He rumbled quietly, “Well, for our first date, I’ll take you to the Autumn Harvest Festival here in Deer Springs. It’s next Friday. I’ll show you off to the whole town, then I’ll take you home to see my town. I live on Red Oak Mountain. It’s not too far from here.”
I could feel heat rushing up to my cheeks. “That sounds perfect. I accept.”
“And you don’t mind being seen with the trashman?” Even though he asked the question, I knew he wasn’t being serious. He already knew I didn’t care what he did for a living.
So I countered back, “Well, Ihopeto get seen with the trashman. How else am I going to let all the women of Deer Springs know you’re a taken man?”
He growled out a hearty laugh at that. Then eyed me carefully. “And you don’t mind that I’m older than you?”
I estimated he was around eight or nine years older than me.
Shaking my head, I assured him, “I don’t mind at all. I might even like it. I wouldn’t mind having a man who wanted to take care of me.”
Our eyes locked, and that spark of understanding shot between us.
Thatcher would be good to me.
He’d not only rock my pussy into another galaxy every night, but he’d take care of business during the day, making sure I was treated right.
Everything in me melted, and I whispered, “What if I don’t want to wait until next Friday for our first date?”
He grinned. “There are no rules that say we can’t hang out until then.” Then he took my hand and asked, “About Moody and Sons. Were you serious?”
My cheeks burned with embarrassment. It hadn’t been a very nice thing for me to say.
“Um, I never actually called them.”
“That’s good. You were just fucking with me.”
I nodded. “Because you were being a jerk.”
His fingers threaded through mine. “Fair enough. We both gave as good as we got. So the whole thing about my business model being inefficient wasn’t true? That twenty-five percent cost reduction is still rattling around in my head.”
Oh, he was serious. He actually wanted my advice.
“It probably wouldn’t be that much of a savings. But I imagine it could reduce your workload by five to ten percent.”
His eyebrows shot up. “That would be cool. Because I workwaytoo much. I wouldn’t mind fewer hours in the truck.”
“I could dig in more if you want. Look at your books and study your systems. But off the top of my head, I instantly spotted that you’re working the hard way. You stop every ten feet, hop out of the truck, grab trash and then get back in to start the process over. If you just switched to dumpsters in each business district, say for businesses within a hundred feet of each other, you put all that walking on the businesses instead of yourself. It would be a huge time reduction. I don’t see it landing as well in the residential neighborhoods, although I have a few ideas.”
He furrowed his brow. “Dumpsters probably cost a lot.”
I grinned at him. “I’m a bit of a math nerd. And I always said if I weren’t a lawyer that I would’ve been a business optimization consultant. So I happen to know that you’d still come out ahead.”
I threw some simple figures at him that blew his mind.
“That’s amazing, Shelby.”
“See? I can spread good in the world. I’m notalwaysthe evil twin.”
“There are two of you?” he asked in mock horror.
Laughing, I found myself snuggling against his bear chest. “No. It’s just a saying. Don’t worry. I’m one of a kind.”
“You’re looking chipper.”
I flushed bright red.
