“Then maybe men should be okay with women doing the asking.”
“I hope it’s getting there.”
“What about you? I asked you to teach me about flirting. Did that bother you?”
He shook his head. A wolfish smile curled his lips. “I think it’s hot as fuck when a woman asks for what she wants. Dating, sex, everything. It tells me where I stand, and it makes me feel good.”
“Is that why you flirt? Because it’s the same thing? It tells a woman where she stands with you?”
“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation.
“So, how do I do it? How do I ask out a stranger without coming across as creepy or weird?”
“What would you say to me?”
I opened my mouth, snapping it shut before I said anything. My mind went blank.
Landon grinned. “I’m already here, so clearly you said something to get me here.”
“Yeah, but I can’t ask every man I meet to teach me how to flirt. That kind of defeats the purpose.”
He laughed again, the crinkles around his eyes telling me he laughed a lot.
It was appealing. A man who enjoyed laughing. Kyle rarely laughed at anything. Not with me. If I were ever going to consider another relationship, it would have to be with a man who made me laugh.
“What are you thinking right now?” Landon asked, his voice dropping low and hitting me in all the good spots.
“I was thinking I like that you laugh. That you make me laugh. And that I’d want that in someone I dated or whatever.”
“Have you ever laughed during sex? Been so comfortable with the other person that laughter isn’t mockery, it’s just a part of the experience sometimes?”
I shook my head.
He smiled, this one not as bright. It was a sad smile, of missed chances and love gone wrong.
It was the reminder I needed that, no matter what he said, he had a past that hadn’t completely let go of him. He might claim he wanted to start dating again, but whatever the reason was, it wasn’t because he was ready to move on.
“Laughter is important in a relationship to me, too,” he said after a minute. “So, what would be a good date that lets you express your sense of humor?”
“Please don’t tell me to go to a movie.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not a place where you can get to know someone.”
“I agree. But an even bigger problem than that is my time. Because I have my daughter all the time, and I’m not ready to leave her home alone while I go out on a date.”
“So, we’re talking lunch dates only. And something that makes you laugh. That has the potential to end up in bed. No pressure, though. It just has to be perfect.”
I snorted. “Easy, right?”
8
Landon
Casey was the most fascinating person I’d ever had lunch with. Not because she was beautiful or funny, but because she was honest in a way that was refreshing and made me believe in people again. Reegan wasn’t a bad person, but she spent most of our relationship lying to me about what she wanted. That was the hardest thing about it all ending. I felt like I misjudged her, and if I didn’t know what was going on with a woman I spent three years with, how was I ever going to figure out a new person?
But sitting with Casey was like coming up for air after a deep dive into a pool. My entire body was filling with her oxygen, reborn and refreshed after nearly suffocating.
And then she laughed and stole all that breath away again.
