“I turn into a pumpkin,” Hailey answered him with a wink.
“That I’d like to see,” Dillon told her, a smile curving his mouth as it seemed to snake its way up to his eyes, as well.
“Stick around long enough and you just might get to witness it,” she answered.
“Promises, promises,” Dillon responded with a quick wink.
Hailey felt the wink burrow its way directly into her stomach, creating its own little tidal wave as it came to rest there. No doubt about it, the man had a way of stealing her breath away.
Chapter Nine
It seemed nothing short of a minor miracle to Hailey just how she managed to move around the spa for the rest of the day, seeing as how her feet didn’t actually make any contact with the floor beneath them.
She really was floating on air.
She had a date with Dillon.
Each and every time she thought of that, her stomach would do a little dance, completely throwing off her equilibrium, not to mention that her stomach wound up tying itself all up in knots. Granted the date wasn’t until the end of the week—Friday—but it was a date. An official date that had absolutely nothing to do with her work or his.
At the time, just before they went their separate ways from the flea market, it had taken her a few minutes to realize he was asking her out. Dillon had adorably stumbled through the invitation and at first she hadn’t been sure if he was asking her if she liked eating at the restaurant in town, the one he and his brothers were currently involved in renovating, or if he was asking her to eat at Osteria Oliva, the Italian restaurant that had recently opened at the far end of the shopping center. Maybe he wanted a layperson’s point of view on the work that had been done.
When Hailey finally unscrambled his words—no easy feat—Dillon had looked almost as surprised as she was at the invitation. It was almost as if the invitation had come out of his mouth of its own accord. But what counted was that it had come.
Hailey smiled to herself. The man was definitely not a smooth talker, but she liked that about him. The last few men in her life had all been silver-tongued bad boys who, she had found out later in each relationship, had a penchant for juggling more than one woman at a time in their lives.
It had gotten to the point that she had started to think—unhappily—that she had a type, and not a good one. Or, at the very least, that she was prey for a certain type of male.
Her smile deepened as she relived the moment he had asked her out. When Dillon had finally gotten out the invitation, he would have made the “aw, shucks, ma’am” Gary Cooper type very, very proud.
Hailey found his shyness extremely sweet. It was refreshing. At least she knew when he said something he meant it and wasn’t just spouting empty words in an attempt to win her over and talk his way into her bed.
That in itself was more tempting than she would have thought possible. Dillon’s utter awkwardness was exceedingly seductive.
But she was getting ahead of herself. She needed to pace herself, to go slow instead of just diving headlong into the waters. Despite all her warnings, though, Hailey could feel her pulse racing each and every time she thought of spending time with Dillon.
Hailey sighed. It was going to be a long, long week, she thought.
She was right. It was a long week and time just seemed to dribble by one excruciatingly elongated moment at a time.
But finally, finally after what seemed like an eternity, it was Friday.
Hailey made plans to leave the spa early in order to give herself plenty of time to get ready for her date. But life, as it was wont to do, had other plans for her, starting with two of her yoga instructors waylaying her just as she was about to leave the building.
It seemed that the instructors were teaching classes with conflicting time slots.
So, with her mind already at home, going through her closet for the perfect outfit to wear tonight, Hailey had to get her thoughts in gear so that she could reschedule the two classes. Once that had been taken care of, she found herself on the phone, calling each one of the prospective clients who had eagerly signed up for the classes.
Hailey was well aware that it was a task that could have easily been delegated to someone else to handle, but since the wellness spa was still in its infancy stage, she felt that it better if she personally expressed her regret to each client. She assured each and every one of them that something like this wouldn’t happen again.
In addition, to make sure that everyone involved had their ruffled feathers smoothed, she had given the women who had signed up a discount. It had been an arbitrary last-minute decision on her part and it seemed to have done the trick.
The moment she had finished the calls, she left her office and dashed to her car. Gunning her engine, she glanced at her watch. She was going to be cutting it close, Hailey thought. The relaxing bubble bath she had promised herself had to—out of necessity—turn into a very quick shower.
She still hadn’t settled on what to wear, but that too was going to have to be a quick decision rather than one painstakingly arrived at after trying on a variety of different outfits.
She did her best to calm her ever-growing nerves, reminding herself that Dillon wasn’t taking her outfit to dinner, he was taking the woman in the outfit to dinner. Namely her. She had a feeling he would only notice the outfit unfavorably if she came wearing a shapeless burlap sack and a used one at that.
No,
