“I know, me too.”
We drove back to her house and I walked her to the door.
“Would you like to come in?” she asked.
I wanted to say yes. I wanted to sit up all night with her, but I knew we needed to pace ourselves and not try to fit an entire relationship into one night.
“No, you go get some sleep. I’ll call you tomorrow,” I told her.
“Okay. I had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you.”
She stood on her toes and kissed me again.
“No, thank you.” I kissed her back. “I’ll call you tomorrow and see if you’re up to another date.” I smiled.
“Please do.”
She opened the door and I backed down the steps.
“Make sure you lock the door.” I smiled.
She rolled her eyes at me.
“I will.”
I turned back to my car. I felt like I was walking on air. There was no way I was going to sleep tonight as I was too pumped up. I drove home anyway, excited about the prospect of seeing her again tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty
Kay
I slept better than I had slept in a very long time. I woke up at nine the next morning and I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept so long. I looked around the room. Sunlight was pouring in and I stood up to stretch. I had been a wonderfully perfect evening with Ethan. It was like something out of a book or a movie.
Despite the wonderful dinner I had the night before I found that I was starving this morning. I dressed in an oversized t-shirt and yoga pants and headed for the kitchen. I started the coffee and decided to make waffles.
My cell phone rang, and I nearly spilled my coffee trying to get to it fast enough in case it was Ethan.
“Hello?”
“Kay?”
“Sherry? Is everything alright?” Sherry had never called me at home on the weekend before unless it was something urgent for the office.
“Yes, of course. I was just calling to find out how your date went last night.”
I smiled and sat back down to my waffles. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Sherry wasn’t going to wait til Monday to find out what happened. “Well, first we went to The Garrison.” I started out.
“Ooh swanky, which floor did you sit on?”
“Uh, third floor balcony.” I said timidly.
“Ooh la la.” Sherry giggled.
“It was rather nice,” I admitted.
“Oh yeah. That is one of the most sought-after spots in the city.” Sherry assured me. “Did you have wine with dinner, too?” she went on.
“Of course.” I answered.
“Oh man, I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
“Sherry you need to get out more.” It made me very uncomfortable that she was living vicariously through my love life.
“Who are you telling? Got any candidates?”
“Gates Point is a big enough place that surely there must be someone?” I pointed out.
“You’d think, so wouldn’t you?” She sighed.
“Well, we’ll work on it.” I assured her.
“Never mind me, tell me more about your date.”
“We had dinner and talked, then coffee.” I recalled.
“Yeah, yeah!” Sherry urged.
“Then we went for a stroll along the seawall.” It was a little, dream-like.
“A stroll in the moonlight, how romantic.” She sighed.
“Yeah, it was. And then we sat down on this bench for a while watching the boats and he asked if he could kiss me.”
“What?” This was what Sherry had been waiting for. “He actually asked before he kissed you? Wow, his momma raised him right.”
I smiled. “Apparently so.”
“Then what happened?”
“Well, we sat and talked and kissed a few more times. Then he brought me home.”
“Did he spend the night?” She was persistent.
“No.” I said, thinking that was a pretty personal question. But she was undeterred
“What? It’s the twenty-first century and you’re the owner and flipping CEO of a company. I don’t think anyone would fault you for going after something or someone you wanted.”
“I know. But, I went down that road with Mac and look where that got me.”
“Okay, sorry. What happened?”
“He walked me to the door, we kissed good night and he promised to call me today.”
“That’s it?” Sherry said sounding disappointed.
“Yep, just your typical first date stuff.” I said laughing to myself.
“Has he called yet?” She asked.
“No, not yet.
“Oh my gosh what if he is trying to call now and we are talking, I should let you go!”
“Sherry, I would know if he was trying to call while I was talking to you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Well, just the same I’d better let you go.”
“Okay, well I’ll let you know what happens on our second date, if there is one.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’ll call.” Sherry sounded sympathetic.
“I hope you’re right.” Up until this point I hadn’t doubted he would call. Suddenly I was second guessing myself and thinking I might be overly confident. Yes, he had been sitting outside my house but that was before he actually had to spend an evening with me. Maybe, last night he decided I wasn’t who he thought I was and decided not to call. I stared at the silent phone and lost my appetite. I threw away the remaining waffles on my plate and poured another cup of coffee.
I decided I needed to keep my mind off Ethan for a while and dedicated myself to doing the laundry and cleaning the house. I kept my phone nearby with the ringer turned up just in case. It was nearly eleven when my phone rang. “Hello?” I answered.
“Kay, it’s Ethan.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Hi, how are you?”
“Good, you up for a little adventure today?” He sounded excited.
“Sure, what did you have in mind?”
“I thought maybe you’d like to go spend the afternoon on the water.”
It wasn’t what I was expecting but I was up for it. “Okay.”
“You don’t get seasick, do you?”
I laughed out loud. “No, I don’t get seasick.”
“Okay, Jared and Logan, two members of my team are going out on a charter boat fishing today and I thought maybe you’d like to join in.”
“Uh, I don’t know.”
“You don’t like fishing. No problem,
