Page 29 of The Last Date

His head whipped over to glance at me. “Exactly like that.”

“People change,” I said. “In high school, I was positive that I was going to be an artist.”

“What happened?” he asked.

“I have no natural drawing skill,” I said, trying to keep the sadness from my voice. “I worked like crazy for years, but it just didn’t really come.”

“I’ve seen a lot of paintings that have no drawing in them,” he said, pulling into a quiet neighborhood with tidy small houses. “Some of them look like they were painted with a shovel or a stick.”

My loud laugh surprised him. “One of our artists actually does that once a month. He lines up a bunch of different colors along the edge of a giant snow shovel, then goes into what looks like a mental trance. He paints the entire canvas in about sixty seconds.”

Oakley’s deep laugh was almost illegally sexy. “That sounds like fun to watch, actually.”

“He does it for online videos. The paintings are…shall we say, hit or miss. And it’s an expensive amount of paint.”

“Why don’t you do something like that?” he asked, pulling into a large house at the end of a small court. “Instead of a shovel, just use the little icing tools from cake decorators.”

Grabbing the bag at my feet, I got out of the car, nodding as I considered the idea. “I haven’t painted in so long that I guess it wouldn’t hurt to play with it a bit.”

The house was beautiful. Old-fashioned gray stone, with black shutters, and dramatic topiaries in black urns flanking the front door.

As we walked in, Oakley seemed to be watching my eyes carefully.

“It’s funny,” I smiled. “I had no idea what to expect. Your house is lovely.”

“What if it had been a tiny apartment in one of those crumbling beige buildings where the hallways always smell like cabbage soup?” he asked.

“Then I’d just have to smell this instead,” I said, dropping my bag and burrowing my face into his chest.

He always smelled incredible, but somehow, knowing that we were actually going to be spending the night together made me crave his light, earthy scent even more.

His lips brushed the top of my hair. “I missed you, my gorgeous angel.”

After we held each other for a moment, he left my bag and purse at the bottom of the stairs, taking me into a beautiful living room decorated entirely in earth tones.

I stopped in my tracks as I saw racks upon racks of salt and pepper shakers from all over the world lining the walls of his hallway.

“Oh, yeah,” he laughed, flipping the light on as I walked slowly up and down the hall full of dozens of shelves. “I told you about that.”

“This is sort of magical,” I said. It was corny and sweet, not something I would have expected from a rather huge, sort of tough guy.

“I don’t know a thing about decorating, but it’s fun, right?”

“Absolutely,” I smiled, following him to the living room.

“Pick anything you’d like to watch,” he said, turning on the giant flat screen and handing me the remote. “I’ll be back in a minute with snacks.”

I loved hearing him puttering around the kitchen. I loved that his home was so cozy and inviting. It was clear that I loved a lot of things about him, but felt like I still needed to be wary until I knew how he spent most of his time. By this point, I didn’t think it was anything sinister, but the curiosity was driving me insane.

He came out with two bowls of popcorn, both of them dressed with dark flecks and drizzles.

“One savory, one sweet,” he said. “Would you like some wine? Or I could make you a milkshake?”

“Do you want kids?” I blurted.

Oakley didn’t miss a beat, setting the bowls down and sitting beside me, his arm slipping around my shoulders.

“Yes,” he said emphatically. “I’d like to have two kids someday. What about you?”

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