“Thank you. I would like you to trust me to pick all the fixtures after you help narrow it down to the two choices, though. Can you give me that responsibility? I promise I will not choose anything that will scare away potential buyers.”
He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “I will trust you with the final decision.”
Hallelujah. With that concession, the rest of the shopping trip went much smoother. At the end of the trip, everything was ordered, and Aaron’s stress level was significantly lower.
He offered to take her to eat as they left the home improvement store. Even though she had wanted to strangle him in the store, they had survived, and she still wanted to spend time with him. That had to say something about their compatibility.
Aaron drove them to Tim’s Taqueria. Bonnie used to go there with Lauren, Mary and Cheryl for Margarita Thursdays. She hadn’t been there since before the wedding.
“I thought you said you were never eating here again,” she teased.
Aaron’s hand stilled on his keys in the ignition. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
“I’m kidding. You do not need to punish Tim for something he did when he was nine. That would make me a huge hypocrite if I let you do that.”
He turned his car off and took out the keys. “You are very correct. Let’s go eat.”
Always the gentleman, Aaron held the door of the restaurant open for her. The taqueria was brightly colored. Sunshine yellows and pinkish reds covered the walls. The booths were upholstered with colorful Mexican serapes, and decorative Talavera tiles covered the tables.
Since Bonnie was a regular, she knew most of the staff. Greg, the host, greeted them with a smile until he recognized her. She could feel the rejection coming before the words came out of his mouth.
“Bonnie,” he said, like her name was a terminal disease. “Can you guys give me a minute?” He stepped away, and she knew he was going to get reinforcements to ask her to leave.
“We should go,” she whispered to Aaron, trying to tug him back toward the door.
“What? Why?”
“They’re going to tell me I’m not welcome. I don’t want to make them say it, and I definitely don’t want to hear it.” When she lived in her little bubble, she could forget that much of the town thought she was a backstabbing wedding wrecker. She hadn’t eaten out in Blue Springs since she’d been banished.
“Oh, I hope he went to get Tim. I will remind that guy that you don’t hold a grudge for actual things he did to you, so it’s pretty unfair of him to mistreat you for something you didn’t do.”
“I really don’t want the confrontation.” She tried again to pull him away.
“You can’t run away from these people. You need to force them to be mean to your face. To explain why they are being horrible humans.”
“They think I am a horrible human, so they don’t feel bad,” she tried to explain. The longer they stood there fighting about this, the greater the chance that she would have to live through another hurtful shunning. “Please, Aaron. I don’t want to do this.”
Greg and Tim exited the back kitchen area and were heading their way. Aaron didn’t fight her any longer and left with her before the two men came to kick them out. She felt sick to her stomach, and the tears were threatening to fall. She punched the dashboard and immediately regretted it. Cradling her aching fist, she cursed her bad luck.
Aaron took her hand in his and gently kissed her throbbing knuckles before letting her go. Bonnie covered her face with her hands. It was so embarrassing that she couldn’t even eat lunch somewhere without drama.
“Hey, come here,” Aaron said. When she dropped her hands, he had his arms open. She shifted in her seat so she could fall into his embrace. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t stand that people make you feel this way. You do not deserve it.”
She liked the way it felt to be in his arms. He made her feel safe and cared for. “Tim’s margaritas aren’t even that good. They don’t even salt the rims of the glasses.”
“Well, thank goodness we did not have to suffer through mediocre Mexican food and drinks. My famous tacos are way better than theirs, too.”
Bonnie sat back and gave him the skunk eye. “You make famous tacos? You? The man who grew up in a house with a personal chef knows how to make tacos?”
“I’ll remind you that I did go to college, and I did not get to bring Byron with me. I also live on my own and have to eat.”
She loved that he didn’t take himself too seriously. He didn’t act as entitled as he was. “I can’t wait to taste your tacos. I’ll make you my famous margaritas, and we’ll have the perfect meal.”
Aaron started the car. “Frozen or on the rocks margaritas?”
“Frozen. It’s summer. You have to have frozen margaritas in the summer.”
Aaron snickered as he pulled out of the parking lot. “You and I would do perfectly fine on a private island. We don’t need anyone else. I’m this close to kidnapping you and taking you away from all of this.”
He made her skin tingle with his words. No one had ever made her wish to be kidnapped before until Aaron. Where he wanted to go, she would follow.
HONESTLY, AARON HAD never made tacos before. He had, however, eaten plenty of them. He also knew how to google recipes and read, so thankfully it wasn’t too difficult to make something edible.
“Those were quite possibly the best shrimp tacos I have ever eaten in my life,” Bonnie said, leaning back in her chair and patting her stomach.
He raised a glass to her. “And I will need another margarita, because you were not lying about how good these are. I
