Page 30 of A Dream for Daphne

Shorts on, a fitted T-shirt that had images in her head of her hands on his naked skin, and no hat or sunglasses on.

His brown hair was a little messy as if he was a towel dry-and-go type of person.

Just what she’d always liked since she was about the same.

“Calm down,” she told herself. She had to get under control before she went and made a fool out of herself yet again in front of him.

She got home and parked, then pulled out her four bags of food at once and walked in through the back door to unload them in the kitchen.

She had two hours to make a salad and drive to his house, but she didn’t even know where he lived or how long it’d take her.

Once she got the water started for the pasta, she put his address into a map and realized it was only about fifteen minutes away. Not bad.

But trying to relax her nerves wasn’t going to come easy.

Making the pasta salad didn’t take long enough to distract her, so she went to her room in search of something to wear and then decided not to change.

She wasn’t going to be who she wasn’t.

This was a casual dinner and if she put a ton of effort into it, she might give off the wrong impression.

She needed to take this slow and figure it out first.

For now, it was best to go as she looked, maybe put something nicer on her feet than her old athletic flip-flops that were her go-to on the weekend.

She rooted around in her closet—the biggest closet she’d ever had that she only used half of—found a pair of brown leather sandals and exchanged her black Nikes for them.

She went into the bathroom and pulled her hair out of the ponytail. She could at least do something with that.

After spritzing it down with some water and running her fingers through it, she managed to bring some life back into it and let it fall past her shoulders.

She had no makeup on and rarely wore it unless she was going out.

This could be considered going out, but she wasn’t going to layer it on. Not like she ever did anyway.

But she applied some foundation, a little bit of shimmer on her eyelids, and mascara.

Good enough.

After killing as much time as she could, she grabbed her pasta salad out of the fridge, put Abe’s address into her phone again, and then started her car. The map popped up and gave her directions.

Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty, and her mind was scattered.

Nerves, definitely.

But she was also worried that she might lose her mind and jump him again.

God, no, don’t let her do it.

It was the last thing she wanted to happen.

Too many stupid decisions in her life and this couldn’t be another.

She’d never been this attracted to a man before and hated that her actions might come off as if she was some whore jumping from man to man.

She took several deep breaths before she pulled onto his street, then parked behind his truck in the driveway.

The house was older, but it was an established neighborhood where many cared for their properties.

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