A little knock sounds on my bedroom door and I turn to the already half open door. Hayley comes in and smiles when she sees my short black dress and high black patent leather heels. “You look so pretty Auntie Sierra.”
“Thank you,” I say.
She sits down on my bed and looks at me for a second. “And you’re going out with flower man?” she asks.
“His name is Chance.” I laugh. “But yes.”
“You should marry him,” she states, like that’s the obvious solution to all of our problems.
Maybe it is. I mean it wouldn’t be the first time. Our first date was technically our own wedding. “I think it’s a bit soon to be thinking about that.”
“Why? You love him,” she says.
God, how is she so clued in already? “Let’s just see how tonight goes for now,” I say.
She smiles knowingly. “Whatever,” she says. “He’s here by the way.”
My heart skips a beat as I imagine him downstairs waiting for me.
“Come on,” she urges.
I take one last glance into the mirror and then I follow Hayley down the stairs as she excitedly skips ahead of me.
“Penny said he’s handsome,” she whispers in a voice loud enough for the whole street to have heard her.
Penny is my neighbor’s sixteen year old daughter who is watching Hayley for me tonight. And she must be mortified now because her and Chance must have heard Hayley’s announcement.
“And what do you think?” I ask.
“I agree,” she states.
I rub the top of her head as we reach the bottom of the stairs.
She leads the way into the lounge and my heart skips another beat as Chance stands up as I enter. He’s wearing jeans and a black shirt and he looks so good. I just want to peel his shirt away and rub my hands over his stomach.
“You look beautiful,” he says as we stare into each other’s eyes.
“Thank you.” I smile, looking down at the ground, my cheeks burning as I feel Penny’s eyes on me.
Chance steps forward and hands me a huge box of chocolates.
“Thank you,” I say again.
“I was going to bring flowers, but well, you know.” He grins, gesturing around himself at every surface covered with the flowers he’s already sent.
I laugh and set the chocolates down on the side of the couch. I turn to Hayley. “You be a good girl for Penny okay?”
“I will,” she says. “We’re going to watch a movie and eat popcorn.”
“Sounds good,” I say. “Penny, call me if you need anything all right? And help yourself to anything.”
“Thanks,” she says. “Have fun.”
I say a final goodbye and hug Hayley, then I pick my handbag up.
We head out of the house.
“Hayley is a character isn’t she?” Chance says as he leads me to his car.
“Oh God, what did she say?” I ask with a groan.
“She asked me if she could be the flower girl at our wedding.” He grins at me.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I say.
Chance shrugs as he opens the car door for me. “Don’t be. I told her that would be just fine by me.”
He closes the door leaving me momentarily speechless but insanely happy.
He walks around the car and gets in the driver’s seat.
I decide to move the topic of conversation to something a little safer. “So where are we going?” I ask
“I told you. It’s a surprise,” he says as he pulls away.
“Bungee jumping? Skydiving? To the race track?” I tease. “I’m going to keep guessing until I get it right.”
“A little tamer than that.” He smiles.
“We’re going to your place aren’t we?” I say.
“How did you guess from that?” he asks.
“I didn’t.” I laugh. “I guessed from the fact we’re heading in that direction.”
“Clever,” he says. “And yes. We are. I’m no chef, but Matt is and he’s made us a lovely dinner that I just need to serve when we get there.”
“Sounds good.” I smile. It’ll be nice to be somewhere just the two of us, so we can talk. And maybe do more than just talking.
We reach Chance’s place and get out of the car.
He leads me to his front door and opens it and I step inside. “Go on through,” he says, nodding at a door in front of me.
I step through the door and gasp when I come into a dining area decked out with candles on every surface. The lights aren’t on in the room and the candles leave a beautiful, dim light that casts soft shadows over everything.
Chance follows me in. “You like it?”
I nod, momentarily speechless. Chance is really making an effort to do this right.
“Sit down,” he says, pulling out a chair. “I’ll bring dinner in.”
I sit down in the seat he’s pulled out and pick up the full wine glass from in front of me. I take a sip while he goes through to the kitchen. I can hear him rattling about in there and I smile to myself as I look around. Chance is definitely surprising me tonight. He’s going all out, and having known him for so long, I never would have expected him to do all of this for me.
He comes back in with two plates in his hands. He puts one in front of me and sits down opposite me with the other.
I can’t help but give a soft laugh when I see our dinner.
“What?” Chance grins. “Your love for fast food inspired me.”
The dinner is a burger with all of the trimmings and a huge pile of fries, but it’s clearly not a store bought one and when I pick
