Catherine shrugged. “I don’t know. But if the light in your eyes is any indication, you do. And I’d hate to see you lose that special someone out of fear.”
Unable to control it, Kayla grinned. “He was different and sexy and…”
“And?”
“He listened,” she said, somewhat embarrassed. “He seemed interested but I’ve been out of the game too long to know for sure.”
“You don’t need experience to know if he makes you feel good. This guy could be it.”
Kayla had the sense Kane was most definitely it. “I don’t really know him,” she reminded her sister.
“But you want to.” Catherine read her mind as she had so many times in the past. “And just wait until he gets a look at you tonight.” Walking back to the closet, Catherine reached inside and tossed something across the room.
Kayla stood before the full-length mirror behind the door. She spun around once more, shocked at the woman whose reflection she saw there. “I don’t even recognize myself,” she said, as she added the finishing touch, a wide headband that would provide both warmth and style for the night ahead.
“That’s because you’ve been so busy hiding behind conservative clothes and a job that involves geeks not hunks. You’ve just forgotten there’s a woman inside.”
Was Catherine right?
Between her old accounting job and now running her aunt’s business, Kayla had stifled her sense of self. Add to that her deliberate lack of a love life, and things seemed pretty pathetic about now.
Her sister placed her hands on Kayla’s shoulders. “At least this guy has brought my sexy sister out of her shell.” Catherine grinned.
“He’s a customer,” Kayla said. As if that meant anything. As he’d said, the customer thing was an excuse for her to yes to a date without over thinking. It was eerie how well Kane McDermott had understood her.
“Since when do you date a customer?”
She met Catherine’s gaze in the mirror. “I don’t,” she admitted.
“I know. And that’s why I think you should go out and feel for once. Take things from there.” Catherine plucked at the headband, straightening it to look suitably stylish. “The clothes are just the trappings of freedom. The rest is up to you.”
Catherine turned her toward the bedroom door and steered her into the hall. “I’ll drop you off at the restaurant. It’s on my way and, besides, I want to get a look at this guy firsthand.”
“Checking him out, Mom?”
Catherine shrugged. “We’ve always looked out for each other. No sense stopping now.” She glanced at Kayla. “You think about what I said. You might live to regret it if you don’t.”
Kayla took her sister’s advice, all the way to the outside of the restaurant.
Before he’d left Charmed!, she and Kane had exchanged numbers and he’d texted her directions, correctly sensing she wouldn’t have let him pick her up. Too much too soon.
Catherine pulled the car up to the restaurant where Kane waited on the top step, his elbow resting on the brass railing. Irresistible in a black leather jacket, she couldn’t tear her gaze off him.
Catherine’s whistle brought Kayla back down to earth.
“I take it you approve?” Kayla asked.
Catherine answered with a grin.
Drawing a deep breath, Kayla ran her fingers through the waves in her hair and stepped out of the car. Kane was by her side in an instant.
During the brief introductions and small chitchat between Kane and Catherine, Kayla could barely concentrate, her thoughts on Catherine’s earlier words. Was this man, this date, a not-to-be-missed opportunity? Could he be someone important in her future? Though Kayla wasn’t sure, she was about to find out.
And who deserved an honest chance more than Kane McDermott, the first man to excite her and impress her? The first man to look past her appearance and who genuinely seemed to like the woman within.
* * *
With his hand on her back, Kane steered Kayla out of Fenway Park and into the dimly lit Boston streets. The Sox had won in extra innings, and the woman beside him hadn’t uttered a single complaint about sitting through the long game or the continuing drop in temperature. Under ordinary circumstances, he’d call the date a hit, but Kayla was no ordinary woman, any more than she was his real date—a fact he had to keep telling himself.
“Did I mention how much I loved that restaurant?” she asked.
Only about ten times, he thought, wondering why the hell the notion pleased him so much. “The meal or the atmosphere?” he asked.
She laughed, the sound doing more to warm him than his heavy leather jacket. “Both. Wall-to-wall books…” She spread her arms wide, knocking into the people emptying out of the stadium along with them. “Oops.”
Her laughter was contagious, her love of something as simple as books, refreshing.
“But who would have thought of turning a library into a restaurant, and keeping the old volumes on the shelves? How have I lived here for so long and never even known about that place? Where did you find it?”
“I have my sources,” he said, deliberately vague.
“Well, tell them they were right on target.” She laughed again, and this time his stomach twisted with regret. Careful research and discreet questions into her background had revealed the blond bombshell was also an intellectual. Reading was obviously a hobby of hers, one he’d taken advantage of tonight.
The stab of regret took him by surprise. His job had never bothered him before and it shouldn’t now. As part of his assignment, he could just as easily clear her as convict her. So what if he had to dig deep and personal in order to accomplish his goal? But one glance into those trusting eyes turned him inside out. She wouldn’t appreciate the lie. If she was guilty of running a prostitution service, he shouldn’t give a good goddamn. But he did, and the guilt stemmed less from sensing she wasn’t
