Page 39 of Return to You

“Your final rose.”

His expression remained blank.

“Wait.” She lifted her hands. “Have you never seen The Bachelor?”

The left side of his mouth tilted up in a grin. “No. I never got around to checking it out.”

“And you call yourself an American?” she teased.

His smile grew wider revealing a row of perfectly straight white teeth. It was a nice smile. One that made her feel…comfortable. Calm. Not like Kade’s smile which made her feel all kinds of antsy and agitated. In a purely sexual way, but still.

Just thinking about Kade made Ali’s newly diagnosed arousal claustrophobia return. She needed some air.

She stood and grabbed her purse, and said, “Well, I guess since there’s no meeting—”

“Wait.” Keaton reached out and his fingertips grazed her elbow.

They were nice fingertips, but they didn’t send a zip of electricity flowing through her body the way the roughened pads of Kade’s fingers had.

She turned back, hoping her disappointment wasn’t written on her face.

“We’re here,” Keaton pointed out. “We’re hungry. We might as well eat.”

Ali stared at him. The boys were spending the night at Ryder’s tonight, so she didn’t need to go home. So the only thing waiting for her there was…a man that jumped away from her when she commented on the size of his raging erection.

Perhaps sensing her hesitancy, Keaton added, “To be honest, I’ve been wanting to ask you out for a while now.”

“Really?” Even though Jess had mentioned it, it was still a little surprising.

He nodded. “I just didn’t know…with everything you’ve been through…I didn’t want to be insensitive.”

“Yeah, I’m not really in a place to start a relationship.” She wanted to be upfront and honest with him. Her priorities were the boys and the business. In that order. But then she thought about “little” Stacy and how fast the twins would be off to college, (hopefully), and living their own lives. Maybe she should make plans to eventually live her own life as well. “But, we’re here. We’re hungry. We might as well eat.”

“Great.” Keaton’s face lit up and he motioned once more for Stacy.

“Are we ready?” she asked hopefully.

“Umm,” Ali cringed as she smiled. “I haven’t actually looked at the menu. I’m sorry.”

Keaton chuckled.

“Two minutes,” Ali held up two fingers to emphasize. “I promise.”

As Stacy left, most likely to beg a different server to take them, Ali browsed the menu and tried not to get ahead of herself on this situation.

What if KJ found out? Would he be upset?

What if the entire town found out they were on a date? Did she want to “date” in the public eye?

What if the Needlepoint Mafia tried to set them up again? Would they give up after one failed attempt or would they go even harder?

What about Kade? If he found out, would he even care?

That last one snapped her out of her what-if spiral. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She didn’t owe anyone, especially not Kade, anything. She deserved dinner with a nice guy whose smile made her feel calm. And she was going to enjoy it.

15

“Hey, where are you goin’?” Kade paused at the top of the stairs when he saw KJ in his room, throwing clothes in his backpack.

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