Page 18 of Inevitable

CHAPTER NINE

Wednesday, July 26th

Brady’s front door opened before Claire could get out of her car. When he stood on the doorstep with a big grin on his face, she figured he was looking forward to their evening together. The delay in their date due to work had seemed to ratchet up the excitement for both of them.

She had to reschedule on Monday and he’d had to reschedule yesterday. Which meant Claire was left at home last night all dressed up with nowhere to go. Instead of fretting, she had turned her energy into making a fruit Jell-O mold that resembled a floating island. Not that she meant for the creation to become so elaborate, but one thing led to another and she had outdone herself.

The chances of Brady thinking she was ridiculous for making something so outdated were pretty good and she had debated bringing it over a hundred times in her head. The thing that made up her mind was that she wanted to be as authentic with him as she could. He’d seen her at work for a couple of months, so he had a pretty good idea of who she was and what she liked, so she decided not to paint a false picture.

That’s what the online dating thing was for. At first, she thought the only way to succeed was to craft an honest, straightforward profile. Then reality seeped in and she realized that there was only so much honesty a stranger could take. The difficulty of marketing herself to potential suitors was a lot more challenging than she ever could’ve guessed. And it had taken her a good long while to polish herself up like a piece of her grandmother’s silver and come up with something that worked.

Which felt kind of lousy, but what could she do? Had she told the truth, she would still be sitting at home on her couch. It wasn’t like she could say, “Twenty-six-year-old woman with high IQ and impressive hacking capabilities seeks hot guy to spend time with, watching Netflix, making dinner, and smooching.”

Because if ever there was a truth…that was it.

Instead, she fluffed herself up and included things like “enjoys reading” (true, but mostly thrillers), “loves to dance” (true, but in the kitchen), “interested in adventure” (not true, but could be forced). She even gave herself some hobbies that she had only vaguely thought about. Which meant that she was no better than anyone else on the site. She understood that the men she’d met had probably done the same thing.

But such was the nature of dating in the twenty-first century. Hookups, meet-ups, and swiping right had never worked for her because she wasn’t someone who would be appreciated in the first thirty minutes of an introduction. Unfortunately, it often took people some time to see that she might be worth the effort, and that wasn’t how texts and DMs worked.

Looking out her car window, she saw Brady, handsome as sin, waiting for her to pull her butt out of the car. It just didn’t make any sense, but neither did sitting here questioning things. Pulling her purse across the seat, she opened her door and got out. “Hey.”

“I thought you might not get out and were having second thoughts about our date,” he said as he crossed his arms.

“Let’s not call it a date. Let’s just call it hanging out,” she replied. She walked around to the back of her Honda, opened the trunk, carefully extracted the Jell-O extravaganza, and hoped he wouldn’t laugh. “I brought dessert.”

Brady walked over, took the dish out of her hands, and grinned. “My mama used to make these when I was a kid. They were my favorite dessert.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “No one has made me one except her.” He lifted the dish up, turned it around, and whistled. “This is a damn impressive creation. Reminds me of a floating island.”

Putting her hand to her chest, she felt a well of emotion bubble in her chest. Not only did he like it, he knew what it was. “I’ve won a couple of contests with my molds, and this isn’t even my most impressive. I’d be happy to make you one whenever you want.”

He shifted the dish into one hand and then slung his arm over her shoulder. “Got to say this date is starting off beautifully. Not every day a man gets an offer like that.”

Looking up into his eyes, she tried to determine if he was making fun of her. When all she saw was sincerity, she felt the wall around her heart crack a little. “Hanging out, not a date,” she reminded him.

“I don’t care what we call it as long as we’re together, enjoying one another’s company and getting to know each other.”

As they walked into the house, she figured she couldn’t argue. Why she was trying to name what they were doing? It was silly…but it was the only thing she could come up with to gain some control.

God, she loved control.

But Brady wasn’t going to be a man she controlled, nor was whatever was happening between them. So, she might as well relax and save her energy. Lord knew she was going to need it if the sparks that were happening ignited into a flame.

***

Sitting on the patio, Claire enjoyed the small breeze that brushed across her skin. The summer heat wasn’t bothering her as much as it usually did because it had forced Brady to take his shirt off while he grilled the steaks. Admiring his wide back and muscled arms was a fine way to enjoy the evening. The fact that he had nice legs as well was a bonus that she was also appreciating. “You want me to do anything else for dinner?” she called out.

“No, darlin’. I’ve got the taters in the oven and you already made the salad, so as soon as these steaks are done we can eat.”

“Thank you for cooking.”

He glanced over his shoulder and winked. “This is the extent of my culinary abilities, other than the mean scrambled eggs I can whip up.”

“I love to cook. My gran taught me every one of her secret recipes and I can cook as good as any woman from the 1950s. Unfortunately, I never learned much beyond that, so my skills are stuck in a time warp. Hence, my love of Jell-O molds.”

“When my mama passed away, Lilly’s mama took us into her kitchen and into her care. If it wasn’t for her, we might have starved because my daddy fell apart. Rochelle Bertrand made us sit at her table every day for two years and then as often as she could wrangle us after that.”

“I met her when I was over at Lucy’s restaurant and she is a sweet woman. Formidable, but sweet.”

“That’s her. She’ll just as soon hug you as she’ll lecture you. If she can do both at the same time, then she’s accomplished her goal.”

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