Page 25 of Outside The Wire

This time, I couldn’t hold back my laughter. “Are you okay?”

“Sure, sure. You know, just…perfectly fine. Attacked by my own shoe.”

“I think you had that one coming.”

She glared at me, but a smile tilted her lips. “Maybe.”

Tugging on her elbow, I hauled her to her feet, averting my eyes as her dress dipped in the front, exposing her breasts.

“So,” she grinned, ignoring the fact that she just face-planted in front of me. “Where are we going for dinner? I mean, assuming you still want to go with me after the disaster you’ve just witnessed.”

“What, this?” I asked, motioning to the coat rack and the shoe fiasco. “I kinda wanna see what else is in store for tonight.”

“Well, if you’re lucky, I might fall on the ice again and this time, my dress will fly over my head. Or maybe I’ll knock a tray of food into a waiter.”

“Sounds like an entertaining evening,” I grinned. “And I thought we’d try a new steakhouse I heard of the other day.”

“Oh,” she winced. “I don’t eat meat. I’m a vegetarian. Eating animals is wrong.”

I shook my finger at her, almost believing her lie. “See, you would have gotten me if I didn’t see you scarfing down a burger the other night.”

“Dammit,” she sighed. “I would have killed to see the look on your face.”

“Your tricks have to be better than that.”

“Oh, I’ll think of something,” she said, her lips twitching humorously.

“I’m counting on it.” I slid my hand around her back, itching to touch more, but holding back. It was only our first date. I had to keep myself in check. “Ready to go?”

“Yes.”

“You have both shoes on?” I asked, looking down at her feet, seeing they were both on and she wasn’t in danger of tripping herself anymore.

“I think we’re safe.”

I led her back to the door, which was silly since it was her house and she was perfectly capable of finding the front door on her own. Grabbing her coat, I held it out for her and slid it onto her arms. Once she was all buttoned up, I wrapped her scarf around her neck, letting her finish it off the way she wanted to, but when I started to reach for her hat, she stopped me.

“Not tonight.”

“Oh, did you want a different one?”

“No, I’m not wearing one.”

I stood there stunned. “Um…it’s about twenty-five degrees outside right now.”

“I know, but it’ll mess up my hair.”

I crossed my arms over my chest as I stared her down. “And it’s freezing outside.”

“It’ll mess up my hair. I don’t want my hair sticking up in every direction at the restaurant.”

“So what if it does? It’s just hair.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Just hair? That’s easy for you to say. You’re a man. Hair doesn’t matter to you.”

“That may be, but your hair doesn’t matter either. I would rather your hair be frizzy and your ears be warm than for you to be freezing because you didn’t want your hair to be messed up.”

Her mouth opened to argue, but I snatched the hat off the rack and tugged it down over her head.

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