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“Green eyes.”
“Well, I didn’t know your birthday or if you played any sport where I could’ve added your number.”
“So you added my most attractive feature?”
I grin, shaking my head. “There are a lot of things about you that are attractive. I added your most soulful. It’s like I can look into your eyes and see everything you’ve seen.”
“I hope not everything.”
She’s quiet for a while after that, and I don’t push. Chef brings out a decadent cheesecake for dessert, and we eat until she sets her fork aside and wipes her lips with the black cloth napkin.
“What would Pawpaw say about my choice of restaurant if he liked my choice of pro teams?”
“I think he’d give you a ten.”
I bite my lip, wanting to push, but not too much. “Thoughts on a second date?”
“I don’t know. What do my green eyes say?”
This close, I almost don’t trust myself to look, but chickening out now is out of the question. How this girl isn’t tied down yet, I don’t understand.
Or maybe I do. She said she likes freedom. She wants to do things on her own. I could be jumping into a Stella scenario again…
My body rejects the thought as soon as it pops up. I won’t let it happen. Failure isn’t an option when it comes to Raeann.
“They say…” The outer green is a halo around the brown closest to her pupil. It’s almost like I can see myself reflected there. “You’re scared, intrigued, hesitant, but willing. And you really want to know what my dick looks like.”
She bursts out laughing, the sound sending a shiver up my spine. She stands, and I immediately get up to help her out of her seat.
When we get to the door after she says goodbye to the staff, she turns to me. “I’m really glad you were the only one looking at me tonight. I think I like getting special treatment.”
Of anything she could’ve said, that was the one thing that makes my dick twitch. She was completely mine tonight, and she liked it.
“Should we do it again?”
She shrugs. “Young Raeann thinks you’re the greatest catch in Tennessee.”
“Even better than Davey Perkins?”
“Definitely. He got the prom queen pregnant, and Granny told me she thought she saw him leaving Leslie Johnson’s—decidedlynotthe prom queen—house one early morning when she was heading to the doctors to get her eyes checked.”
The way her accent thickens when she talks about home makes me think I might actually know young Raeann. I fake gasp. “Rake.”
“That’s if Granny’s eyes can be trusted. She once mistook a weather vane for a crow. She had us thinking we were going to be cursed the entire year.” A ghost of a smile crosses her lips. “Turns out we kind of were, but she still can’t see for shit.”
I place my hand on the small of her back to lead her out of the restaurant. I need to lock her up and hide away the key because I won’t be the only one who notices Raeann Gorman.
They’ll have to get through me first, though.
“So that’s a yes to a second date, right? Your year will be anything but cursed if you agree.”
She pretends to think. “You’ve swayed me, Micah Freeman.” Her gaze holds mine. “Yes.”
11
Raeann
“That wine he bought was over a thousand dollars! I looked it up last night.”