Page 45 of Fierce-Jax

15

PLANS CHANGE

“I’m glad this worked out,” Jax said on Monday.

“Me too,” Dillion said. They’d pulled into the parking lot of another restaurant for date number two.

He knew last Friday would have been too soon for a second date. The weekend would be with her daughter.

But they did text a few times and she suggested today.

He just hoped he had the same amount of bodily control as he had when he left the restaurant on Thursday.

Watching her eat that dessert made it hard—pun intended—for him to get out of his chair.

And when she acted as if she wanted a kiss in the parking lot, he told himself that a hug was all he had the restraint for.

It was bad enough that he was up all night tossing and turning until he had to relieve the pressure himself.

Didn’t make him sleep any better though.

“How was your day?” he asked.

“Good,” she said. They walked in and he held his fingers up for two when the hostess looked over the heads of a group of people in line to see them. The hostess ushered them ahead andseated them quickly. “Are we going to play the awkward game again?”

“No,” he said. “I wanted to wait until we sat down,” he said. “But I wanted to know how your day went.”

“Better,” she said, smiling. “After I talked to Gianna’s Pre-K teacher this afternoon.”

“Oh no,” he said. “Problems?”

“You don’t want to hear this,” she said. “I’m not even sure why I brought it up.”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to,” he said. “Seriously. I do like kids. You know that.”

“I do,” she said. “Which I have to say has been hard for me. At my age, it’s fifty-fifty if I have a kid or have been divorced, but not everyone enjoys having to worry about fighting for attention or dealing with exes.”

“So you’re divorced?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “I was never married. And I know we touched on this briefly. I’ll swing back to it in a minute if you don’t mind.”

“You lead the conversation,” he said.

They got their drinks and placed their food orders. Going to dinner wasn’t a big deal to him, but it put a limit on the night.

“Thanks,” she said. “You’re from the area, right?”

“I am,” he said. “You?”

“I lived in Cary, but my parents moved just outside of Durham when I was in elementary school. I live in the same community as them now. It’s convenient.”

“As busy as your life is, you need that,” he said.

“I do,” she said. “I was doing my residency in Charlotte. I met Alec Cannon then. Dr. Alec Cannon. He was an ER doctor. He was five years older than me and we hit it off.”

“You probably had a lot in common,” he said.

“We did,” she said. “Or I thought so. I wouldn’t call him a nice guy.”