Page 5 of Hesi-Dating
"Excuse us," one of them slurred. "Oh, my God. Aren't you the sheriff?" The blonde elbowed her friend. "Carrie, it's the cop on Insta I told you to follow. I'm sure of it."
I stiffened, dreading where this was going. I used to be able to say "I'm married,"but now I had to figure out how to duck out of whatever proposition was about to come my way without hurting feelings.
The one named Carrie said, "Are you here alone? Want to join us?"
Joley leaned around me to address the woman. "It's not him. He gets mixed up with the sheriff all the time. This is Nate, not Seth. He's ten times hotter than the sheriff guy, and he's with me."
"I don't know. You sure look like him," Carrie said while scrolling on her phone. I hoped she wasn't about to show-and-tell social posts my department's PR coordinator posted.
"Hon, why don't we take off?" Joley asked.
"Sure." I put a few twenties on the counter beneath the dip plate and took her hand.
Outside, she let go of my hand.
"Sorry about holding hands all the way out of the building. I thought it'd help with the ruse." My apology fell flat.
"We're good."
"You didn't need to rescue me from those ladies."
"Sure I did. You helped me out. Only seemed fair I do likewise." She bumped her shoulder into mine. "It's okay. Lighten up."
I realized I’d missed that she wore heeled boots with her skintight jeans. The shoes gave her an extra inch or two, which brought her up to my shoulders. Even with the extra height, I felt so much taller than her.
I pushed back the brim of my hat. "I’d do it again for you if you needed it."
She smiled. "I believe you would."
A current hummed between us. An undeniable connection. I couldn’t remember a moment like this when I wanted to bury my hands in a woman’s hair and discover the taste of her lips. In past dating experiences, I had all the romance planned out in my head well ahead of time. Right now, I was running on spontaneity, which wasn’t one of my strengths when it came to relationships of the past. Maybe it was time I tried something different.
She pulled cash out of her mini-purse and held it out.
"That's too much."
"At least go halvsies." She shook the bills.
"Keep it. Call it a thank you for making my first date in a long time memorable."
She nibbled on her lip, an endearing quirk. "Okay, thanks. Walk me to my car. Then we’ll say goodbye."
We strolled up the hill away from the restaurant in silence, me slowing my long strides to allow her to keep up. The sound of my slightly uneven gait in cowboy boots, the slight scuffing of my right leg in comparison to the left, the one that had been shot, rang out in the silence between us. She'd notice.
I slow-released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding when she didn't say a word as we made our way up the hill.
With us almost to the point of saying goodbye, I felt a sense of desperation not to end the date. There’d been no one I'd talked to like this in forever. No one who saved me without asking for something in return. No one as insightful and refreshing. I lost my wife and the guy I considered my closest friend at the same time last year. In retrospect, neither of them had ever sat and just talked to me without judgement like Joley did tonight.
She slowed next to a crookedly parked gray Honda sedan. The butt of the car stuck out at an odd angle. In the light cast from a streetlight, I caught her cheek flush when she noticed me checking out the parking job.
"So I can’t parallel park." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Please don’t tell the DMV."
"My lips are sealed." I held back a smile.
We stared at each other as if searching for words. Need powered through me. Need to keep talking to her. Need to feel everything with her. To touch her, kiss her—hell, I wanted physical reassurance that the electric attraction I felt was real. Maybe it’d be like this with any woman I dated from now on?
She cocked her head. That little smile was back on her lips. "We’re in different mental places right now. You’re not ready for me. Hot sex potential aside, you’re too messed up over your divorce for you and me to…"
I moved into her space to cut her off and leaned in until my lips were a fraction of an inch from hers. The pants of each of her breaths tickled my skin. She wanted me to kiss her. "We might be in different head spaces, but there’s something here. It's unexpected, but there's something real."
