Page 40 of Rules to Love By

“When I get back on Monday, let me take you to dinner.”

“Dinner. As in a date?”

“As in a date.”

For a long time, Marcus watched him, as if he was looking for a catch.

“Do you not date?” He supposed some people didn’t. He didn’t exactly date most of the guys he spent time with, if he was honest. Maybe Marcus didn’t either.

“Sure. I date.” He dropped his gaze back to his salad. “Been a hot minute, but sure.” He looked back up and smiled.

Eli noted the lack of dimple and wondered.

“Dinner sounds nice.”

“Okay, then. At the Oaks, Monday evening. Say, seven?”

This time when Marcus smiled, his dimple made a fleeting appearance. “Seven at the Oaks.”

“Excellent.” Something fluttered inside Eli at his acceptance. It was odd. He wasn’t given to nerves, but his heat seemed to have grown soft wings that beat erratically against his ribs every time he glanced from his lunch to find Marcus watching him.

It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant feeling.

CHAPTERNINE

Eli straightened his place setting again, then picked up the knife and rubbed at it with his napkin.

“You know, if you need a new set of utensils, you just have to ask for it.” Jake appeared at his elbow, holding out a fresh napkin-wrapped set of them. “Polished specially for you.”

“I’m good. Thanks, Jake.” Eli flashed him a smile that his nerves quickly vanquished. Then he went back to watching out the window.

“You nervous?” Jake asked.

Eli jumped, not having realized he was still there.

“I still get nervous before a real date with Lucy,” Jake offered.

Eli glanced over at the younger man. He remembered Jake entering grade nine while Eli was trying to complete his last year of high school for the second time. Back then, he’d felt sorry for the kid, who’d stood out as different because of autism he’d been born with.

Of course, Eli understood being different. Besides not being white, he’d struggled with school his entire life. Things that seemed to come easy to other people—even to Jake, with his own neurodiverse brain—did not come easily to Eli.

Jake dug in his apron pocket and pulled out a pen and pad of paper.

“Jake, I’m waiting. I’m not ready to order yet.”

He nodded and clicked open his pen. “Drink?”

“Just iced tea.”

“Sure.” He wrote it down, tongue between his teeth, before he turned towards the kitchen.

As he threaded between tables, Jake glanced over the other diners, removing empty glasses and assuring someone he could get them more bread to go with their soup.

Eli watched him, wondering if his nerves were that obvious or if Jake was especially tuned in to things like that. He fingered the spotless knife again and turned his attention to outside the window.

He’d counted a dozen tiny birds zipping past before the front door of the Oaks let in a gust of cool spring air and Eli’s date. “Whoa.” This was not handyman Marcus, sexy in a rugged, unassuming way. This was more than a few notches above the kind of guy Eli would ever have had the guts to ask out.

Marcus paused in the doorway, gaze roaming the tables. He was dressed in a flattering rebel professor kind of vibe in dark jeans, a colourful shirt, and a sports jacket. Battered Vans took just enough of the edge off fancy.

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