Page 28 of All Yours

“But no one saw you bring me flowers.” She lifted the flowers to her nose and inhaled, closing her eyes.

“I bought them at the local flower shop. So, yes, people spotted me buying you the flowers.”

She smiled and gave her head an almost imperceptible shake, filling the vase at the sink. “You’ve put some thought into this.”

I’d put a lot of thought into dating her for real. But this would be a good way to practice that, right? I could see how it feels moving us from friends to more, and if we wanted to go that route. The way she lit up looking at those flowers, it wasn’t even a question.

Sloane removed the flowers from the wrapping and dropped them into the water. “I’ll cut the stems when we get back.”

She grabbed a black faux leather jacket from the hook behind the door.

“Let me help with that,” I said, taking the jacket and helping her into it.

“Thanks,” she giggled. “But save something for out in public.”

“Too much?”

“Not at all,” she said, taking her purse from the next hook.

The restaurant was in an old, renovated house just off the square. My company did the renovations and the restoration work. The owner was ecstatic with how the building turned out. He was a fine dining chef and served a menu of upscale Southern Cuisine. I’d called him to see if I could bring Sloane there for dinner since the restaurant stayed booked up weeks in advance. He was hooking us up with a romantic table near the restored fireplace.

“Wait, how did you get in here?” Sloane asked when we pulled up.

“I know the owner,” I said. “One perk of my job.” I rounded the truck to help Sloane out, but she’d slid out by the time I’d gotten around.

“I’ve always wanted to try this place,” she said, taking in the building. “But I’m uncomfortable eating out alone, so I’ve never been here.”

“Yeah, I live on the food at Lou’s.” We fell into step together, walking toward the restaurant. I let my hand brush against hers. A spark buzzed up my arm. “It’s almost like we’re cheating on Adrian.”

She laughed. “It’s okay that we go to another restaurant every once in a while.”

“That’s a bizarre concept,” I said. She hadn’t jerked away from my hand, so I brushed my hand against hers again and this time left our hands touching.

She stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked down.

“Is this okay?” I asked, sliding my hand around hers. My fingers tingled with electricity.

Sloane stared at our hands for a beat, then nodded.

Relief flooded through me. The line of rocking chairs and porch swing sat empty in the cool night air. That was unusual, as customers usually occupied a few of them. It wasn’t that cold yet. We entered the front door into a warm and cozy atmosphere. The sleek, black wooden host stand stood just inside the front door.

“Look at these floors,” Sloane whispered.

“Its Heritage Reclaimed Oak.”

The host greeted us and led us to the table in the corner beside the rustic brick fireplace. Eyes were on us as we walked to the table, hand in hand. I’d never noticed the stares like that before. People seemed to not pay any attention to us at Lou’s Lakeside, even when it was only the two of us. Maybe the hand holding had something to do with it.

“That fireplace is gorgeous,” Sloane said as I helped her out of her jacket.

“We had like three months of discussions over that thing,” I said, taking my seat.

“What about?”

“We hotly debated gas or wood burning.”

“As it should be,” she quipped, staring at the fire. “That is gas. It’s very realistic.”

“They ended up going with gas to control the heat and be able to use it all year long here.” I picked up the menu, but my eyes stayed glued to Sloane. She gazed out over the fire, the flames sparkling in her eyes.

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