Page 62 of To Belong Together
Some of his tension melted. “Your dream car’s blue.”
“Black is close enough, if it’s free.”
Then they had a deal. The opportunity to drive his car might compensate for the inconvenience of being stranded in Fox Valley.
“You should come to the rehearsal dinner tonight.” She’d be the one bright spot for him. Besides, he refused to allow her to spend a lonely evening in a hotel room while he attended a party.
She chuckled and pinched the shoulder of her hoody. “Like this?”
“Cocktail attire. I’ll have to buy clothes too.”
“A dress?” she asked.
“I don’t think anyone wants to see me in one of those.”
Her answering laughter, genuine and unchecked, erased more of his lingering self-consciousness. Making her laugh felt as good as winning an award, and she wouldn’t have brought up the dress code if she planned to refuse his invitation.
“I’ll get a suit,” he said. “And yes, most of the women will wear dresses.”
Erin’s trim figure made even her stuffy uniform look good. She’d be a knockout in a dress.
Wait.
This wasn’t supposed to be a date. His stomach wrenched, remembering the way she’d rejected him when he’d asked her to coffee. If she suspected he had romantic intentions tonight, would she laugh and refuse? After that show on the highway, he had even less going for him than when he’d initially asked her out.
She made a face over the dress, but then shrugged. “All right. It’s a date.”
“A date?” Weakness still haunted him, and maybe he wasn’t thinking straight yet.
He shouldn’t have let hope coax those words from him.
She licked her lips and shrugged again. “I should’ve said yes to coffee. I didn’t realize you’d orchestrate a snowstorm to corner me into it, but if it means this much to you …” Her line of sight flitted to his face, and then away, her full bottom lip between her teeth.
The pink returned to her lip when she released it. What would the shade of her lips do if he kissed her? Could he make her whole face flush? He turned forward and focused on the falling snow. If he made a move so soon after what had happened on the interstate, he’d probably black out from too much stimuli in too short a time.
“I mean, if that’s what you had in mind.” Erin spoke quickly. “Maybe you were only making sure I didn’t go hungry. If that’s the case, then it’s not a date. It’s a meal, I guess. Unless now I’ve made this whole thing—”
“It’s a date.”
She flashed him a broad smile, and he kept his cool by focusing on the snow.
20
Erin smoothed her hands over the dress she’d found at the department store. She and John had gone their separate ways to shop.
Thirty minutes after they’d arrived, he’d texted,Done.
A separate text followed a moment later:No rush.
She’d laughed. He was as succinct in text as he was in person. And then she’d laughed some more because he thought he was rushing her when she’d already checked out and had been waiting for ten minutes.
The fifty-dollar dress had seemed like a gigantic splurge, considering her parents’ needs, but at least she’d fit in that extra job this morning.
Now, however, as she studied her reflection in the hotel mirror, she regretted not spending more money and time on this decision. The last time she’d worn a dress had been high school homecoming. At the dance, she’d sat at a table and joked around with friends. Had anyone caught on to her heartache as the boys whose cars she’d fixed, including her biggest crush, danced with other girls, never even glancing at her? She hadn’t stepped onto the dance floor once.
But that was a different night. A different dress. A different guy.
The fabric of this number was thick instead of lacy, and the skirt gently flared as though she had noticeable hips. The hem ended two inches above her knee. She hated tights, but given the weather, she’d struggled into a pair of black ones and slid her feet into plain heels. The two inches they added shouldn’t be a problem, since John had at least that on her.
