Page 18 of One Night in Alaska

10

GEORGIA

Beau had asked me to go to dinner with him. I wasn’t sure if that was because he was feeling something like what was beginning to build inside of me or if he was just being friendly. If there was one thing I’d learned about Beau so far, it was that he was one of the nicest, most thoughtful guys I’d ever met.

We stopped back at his house, and I found that he’d had his housekeeper clean my clothes. Even though it wasn’t what I would normally wear to dinner, as the outfit was quite casual, Beau assured me there wasn’t a place in Sitka that was considered “too fancy” for my outfit, so I took a shower to wash the fishy smell out of my hair and got dressed in my own clothes. The outfit he’d loaned me had been perfect for fishing. I still had to wonder who the clothing belonged to, but I hadn’t gotten the courage to ask yet.

When I was ready to go, Beau was waiting for me in the living room, looking nice in a pair of dark jeans and a button-down blue shirt. He was a muscular man with a nice shape, but I couldn’t let my eyes linger on his chiseled physique for too long or else I’d end up throwing myself at him and never make it out the door. He’d been too nice to deserve to have to peel me off him like an orange rind.

“Wow. You look nice,” he said, turning to smile at me.

I looked down at my outfit, the same casual look I’d had on when I’d met him the day before. “In this?”

“In anything,” he said with a shrug. The comment seemed so natural, I found myself blushing. Images of myself wrapping my arms around him came to mind again.

I cleared my throat. “Ready?”

He nodded and ran a hand through his hair, looking away from me. Did I make him uncomfortable somehow?

By the time we got to his truck, he seemed fine again. Beau opened the door for me, and I got inside. “Obviously, the best restaurants in town serve seafood, but there’s one that serves other options as well, if you’d prefer something else.”

“Seafood sounds great.” I buckled my seatbelt as he went around to get in behind the wheel.

We chatted about our fishing excursion as we made our way through town. The sun was still up, and lots of people were meandering around the sidewalks. Several of them waved at Beau as we drove by, and he lifted his hand politely. It seemed that most of the residents of Sitka knew and liked Beau.

“What’s your last name?” I blurted, realizing I’d never asked.

“Ramsey,” he told me with a lopsided smile. “I guess we’ve been officially introduced now?”

Laughing, I said, “Yeah, I guess so. Funny, it never came up.”

“Well, at least when I told you my name, you weren’t confused about it being a location.” We both laughed at that. It was funny when he thought I was saying I was from Georgia.

We pulled into the parking lot of a local seafood restaurant called The Bow, and Beau came and opened the door for me. “Is this place named for you?” I teased.

“Um, no. It’s pronounced the other way—like the bow of a ship,” he clarified.

I had figured as much but only nodded as he led me inside. We got a nice booth near a window right away, and once again, everyone seemed to know Beau.

Taking the menu from the waiter, I opened it and asked Beau, “What do you recommend, Mr. Ramsey?”

“Gosh, pretty much anything,” he said, looking over his own menu. “The crab is always good. So is the lobster. I don’t know if you want to try the salmon after your earlier experience, but I would always recommend that as well.”

I couldn’t help but make a face at him, which had us both giggling. “Poor Mr. Fish,” I said. “I hope he made a full recovery.”

“That fish you tossed back is the luckiest fish alive,” he said, smirking at me. “Do you know how often a full-sized salmon gets a second chance to live in a place like Sitka?”

“Probably not too often,” I admitted. I knew that people had to eat, and I wasn’t a vegetarian by any means, but the idea of taking a bite out of an animal I’d plucked from its home just didn’t sit right with me. It seemed different somehow, at least in my mind, to eat it after it had been caught, processed, and then prepared by someone else.

“I think I’ll be having the lobster tonight,” Beau told me, setting his menu aside.

I’d been thinking about having the same, but it was so expensive, I wasn’t sure I could afford it. Not that I thought that Beau would expect me to pay. He’d offered to pay for the hotel, so I had no doubt he’d pay for dinner, too, if I didn’t arm wrestle him for the bill.

“That does look good,” I admitted.

The waiter stepped back over just then, so Beau ordered for both of us, but double-checked with me. “I’ll have the lobster, and so will the lady—yes?”

In a way, it made me feel important to have him take the lead, but it wasn’t rude either. I’d had guys order for me without even asking what I wanted before. I hated it when they did that. Especially when they ordered me a fucking salad. Just because I wasn’t a toothpick, that didn’t mean I needed their help in watching my weight.

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