Page 32 of The Lover
Always the plan. To come back to Riverbend, but not her own damn house. She was right though. Now that I had her, now that I had reached a place in my head where it was okay to have her, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off her if she was at the house regardless of where I kept my clothes.
In fact, I could feel my hands twitching now. Wanting to reach for her because she was standing in front of me.
“I should get back to work. Paying customers and all that.”
I nodded. We had to go around the front of the restaurant because we couldn’t get in through the back door. It felt like all conversation came to a complete standstill as soon as we walked back inside. Then I took my seat in an open booth. Once everyone could see I wasn’t hauling Ellie away, they went back to their own business.
I ordered the chili and a Coke. Ellie cheerfully brought me a refill on the Coke. It was all very civil.
She wanted to be wooed. She wanted flowers. I brought her flowers for her damn birthday.
Then I fucked her brains out. Not exactly romantic.
It was hard to admit I had treated Ellie in any way that was less than respectful. But she was right about that too. I had dated Janet for weeks before I’d ever considered taking her to bed.
And sex with Janet was nothing like being with Ellie.
When I was done I paid the check and left a tip (twenty-five percent, because I was a good tipper normally) and asked if I could have another moment with her outside.
Ellie agreed and walked me to my truck.
“Ellie Samson,” I said, because she hadn’t changed her name when she married me. “Will you do me the honor of going out on a date with me sometime?”
She clapped. Then her face got very serious. “Yes, Jake Talley. I would love to go on a date with you.”
I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll call you.”
“Can’t wait. Have a good day.”
It wasn’t until I was halfway back to the ranch that I realized I was still smiling. Because Ellie was back in Riverbed. Because we were going to go on a date.
So yeah. It was a good day.
* * *
Istaredat my phone later that night and realized what she said. It was true. I never called her at school. I never reached out to her. Only that one time when she had failed to call me, and I thought now that was probably deliberate on her part.
I wasn’t sure why I didn’t call her. I guess it all went back to this feeling that Ellie and I weren’t normal. That I couldn’t push her in any way to be with me. That she needed to have options. For her own protection.
Which in the end I shut down for her by telling her she couldn’t date anyone else. Yet she didn’t seem to mind.
At some point, just like I had to come to terms with her making decisions for herself, I also had to come to terms with the idea that she had feelings for me and those feelings were real.
Not going to lie. It felt good.
I dialed her number and she answered on the second ring.
“Hey!”
“Hey. I was hoping I could take you out to dinner on Friday.”
“Friday works.”
And there it was. That simple. Our first date. “Okay, I’ll pick you up around six thirty and make the reservations for eight.”
“Ooh, reservations. Does that mean what I think it means?”
“Thought I would take you to the Chop House.”
