Page 47 of Suddenly Dating
Harry was irritated now. Maybe because there was some truth in her accusation. “Just because I’m not married doesn’t mean I’m some player, you know.”
“I wouldn’t know what it means because I don’t know any men as old as you who aren’t married. What are you, forty?”
Harry’s jaw dropped. “I’m just shy of thirty-four! And don’t look at me like that,” he said, pointing a finger. “You’re not exactly fresh out of college, either.”
Lola gasped.
“Am I wrong?”
“No, you’re notwrong,but you’re not supposed to say it!”
“Do you not hear yourself?Youjust said it to me. How old are you, Lola?”
Her eyes were dancing with amusement now. She picked up the biggest bucket of plain Greek yogurt in the display case and put it in his cart. “I just turned thirty-one. And now, you’re probably doubly shocked that someone my age is already divorced.”
“Wrong again. Because I don’t have any preconceived ideas about divorced people. I wasn’t even thinking about your divorce.”
“Then what were you thinking about? Baseball?”
He was thinking that her eyes, pale blue and crystalline, were the aquamarine color of their pool—he was not thinking about his major gaffe last night. “Not that,” he growled.
“Mm-hmm. We need some ground rules.”
“Some what?” he asked, confused by her non sequitur.
“Groundrules.” She walked on, to a frozen-food case. She opened it and a bag of something frozen went flying into his cart. Harry glanced down; it was edamame. He opened the case next to hers and pulled out two Hungry-Man dinners.
“What are you doing?” she cried. “You can’t keep buying that stuff.”
“Why not? Has there been a recall? Because if there hasn’t, I’m getting about ten of these puppies.”
“No! It’s not good for you, Harry. How did you ever graduate from Cornell? Those things are full of preservatives and dyes.”
“Too bad,” he said, settling the boxes into his cart. “I have to eat.”
“I’llcook,” she said.
“I don’t want you to cook for me.” He didn’t want to be beholden to her for anything. Even if he did find her meals to be excellent.
“That’s good, because I am not cooking foryou,” she said, as if he was being ridiculous. “I cook because I like it. I’m going to cook no matter what.” She leaned over and picked up the boxes from the cart. “And I can’t, in good conscience, let you continue to eat these things. They aresonot healthy.”
“Really? Because as fantastic as your food is, I must point out that the mac and cheese wasn’t exactly healthy.”
She rolled her eyes. “Iknowthat, Harry. I was just showing off. Mostly, I cook healthy food.” She opened the freezer and returned the frozen dinners to their place. She shut the door and dusted off her hands. “You’re not going to win this one. You made me come to this grocery store, so now you’re going to have to humor me.” She arched a brow at him, daring him to argue.
“Fine,” he said, and threw up his hands in surrender. He wasn’t sorry at all. He was relieved—he honestly didn’t know how many more frozen dinners of some sort of meat product and frozen peas he could take.
“This means I’m going to need more kale.” She walked past him, in the opposite direction. Harry whimpered helplessly and turned the cart around, following her back to the produce section.
Lola had already picked up more kale and some garlic by the time he reached her. She deposited them in his cart, looked up, and asked, “How long have we been together?”
Harry shrugged. “A month?”
“Amonth?And we’re already living together? No way.”
“Okay, three months, then,” he said.
“Wow. I hope you don’t really jump into relationships that quickly, pal. Six months at least.”
