Page 24 of Sugarplum Dreams
“It was about money, rather than the things that were really important, your children.”
“Yes.” She nodded, grateful that Wilson understood. He truly got it and knew why she couldn’t do what everyone thought she should have done and fought for child support.
“You chose the harder way, in order to do the better thing for your children.”
“That’s right.” Their eyes met, and she felt like something stirred between them. Something real and…visceral. Her fingers started to tingle. She was suddenly very aware of where he was across from her, and for some reason, she wanted to move closer, to move her hand so it touched his, like she needed that physical contact.
She didn’t know how long they stared at each other. It was probably only a few seconds before the waitress came with their orders, setting a plate down in front of her and one down in front of him.
After saying they should let her know if they needed anything, she walked away. The spell was broken. Although, the feeling remained. The feeling that…she liked Wilson. Truly liked him, not just as a person, but…as a man.
She wasn’t under any illusions that he felt the same about her though. After all, she was a lot different than he was. She could go through all the ways that she was inferior, but she didn’t want to depress herself.
Instead, she looked at her food and closed her eyes, breathing in the aroma and feeling totally spoiled and coddled at the food that she had not had to prepare, that was sitting in front of her ready to eat.
“Shall I pray?” Wilson asked as she opened her eyes.
“Sure,” she said, smiling and closing her eyes again. She listened to his deep voice rumble across the table. She did still have some misgivings, mostly related to what people were going to think when they found out golden boy Wilson McBride had taken up with her, scourge of the town. Although that might be overestimating it just slightly, people were going to talk. They were going to say that she did something to catch him, to snarehim, because she didn’t think that any of them would believe that he wanted her for her.
And that wasn’t true anyway. He didn’t want her for her, he was here because he felt it was the will of the Lord.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked, already having a bite of food on his fork and having it lifted halfway to his mouth.
“I just want to savor the moment. This is so nice.”
“We’ll have to go out at least once a week. You know, date night and all of that.”
“I don’t even know what date night is anymore.”
“Well, I’ve always thought that a man should court his wife before their marriage and date her afterward, but… I wasn’t expecting to marry a woman with five children. It might be kind of hard to get away from them.”
“The hard thing is finding someone who’s willing to watch them. That’s never easy.”
“I see. Thanks for the warning. I guess I should start lining people up.”
“You do that. Let me know how it works out for you. Typically, people run the other direction when they find out that I want them to watch my children. It’s not that the kids are so bad, it’s that there’s five of them.”
He laughed as she stuck the first bite of her meal in her mouth and closed her eyes, trying not to sigh out loud. “We’re definitely having date nights. At least until you can eat without closing your eyes and making groaning sounds.”
“I did not groan.”
“I heard you.”
“You’re making that up.”
“I’ll record it next time and play it back to you. In fact, I can use it as blackmail.”
“Fine. I’ll stop groaning.”
“Actually, you should keep groaning, because I’ll take you out as long as you keep doing it.”
“Just so you can make fun of me?”
“You’re so cute when your cheeks get red, and your nose turns pink, and you get that self-conscious smile on your face because you know I’m right.”
“I know no such thing. My hearing is getting bad, because I’m getting older, but I would definitely hear myself groan, and I did not, so I maintain that I did not groan.”
He put food in his mouth and just gave her a superior look. It was fake, and cute, and she giggled. He was so much fun. Funny and charming and thoughtful and considerate… Perfect. He was perfect. She had no idea what the man was doing with her.
