Page 28 of Her Cowboy Christmas
“First date?”Cole asks me as he starts the truck.
I wince.“Is it that obvious?”
“I can tell you're nervous.I am too,” he admits.
“You?”I blurt.
He chuckles.“It’s my first date, too.”
“What?How?”
“Well, no one ever asked me out, and I never asked anyone else out,” he explains.
“But… why?”
“Why didn’t I ask anyone out?”he asks as he drives to the restaurant.
“Yeah.”
“I never wanted to.”
“Huh.”
“Growing up, people looked at me like I was a troublemaker because I was a foster kid.It took a while to shed that reputation, and by then, I was making plans for my future.When I was in the military, I was focused on other things, and then I moved here.”
“So, it was just a lack of time?”
“Time and desire.I was never interested in anyone.Not until I met you.”
My stomach feels like it’s full of butterflies.I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart as we pull into the restaurant parking lot.
“What about you?No one you ever wanted to go out with before?”Cole asks as we climb out of his truck.
“No.And even if there were, no one would have asked me out.”
“Idiots.”
“Have you been here before?”I ask, changing the subject.
“No, not yet.What about you?”
“No.”
We head in, and Cole talks to the hostess as I look around the place.It’s quiet and dimly lit.Twinkle lights and white tablecloths give it a romantic atmosphere.
I smile as Cole takes my hand and we follow the hostess over to our table.
“Your menus,” she says, handing them over with a flourish.
I tense as I take the menu.
“Thanks,” Cole says.
The hostess nods and returns to the front of the restaurant.
“So,” Cole says as I flip my menu open, “I looked at the menu online and I think you’ll like the filet mignon with mashed potatoes and the Caesar salad.Or”—he grabs the back of my chair before I can react and drags it around so I’m sitting next to him—“I’ll read the menu to you, and we can decide what we want together.”
“You don’t have to.What you said sounds good,” I say, falling a little more in love with him right then and there.
