Page 12 of How We Fooled

“Shall we?”

“Thank you for dinner,” she says as she slides out of the booth, looking up at me.

We’re only inches away from each other, and I swear I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my life. The pull between us is strong as we stare at each other this way. I’m a good foot taller than her, but the way I could wrap my hand around her neck and bring her lips to mine is so tempting that I can barely stand it.

Thankfully, she blinks and steps away, breaking the trance I was in, and we head toward the door.

I’m not sure what’s happening between us, but I do know I don’t want this date to end.

“Want to get some ice cream?” I suggest.

“You can still eat more after all of your food and mine?” She giggles at the thought.

I place my hand on my stomach. “There’s always room for ice cream. Come on.”

I hold my hand out to her and love that she grabs it without a second thought.

Hand in hand, we walk down the street to Twisted Sisters, which has the best ice cream around.

Once we arrive, I open the door for her, but am sad when she lets go of my hand to enter the building. I instantly want to grab for it again as we look for ice cream, but decide it’s probably too soon for that and place my hands in my pockets to keep from doing so.

We both order our ice cream, and she’s quick to pull out her wallet. “Please, ice cream is on me.”

Seeing the sincerity in her expression, I agree, but don’t hesitate to lean in and place a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you.”

She blushes, and I swear it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

We take our ice cream outside, and I point toward town square. “Want to just walk around?”

“Sure.”

I take the opportunity to hold her hand again as we both lick our ice cream cones and head toward town square.

“I love how close by everything is here,” she says. “Stockton was such a big city; you could never do things like this—or rather, you probably wouldn’t want to.”

“Really?”

She sighs. “Yeah, not the place you want to just stroll around, unless you want to pass the homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk or have someone asking you for money. I mean, there are some nicer parts, but nothing like this.” She takes in a deep inhale. “Nothing that smells this good, this fresh.”

“My parents took me to San Francisco a few years back, and I do remember there being this smell that I couldn’t put my finger on.”

“Oh, yeah, San Francisco is even worse than Stockton.”

I nod. “I remember my mom being so sad, seeing how bad it’d gotten. She said she used to love going downtown when they attended Stanford, but then, she didn’t even want to get out of the car at one place we planned on going to, so we just left altogether.”

“Yep. I don’t blame her. Sad really. Stockton isn’t as bad, but pretty dang close in some spots.”

“Are you glad you moved here?”

She gives me the biggest grin. “So far, yeah.”

We finish our ice cream and head back to where my truck is parked. I open the passenger door for her and allow her to walk by. Before she climbs in though, I stop her.

“Hey,” I say.

She steps back down where she was about to hop in and turns to face me. “Yeah?”

“I know I’m supposed to wait until the end of the date to say how great this was and ask to see you again, but I don’t want to drive home, thinking about what you might say.”

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