Page 40 of Cash

"Where are you from?" she asked.

"Colorado. Are you from here originally?"

She sighed. "Yep, I've lived here in Glendale my whole life except for college."

They pulled up to the restaurant. Much to Evie's surprise, Cash got out of the truck and quickly made his way over to her side of the truck and opened the door. As she accepted his hand, he helped her down. At the mere touch of their hands a bolt shot straight through her. She licked her lips and looked up into his heated gaze. There was a very large part of her that wanted to pull him back into that truck and do what they did best, but then his expression changed. His heated gaze softened to a warm smile. A smile that made her feel all glowy inside. She smiled back up at him and stood there for a stupid amount of time just staring into his eyes, but she couldn't seem to bring an end to it.

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and then let go. She wanted to take it again, but then his hand settled in the small of her back.

"Shall we?" he asked, guiding her into the restaurant with the hand on her back. She had been with Bryan for years, but it had never felt like this. The warmth spreading all through her at his mere touch was all new to her. She nodded and they made their way into the restaurant.

"Mr. Hawthorn, your table is ready."

Evie smiled up at him and they made their way to their table. The host took them to a small alcove with a private round booth.

"Thank you," she said quietly as she looked up at him.

He just gave a little nod and smiled before sitting down at the table opposite her.

"This isn’t what I was expecting," she said, unsure of what to say.

"I told you I would take you out, and here we are."

"I still feel like I need to apologize to you. This whole wedding thing. I'm not sure what I was thinking. So please, don't feel like you have to go."

"Why do you keep doing that?" he asked plainly.

"Doing what?"

"Telling me I don't have to go to the wedding with you."

" I just feel like you are too nice to tell me you don't want to go."

He tilted his head pinning her with a look. "Nice."

She bit her lip and looked away.

"Evie, I haven't been accused of beingnicein my entire life.” He said the word with such disdain.

“What’s wrong with being nice?”

“I don’t like it. Niceness has a level of phoniness to it…I’ve known too many ‘nice’ people who will stab you in the back the first chance they get. That’s not me. What you see is what you get.”

Evie let those words sink in. She had never thought about it that way. It made sense. Living in the world she lived in, she was often surrounded by nice people, but kindness and compassion were harder to find.

“I assure you,” he continued, “I’m doing this because I want to spend more time with you. And I have since the night of the gala. Why is that so hard to believe?"

It was her turn to give him a head tilt and an exasperated look.

"What?" he asked.

"You. Cash Hawthorn, hockey's toughest tough guy and biggest playboy is why I have a hard time believing it."

That broke the tension and he laughed. "Fair."

The waiter came and took their order, which gave her a moment to clear her head. How did he continue to have this effect on her?

"Evie," he said in his rumbly low voice. "Can we just forget all of that? Right now, I just want to get to know you. Like why it is that a beautiful woman like you doesn't already have a date to this wedding?"

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