Page 24 of Succeeding Love

“What about next weekend?” I sat back in my chair with a smirk. She is so adorable when gets shy.

“I might be free next weekend,” she said teasingly. “But I think since you planned tonight, I should be the one to plan our next, um, outing.”

“Outing?” I lifted a brow. “What happened to calling this a date?”

She shrugged. “Is it a date?”

I reached across the table to rub her elbow resting on the table’s edge. “I was hoping it was.” I rubbed my thumb over her smooth skin, trying to not look like a freak as I inhaled deeply her vanilla-scented perfume.

“Good,” she mumbled, looking at me through her lashes. “I was hoping it was one, too.”

Now that we had the understanding that this was definitely a date, Feighlynn was more shy than she was before. She looked so vulnerable that I leaned in and touched her in the subtlest ways. She was the type of woman a man wanted to protect and defend. The urge to shield her against any awkward tension grew inside of me.

When we pulled into the drive-in theater, her face lit up like the fourth of July.

“I haven’t been here in ages!” She said, looking around at all the old-fashioned food stalls.

“Me neither. It surprised me it was still around.

Last time I was here was when my dad was alive. I had to have been fourteen when he brought me to see the Terminator with my mom. This place had a lot of excellent memories for me.

I parked beside a speaker stall towards the back, then we got out to get popcorn and drinks. Feighlynn insisted on paying for the popcorn and drinks since I paid for dinner. I tried to refuse, but she scanned her card before I could get my wallet out. The way she victoriously stuck her tongue out at me afterward made me laugh. Then she hummed as she sampled the popcorn on the way back to my car. She was so fucking cute. I wanted to just squeeze her, to hear her squeal.

When the movie started, she rested her head on my shoulder with my arms slung behind her head. I couldn’t even tell you what the movie was about. I was too busy enjoying having her so close to me.

Is it weird that I’m already this infatuated with my neighbor? I was truly disappointed when the movie ended and she lifted her head off me. A dead arm and stiffness were so worth it.

“Do you, uh, want to go get some coffee, or maybe ice cream?” I asked, wanting the date to go on.

She gave me another shy look, then said, “I have coffee and ice cream at my house.”

My heart hammered. She was inviting me over, and I would not turn her down.

“Sounds fantastic,” I said, my voice cracking a bit. I coughed, feeling embarrassed, especially when she giggled. “Sounds good,” I said in a much deeper tone, making her laugh harder. It was infectious. I began laughing with her, all embarrassment fading away just because of her laugh.

I was still riding high from our date and the prospect of it not being over as I drove all the way back to our neighborhood. I wanted to hold her hand so badly, but had to shift gears so I couldn’t. She kept teasing me about my car being all show, so I revved the engine several times, the last time being when we turned onto our street.

We both laughed when a neighbor’s car alarm started going off, but our laughter died when she saw a car sitting in her driveway.

“What’s Nick doing here?” She pulled out her phone to see if she had any missed messages or calls. There weren’t any from him, but a string of texts from someone named ‘Kate’ was at the top, the first asking ‘Did he pet the kitty yet?’.

I pressed my lips together, looking back up towards her driveway, pretending I didn’t see it.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled, looking concerned.

I parked in my driveway, then went around to open her door while she was still looking at her messages. Her ex got out of his Cadillac and stood stiffly beside it. He was sizing me up as I gripped Feighlynn’s hand and helped her out of the car. He straightened up a bit when she put away her phone and looked up at him.

“Are the kids okay?” was the first question out of her mouth. After hearing her talk about her kids most of the night, I knew that was what she was checking on her phone. She was checking on them.

“They’re fine,” her ex said gruffly. I didn’t let go of her hand as we walked towards her house, and he made a point of staring. “Where were you?”

She looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

He looked down at our joint hands pointedly, then repeated, “I mean, where were you, Fay?”

“She was out with me,” I answered for her, feeling her tensing up beside me. “We met yesterday,” I said, holding out my free hand, refusing to let go of my grip on Feighlynn. “I’m Vin, the action hero.”

---