Page 32 of Breaking the Ice

Paul nodded and told her about his last blind date who had put him off socializing with women for an entire year. It seemed she’d been so nervous that she’d drunk to excess, her mouth getting pottier and pottier as the evening wore on. Samantha laughed as the story went from bad to worse, all the time thinking:He could be the one, he could be the one.

“Sam!”

She looked up to find Nick doing a theatrical double-take. “I didn’t realize you were eating here tonight.”

Samantha frowned. Why the hell was he here? This wasn’t part of the plan. She plastered a fake smile on her face as her eyes went fullwhat the fuck?

“I think you’ve dropped this.” He scooped her napkin off the floor and passed it over.

Damn it!The signal. She groaned inwardly. “Oh, howsillyof me, I dropped my napkinaccidentally.”

Her emphasis was lost on him. Or ignored. “Paul. How are you doing?” Nick stuck out his hand. “Damn, dude, it’s been years.”

Her date shook hands and asked if Nick was dining alone. Nick did his best fakeoh-no-that’s-alright-I-like-eating-aloneroutine. But Paul, polite to a fault, insisted and, before she knew it, he was ensconced at their table.

“How’s the knee?” Paul asked.

A conversation about hockey followed. They included her in the conversation but Samantha tuned out as she glared at Nick. It was clear that the two men knew each other reasonably well and the more her date talked the more she liked him.

He was certainly a vast improvement on all the others.

Unfortunately, her desperate stabbing stares were making no headway with Nick who appeared to be enjoying himself immensely. A sharp kick to his shin raised no more than a slight dent to his fixed grin. Paul laughed at some witty observation Nick made and Samantha admired the fact that it wasn’t just women he could charm.

Nick was great with people, period.

And if she wasn’t trying to secure her eggs’ future she could probably sit back and listen to him all night. She could most certainly look at him all night.

Paul’s cell phone rang. “Oh.” He glanced at the screen. “I’m so sorry, I have to take this,” he said before excusing himself from the table.

Samantha didn’t mind. It gave her a chance to get rid of Nick. “What are you doing?”

He grinned. “Well, I don’t know about you but I’m having the time of my life.”

“I dropped the napkinaccidentally. I don’t need you to rescue me. I need you to go away. I think Paul could actually betheone.”

“Really?Theone? I did good?”

“Yes.” She shot him an exasperated look. “You did good. Now go away. He’s coming back.”

For a moment, as Nick’s eyes dropped to her mouth, kicking off a little flutter behind her belly button, Samantha wasn’t sure hewouldgo away. But he stood as Paul sat and excused himself and it was gratifying to see that her date didn’t object to the departure.

The evening went well. They dined and talked till late. He walked her home and she even invited him in for coffee. Given the total wipeouts that were her previous dates, it was great just to feel like she was dating a human being.

He was interested in her job and why she’d downsized from her corporate climb. She told him the whole sorry saga and assured him the bookshop was only temporary, ignoring the twinge that came with the statement. She found out he was forty-one with a twenty-year-old daughter he clearly adored and had been amicably divorced for five years.

A family man. Perfect!

He asked about her family and she told him how much she missed her sister and nieces and how she wished they lived closer.

It was a nice evening and, as he left, he asked her out the next night and when he leaned in to kiss her she prayed it wouldn’t be a dud because this was a man her eggs could live with.

And the kiss was… nice. Just like the rest of him.

Okay – it didn’t leave her breathless or inspire a sudden desire to drag him back into her apartment, but it had promise. Given the other disasters it was practically red-hot.

She could definitely work with it.

Samantha entered the bookshop the next morning still thinking about Paul. “I gather from that dreamy look that he passed the kiss test?”

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