Kent put his hand on the small of her back as he escorted her to his truck. He helped her in, then shut the door, and hurried around to the driver’s side. He didn’t answer until he had buckled himself in and started the truck. As he backed out of her driveway, he grinned at her.
“I like your house, it made me wonder if I should look into purchasing something with some land for Tator to run and play. Right now he’s a pup, and the apartment is okay, but when he becomes full grown…” He let his sentence trail off and looked at Rita when she laughed.
“Yeah, he’s going to be massive, you might want to look into more space for him. If you don’t mind my asking, what type of place are you looking for?”
“No apartment. Like we both said, Tator will be massive when he’s full grown. I want at least two acres where he can run. I don’t know if I should fence in the area, or train him not to leave the yard. I hate to have to use one of those shock collars on him to get him to stay where he belongs.” He looked at her with a grin. “I figure with enough training, he’ll learn what his boundaries are.”
“That can be done. That’s how I trained Zeke to stay in the yard. He only left it once when the neighbor was screaming. He went to help.” She laughed and shook her head at a distant memory. “Turned out there was a snake in her garden.”
“Wow, okay. I can see if he’s trained for search and rescue, he’d want to run to help someone in distress.”
“Luckily it was only a garter snake, and I was able to remove it for her. She moved back to the city shortly after that.” They remained in a comfortable silence on their way to town, and by the time they reached Mattie’s diner, they were both hungry. It didn’t take long for them to get a booth in the corner and pick up their menus. Before much time passed, Kent looked at Rita with a scowl.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t normally take someone on a first date to a diner.”
Rita waved her hand away and shook her head at him. “Don’t worry about it. I happen to love Mattie’s food.”
“To be honest, I’ve never been here before.”
“You’re going to love it.” Rita laughed and took the next few minutes to discuss the menu with him. By the time the waitress arrived, they were more than ready to give their food order with their drink request. They sat there and made small talk as they waited for their meal to arrive. When it did, Kent looked down atthe steak, baked potato, and heaping scoop of veggies. He looked at both the waitress and Rita with a grin.
“This looks great. Can’t wait to taste it.” He waited until Rita started on her own meal before he used condiments and spices on his, then dug in. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he moaned at the first taste of the steak.
“This is fantastic.”
“I told you.” Rita laughed as she took a bite of her own steak, but a much smaller portion. They continued to eat until both their plates were clean. They opted to decline any dessert, and sat there and talked as they ate and got to know each other better. By the time the check arrived, Kent hadn’t realized over an hour had passed. He paid the bill and helped her to her feet. In the truck, Rita had to give him directions to Gunny’s bar.
On the way to Gunny’s they shared a comfortable silence. As soon as they pulled into the lot, Rita reached out and put her hand on Kent’s forearm. “Let’s go home.”
“What? Why?” Kent asked in shock. He was so shocked by her comment that he slammed on his brakes in the middle of the parking lot. He looked at her, but saw she wasn’t looking at him. He looked up and scowled. “Do you want to give him the satisfaction?” He had seen Timothy Vickers getting out of his truck from a parked row of cars.
“No, not really,” Rita said as Kent pulled into a parking space closer to the building. It made her happy that he waited to get out until Vickers entered the bar. They had to wait longer when his phone went off. As he looked at the screen, he looked at her with a wide grin. His expression caused her to suck in her breath. The image of his face on her phone and what she had done while looking at it came to mind. She quickly turned her head to hide her embarrassment.
“What’s that look for?” Rita asked when she had herself under control.
“I told my buddies we would be here tonight. That’s it, just in passing.”
“And?”
“And they are here, along with several other of my friends. You might even know some of them.” He pointed out the front windshield and Rita turned to look at the people approaching.
“Wow, you know a lot of people here. I know about half of them.”
“Good, let’s get the introductions out of the way. I’m not going to make a big deal about it, but I will mention to them that Vickers is here.” Kent exited his vehicle and hurried around to open the door for Rita. After she was on the ground, they waited for the others to join them. It turned out the five men who ran The Centre were there with their wives or girlfriends, along with three of the Falco brothers, who were with the local fire department. Rita told Kent she knew them, then waited until he introduced his buddies he had served in the military with. She had to remind him that she had already met Ryder. After all the introductions were made, Kent turned to the others, drew in a deep breath, and let it out in a rush.
“Guys, just a heads up, Vickers is inside.”
“Who’s that?” Liberty asked.
“He’s the guy that accused Kent and Rita of beating him up,” Asher, her boyfriend said. They spent the next five minutes telling the group what had occurred on the first day at the training facility and then what happened the next day.
“He kicked a puppy?” Noreen Barnes asked in shock. She turned her glare onto Kent. “You didn’t shoot him?”
“No, I only escorted him outside and Rita kicked him out of the program and off her property.”
“Good for you.”
