Page 5 of Cohen

“The Point?” I smile over at him as we pull up in front of the imposing, three-story building. “I haven’t been here in ages.”

He grins. “Does that mean this was a good choice or a bad one?”

“Definitely a good one. I love everything about this place, inside and out. I just don’t usually have an occasion to come here.”

With its three stories of dining and a view of the Kismet Falls waterfall right outside its floor-to-ceiling windows, the restaurant has a well-deserved reputation as an enchanting, magical place for a celebration, an anniversary, or—in our case—a first date.

“You have an occasion tonight,” he says, parking the car and turning off the engine before getting out and walking over to open my door. “And I feel honored that you agreed to come here with me.” The up-and-down look he’s giving me as I take his hand and step out of the car is impossible to miss. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight? Notjusttonight, but every time I see you. I’m not sure how it works, but you seem to get prettier and prettier every time I lay eyes on you.”

I give his hand a gentle squeeze as we walk to the front door of the restaurant. “I’ll admit you know how to make a girl feel special. Do they teach you how to be this smooth in law school?”

He laughs. “I wish. I learned quite a bit in law school, but not a single thing about women, unfortunately. Think of how much they’d charge for tuition if they told you all the secrets about dating, too.”

He has a point. Hearing that his compliments are sincere makes me like him even more than I already did. Maybe this date really will be different from the few others I’ve been on.

Here’s to hoping.

“Here’s to the start of a great evening,” he echoes my own thoughts a few minutes later when we’re sitting at a table next to one of the big ground-floor windows looking out at the falls. We both lift our glasses of wine and clink them together, the delicate sound in complete contrast with the powerful, rushing water right outside the window. “I still can’t believe you don’t get out much. Surely every guy with any sense in Kismet Falls has asked you out at one time or another.”

I snort, nearly choking on another sip of wine. “Yeah, that hasn’t happened. People aren’t exactly lining up to date the curvy librarian.” I shrug. “Not that it matters. That’s just how it is. And anyway, I’d rather have a few really good dates than a bunch of mediocre ones.”

“I hope tonight will be one of the good ones.” He pauses, then shakes his head. “No, I want tonight to be the best one. By far.”

It already has been, if I’m being perfectly honest. The bar isn’t set terribly high, given my past dating record, but I don’t tell him that.

“I’m pretty confident that tonight is going to be special,” I say instead, because that really is how I feel. Everything about Cohen is down to earth and authentic. There’s no pretense, no arrogance in anything he says or does, and I really, really like that about him. “So what made you move here? I’d imagine it has to be quite a shock to your system after living in the city.”

He snickers over the top of his wineglass. “It’s definitely different here. I swore for years when I was growing up that I would get out of this town and never look back. I couldn’t stand how slow and boring everything seemed or how everyone in town knew everyone else and all of their business. It felt like prison to a teenager with big dreams.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m not a teenager anymore.” He shrugs. “I won’t lie and say there aren’t things I miss about the city—getting dinner delivered to my office or my apartment at all hours of the night is pretty high on the list of things I didn’t want to part with—but overall, there were so many things drawing me back to Kismet Falls. Ironically, they were mostly the same things that pushed me away all those years ago.”

“How so?” I love that he’s opening up to me and I honestly don’t want him to stop talking. His voice is like warm, worn leather and I can’t get enough of it.

“For starters, I enjoy the slower pace of life now that I’m older. I can also appreciate the clean streets and sidewalks and the way everything is so quiet after the sun goes down. I lived in a pretty upscale neighborhood back in the city, but there was always traffic noise, sirens, people yelling—it’s just a totally different vibe here. Calm and laid-back, and I find I appreciate those qualities a lot more than I used to.”

He reaches for my hand and rubs his thumb across the top of my knuckles as he continues. “And if I’m going to tell the whole truth, I have to admit that I’m enjoying the company more than anything else here so far. Meeting you feels like the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time, and I hope tonight is just the beginning, just the first of many great nights to come.”

“I hope so, too,” I nod, meaning it. “It’s certainly not every day that the most handsome, single man in town walks into the library and asks me out on a date.”

“Well, whoever he is, I’m just glad I got to you first.”

It takes me a second to realize he’s making a joke at his own expense, something I’m not used to from the guys around here.

“I’m glad you came in when you did,” I say. “And not just because you saved me from falling off that stool. Talking to you, being here with you—it all feels so easy and natural. It doesn’t feel like a first date at all, even though I had some pre-date jitters before you picked me up.”

“I feel exactly the same way, but I’ve just been going with my gut and my instincts. They keep leading me right back to you.”

I can tell that he means it by the look in his eyes. And I think as long as we both keep trusting our instincts, we can’t go wrong.

* * *

The night has gone by so fast and we’ve had such an enjoyable time that I’m not ready for it to end when we pull up in front of my house.

“Thank you for tonight,” I say, feeling a little silly for stalling like this, for wanting to keep the date going for just a few more seconds. “It’s seriously, honestly, been the best time I’ve had in a really long time, and the best first date I’ve ever had.”

“I can honestly say the same,” he grins, getting out of the car and walking over to give me a hand as I step out of the vehicle as well. Always a perfect gentleman, even just here in my driveway. “I’ll walk you to your door.”

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