Page 23 of The Playboy and the Waitress

Cruz looks up, seeing me standing behind them, and I can tell he wants to say something else, but he has already done enough damage. When Dage turns around I can honestly say he is almost scary. He sets the glass he is holding down and takes my hand, pulling me gently behind him as we walk out of the room.

We walk outside and the moment he closes the door of the place behind him, I hear him take a deep breath. I saw my dad like this a few times as a kid and I know when it's time to talk and when it’s not.

I was originally upset when I walked into the room hearing his friend talk about me like I was white trash. But the moment Dage told him off proved to me that he wasn’t going to let these people bully me around. Even though I knew before we left this was going to be a mistake, it still means a lot that he stuck up for me.

The ride home was quiet, his hands were curled up on the steering wheel so tightly that I was worried he was going to twist it off. I reach up, taking his right hand off the wheel gently lowering it to my leg.

I hear him let out a sigh and then he squeezes my leg affectionately. “Jenna, I’m so sorry.”

“What for Dage… sticking up for me? You can’t help what others say or do and even though I may not have enjoyed that little outing, your friends seemed genuinely concerned for you.”

“Those people are only around me because of my family and what they can gain from me. They are not my friends... Do you have to work in the morning?”

“Yeah, I have a midday shift, so I won’t be home until late.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

“No Dage, if we were done, you would know it.”

“Jenna, I swear I never saw that coming. I would have never taken you there if I thought they would act that way.”

We pull into my driveway and the first thing I see is Brutus standing in the middle of one of my flower beds, eating my tulips that had just bloomed. Before Dage could say another word. I had already jumped out of the car and was stomping through the yard yelling at Brutus.

“Damnit, Brutus I'm going to turn your ass into hamburger. I have waited all winter to see those things bloom only for you to eat every one of them. Get your big ass back in the pasture now.”

He looks up at me with a bright red tulip hanging out of his mouth and when he starts to reach down for another one I smack him on the ass. “Don’t you even think about it!”

He twists his head back to look at me and I swear you could see him trying to figure out how he was going to get the rest of these before I ran him off. “Brutus!” He steps back, pushing his large body against mine and then steps out of the bed, slowly walking towards the gate.

Dage steps out of the car and holds the gate open while I walk next to Brutus encouraging him to keep walking. When he is finally through the gate Dage pushes it closed.

“What would you have done if he didn’t listen to you?”

“I have a whip that I can use. I have never struck him with it, but he hates the sound it makes. Most of the time though he will listen, now I’ll have to check the fence line to see where he got out. If I don’t do it now, he will just wait until I go in the house and come through it again.”

“You want some help?”

“No, and you wouldn’t do me any good in those clothes anyway. No dress shoes allowed in this neck of the woods, city boy. And even though my favorite boots are apparently out of style, I’m not going to ruin them out here either. So, I'm going to run in and change, you don’t need to stay. I have fixed a couple of hundred feet of the fence line in my life.”

“I’m out of my league with you aren’t I, Jenna?”

“Honey, we are like two pieces of the wrong puzzle. A puzzle we would love to fit into, but the edges are just too sharp.”

I watch him run his fingers through his hair and he seems genuinely upset, but I have had enough this evening and I'm simply ready to get back to what I know.

“Can I text you later?”

“Absolutely.”

I can see he wants to say something else, but he finally just kisses me on the cheek and turns back to his car. I don’t watch him go like I have all the other times. My mind is busy, and my feelings are slightly hurt by what they said about me. As much as I like Dage, and lord knows we have great chemistry, I just don’t know if I want to go through that kinda criticism all the time, even for him. I wonder what it was about me that shouted… outsider? Oh well, none of that, or them, actually matter in my world. Only saving my tulips does at the moment. Mom would tell me to pull my big girl panties up and get to work, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

CHAPTER11

For the next few days, my emotions are up and down. Several times I start to call Dage to break things off between us, but something seems to stop me each time. I swear I must be asking for punishment because I’m not stupid enough to not realize their opinions of me would ever change.

I am halfway through my shift when Alecia comes running down the hallway towards me. She grabs my arm, yanking me towards the front door. “Damn girl, what did you do to that man? Did you finally let him clean the cobwebs out of that thing? Because unless he is in trouble, that’s the only reason a man would spend all this money on something like this.”

“What are you talking about?”

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