’m already driving us to dinner, it’s no problem to take you to the church. It’s only a few minutes away.”
“Thank you. I’d like that, then.”
* * *
“Oh my gosh. This is delicious.”
She groaned around a fork filled with spicy noodles, hissing in a breath between every bite. Apparently spicy noodles at The Walking Wok was synonymous withset your mouth on fire with every bite.And she’d requested a mild version.
Still, Lilly praised the food with every top of the mouth searing bite, all while using chopsticks like she’d been born with them.
“God, I missed this. And sushi.” She closed her eyes and hummed. “I used to love sushi. My friend Kendra and I, we would always go to a sushi place on Fridays before the school’s football games.” She had a far-off look in her eyes, the same one I knew I got when I remembered something sweet and equally painful.
She shook her head and took a sip of her water.
I was struck mute. I wasn’t used to her offering up personal pieces of her life when she was younger.
“Anyway, this was a great idea tonight. I haven’t been able to eat out often, and I really missed this.”
“You’re welcome.” I cleared my throat and shoved a bite of chicken into my mouth before I said something ridiculously stupid and scary. Something like,I’d do anything for you.
I tried to fight this. I tried to fight my visceral reaction to her since Dad started showing me photos of her. I started falling in love with a woman when I only knew her story and her two-dimensional smile.
It sounded impossible.
