Page 36 of Welcome Home, Cowboy
They walked down a narrow hall in silence.
“About yesterday afternoon,” Lawson said before they reached the workout room.
Julie looked up. “Class starts in two minutes. We don’t have time to talk about…um, that.”
And something told him she didn’t want to talk about it.
“After class then,” he said. “Let’s go back to the Seaside Café. I sometimes have a sweet tooth before bed.”
She folded her arms across her chest, and he forced himself not to look down. She was sweet. He could definitely eat her up and take her to bed.
“Okay,” she agreed. “We’ll talk after class.”
For the next hour, Lawson went through the movements. He half-assed them at first, but then found himself working hard to keep up. More embarrassing than letting a few of the guys see him do yoga was doing yoga and sucking at it. Sweat lined his brow by the time Julie concluded the final sequence.
“Namaste,” she said, a soft smile blooming on her face as she looked out at the people in the class. It was obvious she loved doing this. Lawson admired that about her. He admired a lot of things about her.
He rolled up his yoga mat and placed it back on the stack in the corner of the room. A few of the people in class had carried their own mats. They’d also been wearing appropriately fitted clothing, unlike him. He took his time cleaning up his gear and putting his shoes back on, waiting for everyone else to leave.
Then it was just him and Julie in the room.
She met his gaze and it was all over. He’d intended to take her to the Seaside Café and tell her that he was sorry for kissing her; that it wouldn’t happen again. And he suspected she’d agree with him one hundred percent. Looking at her now, though, those thoughts were blown to pieces. He was taking the woman in front of him—the one who’d spent the last hour volunteering her time to help service members de-stress, the one who’d played with his niece this week and hadn’t been scared off yet, the one who’d dominated his thoughts since the moment he first met her—and doing everything in his power to get her to want to kiss him again.
—
Julie shivered as she stepped outside.
“Want to ride in the truck with me?” Lawson asked.
She shook her head. “I’ll drive and meet you there.” Being in a closed space with him might make her do something crazy. Like kiss him again. Plus, she needed time to think about what she was going to say because at the moment she had no idea.
Val had told her to go for it with Lawson. It didn’t mean things had to get serious between them. And after dating Daren, Julie didn’t want things to get serious. She pulled into the parking lot of the Seaside Café and watched Lawson pull in beside her. He had that cowboy hat on his head again, which made her smile. Then her chest got all fluttery just looking at him.
They walked inside. The diner was fairly empty tonight with only one other couple seated in a corner booth.
“A sweet tooth, huh?” Julie said as they stepped up to the counter and waited for the waitress to take their order.
“This place has the best cheesecake you’ll ever have. Care to share a piece with me?”
“Um, sure.” Julie nodded. “You order and I’ll grab us a table.” Not that there was a risk they wouldn’t have a place to sit. She just needed space.
A minute later, Lawson laid a slice of cake in the middle of their table and handed Julie a fork. He sat across from her with his own fork.
“I don’t usually share,” he said, gesturing for her to take the first bite.
She slid her fork down into the smooth piece of cheesecake. “I’m honored.”
“You should be.” He winked when she looked up. “How was Sabrina today?” he asked.
Julie laughed. “Too funny. We played Barbie dolls and enacted every scene from the movieFrozen.”
“I’m impressed that you’ve seen the movie,” he said.
“Have you?” she asked.
Lawson scratched his chin. “I have. But don’t tell anyone. First yoga and now Disney movies.”
Julie stiffened. She didn’t want to take offense, but she couldn’t help it. “What do you mean by that?”
