“My name is Kristen!”
I’d shouted loud enough that other diners heard. Heads turned in our direction and I dropped my head slightly to avoid everyone’s gaze.
“Sorry,” I muttered to him. My panic wasn’t his fault.
“No, I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for my hand across the table and giving it a squeeze before letting me go. “I started calling you Kay-Kay just to get under your skin, but now it’s how I think of you. But if you don’t like it, I’ll stop. Kristen.”
Actually it sounded weird coming out of his mouth. So formal and distant. Was I actually liking Kay-Kay?
I was screwing this all up. Making an ass out of myself. Ruining what could be just a lovely night out.
“What’s wrong with me?”
I wasn’t expecting an answer. Just a moment of compassion maybe.
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Paul said, with a certain sternness in his tone. “And there is nothing wrong with liking what you do. I want you to have a nice night with me. I wasn’t condemning you for the job. I get it’s high stress. I lived high stress too.”
“And then you walked away,” I said.
“Sure. Because it’s what I wanted to do. That doesn’t mean everyone is built like me. It sounds to me like you thrive in that life. So good for you. I’m not judging, Kristen. I promise you I’m not.”
I winced. “Okay, you can’t call me Kristen.”
He glared at me. “Now you’re just fucking with me, right?”
“It’s sounds weird. You’ve gone too long calling me Kay-Kay, and now that’s stuck with me. So that’s it. That’s what you have to call me and I mostly hate it.”
I waited for him to ask for the check. To say I was too much, or this night was too much and he needed to bail. It wouldn’t be my first date that had gone in exactly that direction. Whatever. I didn’t care.
Instead, his lips twitched under his beard. “You saidmostly.That means you like it a little bit when I call you Kay-Kay. I think it means I’m winning.”
Ugh. How did I stop myself from liking this guy too much?
“Did you like it when I called you Paul Bunyan?”
“Yeah. Made me sound like a badass. Didn’t that guy cut down a hundred trees with one blow or something?”
“No, that’s not the story. I think he just wandered around with a blue cow.”
“It was an ox,” he corrected me. “Baby? Babe? Blue Babe? Hey, maybe you can add that idea to one of your themed cabin rooms. Right next to Pantser.”
I chuckled. “I looked it up. It’s Prancer.”
“Yeah, it is, baby.” He smiled back. Then his face grew serious. “I’m never going to be that guy who tells you what to do, Kay-Kay. So stop reading things into what I’m saying.”
I believed him. Besides, it wasn’t his opinion that was making me so crazy.
“It’s just lately, I’ve been thinking about what’s waiting for me back in New York and I wonder why I want to go back.”
“It’s what you know.”
I fiddled with the cloth napkin in my lap. Which wasn’t like me at all. I wasn’t someone who dithered. Decisiveness, up until now, had been my biggest strength.
“My family is in Salt Springs. My dad needs help,” I said.
“And you’re here helping them. What are you beating yourself up about?”
“What’s going to happen when I leave?” I asked him, not sure what I wanted him to say. Maybe that I shouldn’t leave. Maybe that I was too needed here.
