The heat in his eyes seemed to promise a lot more than his PG-rated words, and Carri wondered how far things might go between them. After all, there would be other people around the building, but the way she felt, she might need to sneak awayduring the afternoon to find a private room where they could be alone.
He was still a stranger, but she wanted to get to know him better … and better and better. She wanted to know everything there was to know about Mr. Rooker St. James, from his shoe size to whether he had a six-pack hidden under his soft-looking deep-green Henley shirt.
She only hoped he would not break her heart in the end by walking away and forgetting her.
“Little one? You still with me?” Rooker asked as he shook her hand, side to side, causing her whole arm to move back and forth.
“Oh. I’m sorry. A picnic dinner sounds wonderful.”
“Very good. I’ll be back here with food about six-thirty.”
Carri nodded. “That sounds wonderful. Sir.”
She wasn’t sure what made her add the Sir, but it felt right. From the widening of his smile, Rooker apparently agreed. After all, he was older and wiser than she, though she found most people were wiser than her, older or not. But there was something about Rooker that pulled at her mind and body.
“All right. I’ll see you at six-thirty.”
Rocker pulled on her arm, forcing her to step closer to the table. He surprised her when he leaned forward to brush a kiss on her forehead.
“Be good, little one,” he said before walking away.
“What was that about?” Lottie’s sharp voice cut through the brain fog that interacting with Rooker left her in.
“Huh?”
A moment later, Carri yelped when her sister pinched the back of her upper arm.
“What?” she yelped.
“What did that man want?”
Carri looked to where Rooker had disappeared. “He asked me to join him for a picnic after the vendor area closed for the evening.”
“What?” Lottie screeched.
Tilly joined them at that moment with the box of sandwiches, chips, cookies, and other snacks they’d brought to eat. There was more than enough food for all their lunches and her dinner, but Carri would send the leftovers home with her sisters. She had a date for dinner.
Lottie pulled three bottles of juice from the cooler tucked under her table. The sisters then dragged their chairs to the open area between Tilly’s booth and Carri’s.
“So, tell us about this Daddy-man who wants to take you on a picnic,” Tilly started the ball rolling in her most soothing, nonconfrontational tone.
Carri had noticed her sisters also seemed to be enthralled with men present in the vendor room. Lottie could not stop staring at the vendor just across the aisle from her booth while Tilly seemed preoccupied with one of the security guards who patrolled the room at regular intervals. Nearly every time he was near, he stopped to chat with her if she didn’t have customers.
She considered asking about their bits of eye candy but decided to change the subject instead.
“I’d rather talk about the twenty-seven stuffies I sold this morning,” she said, then took a bite of her sandwich and chewed slowly.
Gun-shy about dating after her last fiasco of a so-called relationship, Carri did not want Lottie and Tilly to talk her out of having a casual dinner with Rooker. Lucky for her, the change of topic encouraged her sisters to report their own sales, though Tilly gave her a knowing smile with a nod and a wink of approval.
Late that afternoon, Rooker left his assistant in charge of Dr. Rooker’s Little Boutique booth. He had a picnic to arrange. While at the grocery store buying picnic foods, he also picked up some juice and healthy, filling breakfast foods.
Afterward he made a quick stop at his house which was just outside of town. He added instant coffee, hot chocolate, and his electric kettle to the breakfast food bag. They had several cases of bottled water at his booth already.
After packing a large duffel bag with a change of clothes, sleeping bag, pillow, and the air mattress he’d bought for his last camping trip, he figured he was ready to spend the night at the convention center. The closer he got to forty, the more he found that camping trips required something softer to sleep on than the ground, or in tonight’s case, a concrete floor covered by industrial carpet. He was not sure how much sleeping they would do, but since this was only the first day of the four-day conference, they both needed plenty of rest.
Rooker returned to the convention center and carried everything into the hall just as it was announced that the room would be closing to convention-goers in ten minutes.
“Great timing, boss,” Laurie said after she finished checking out a customer. “Just in time to help me cover up the displays and finish up the paperwork.”
