Page 38 of An Overdue Match
She swallowed hard, the muscles in her throat giving her away. After a moment, she dipped her chin and pulled out of his grip, lowering herself to the leather bucket seat. Tai stayed rooted to the spot. She’d heard him, but he rather thought she hadn’t reallyheardhim. Finally, he roused himself, sighed, shut the door, rounded the hood, and climbed behind the wheel. He wouldn’t press. Not now. But this was a conversation he would circle back to in the future. It was too important not to.
“Just so you know.” Evangeline’s voice was thick. She spoke but kept her eyes focused on a spot outside the car’s front windshield. “This isn’t going to be someBeauty and the Beastthing.”
Tai started the ignition, the power of the engine causing the car to rumble and vibrate under them. “Of course not. One,I’m not keeping you hostage in an enchanted castle. Two, and you must concede this point, I’m much better looking than Prince Adam in either his human or beast form.” Tai hooked his arm over the top of the steering wheel and waggled his brows at Evangeline.
She peeked at him, her lips twitching as she tried valiantly to hold back her laughter.
Tai redoubled his efforts, hooking one side of his lips high on his face and dipping his head in her direction as he pointed finger pistols at her. It was an Elvis Presley/Flynn Rider/Danny Zuko mash-up meant less for a real smolder effect than to get her to let loose her laughter.
And it worked.
She rolled her eyes even as a mellifluous sound escaped her pert lips. “Whatever that is”—she waved a hand at him—“it needs to stop.”
Tai grinned. “What? Can’t handle my charms?”
She snorted. “Charms. Right. Okay.” She shook her head, taking a moment to compose herself and hide all evidence of amusement from her face. “ImeantI’m not going to ignore the fact that I’m here for no other reason than to hold up my end of the bargain, and I’m definitelynotgoing to fall in love with you like in some fairy tale.”
“At least not before the last petal on the rose drops.” Maybe most guys weren’t familiar with Disney princess classics, but most guys were allowed to spend their childhood outdoors playing sports and getting into mischief. His mom had preferred him in front of the TV where she could keep an eye on him and make sure he was safe.
“Stay delusional if you want, but I warned you.” She let herself relax against the seat, then a second later sat bolt upright, her eyes huge as she frantically looked around the inside of the car. “Wait, what kind of vehicle is this?”
Tai followed her gaze around the interior of the car butcouldn’t see anything that would cause her the distress that made her muscles tighten like guitar strings. “It’s a Dodge Challenger, why?”
She groaned, closing her eyes. “Please tell me you aren’t some kind ofFast and Furiouswannabe.”
He smirked at her while the car idled in her driveway. At this rate they’d never get on the road to the restaurant. Did he care? Nope. The date hadn’t even officially started, and he was already enjoying himself more than he ever thought he would.
“Why, Miss Kelly, are you intimidated by the horsepower under my hood?”
“Why, Mr. Davis, are you trying to parse a double entendre to overcompensate for something?” she fired back.
Tai laughed and reached for the shifter to put the car in gear.
Evangeline covered the stick with her own trembling hand. “Seriously, though.” The banter had vanished from her voice. A real fear had entered her eyes. “You aren’t going to drive irresponsibly in this thing, are you?”
Tai studied her. “Would you be more comfortable if you were the one behind the wheel?” No one ever drove his car but him. For her, though, he’d make an exception. Especially if doing so evicted the trepidation from the contours of her eyes.
Her fingers flexed on the shift. “Honestly, yes, but I don’t know how to drive a manual transmission.”
His lips pulled down. Everyone should know how to drive a stick shift. He let his thumb trail over the hills and valleys of her knuckles in a touch of comfort. “I promise I always drive responsibly, and this car is safer at taking these mountain turns than top-heavy vehicles are.” He waited while she seemed to be weighing his words in her mind. “So, are we good to go?”
She removed her hand from the gearshift and sighed. “As good as I’ll ever be.”
Tai watched her a moment before putting the car in gear. It took an extra fifteen minutes to get to the pop-up restaurant since he didn’t go a single mile per hour above the speed limit. Ten minutes after that, they were seated at an intimate linen-covered table for two in the middle of a courtyard created by the dual shipping containers on either side, converted into a traveling venue for the chef’s events.
“This place gives a new meaning to reuse, reduce, and recycle.” Evangeline looked from the Edison bulbs hanging crisscrossed from the containers’ roofs to the freestanding heaters glowing red to combat the nip in the early spring air. “I’d say it’s very trendy, but I have a neighbor who has a bench made out of cinder blocks and railroad ties, so a restaurant from a few shipping containers seems right on point for this neck of the woods.”
“We Tennesseans embraced farmhouse chic before the Gaineses made the style popular.”
She let out a breathy laugh. “Something like that.”
They both picked up their menus and perused the options. The server came along with tall glasses of ice water and took their order.
Tai settled his forearms against the edge of the table once the server left. “So, did you think over the questions I asked you?”
Evangeline pulled her gaze away from the hanging bulbs and settled her green eyes on him. “Oh, we’ve come to that part of the night already, have we?”
“Hoping I’d forget?”
