“Uh...no.”
Dozer looked at Josh, who shook his head slightly. “That’s more for marrying, not soiling.”
Ryan made a mental note to kick Josh’s ass later.
But Dozer wasn’t finished yet. “You seduce my daughter, and then you buy her dinner? And you think that respects her?”
Ryan wasn’t sure who had seduced whom, but “seduce” was a better word than “soil” any day of the week. He mentally flailed for a way to answer the question.
“I’d taken her out for a meal before,” he blurted. Meeting her at the diner and paying for her burger probably wasn’t what her father had in mind. And even though they hadn’t technically gone together, he added, “And we went to my brother’s wedding.”
Dozer narrowed his eyes. “So you’re dating my daughter?”
“Yes, sir.” He thought so, anyway.
“I suppose you want a discount.”
“No, sir. I just want to buy some flashing so I can get back to work.”
“My wife will want to meet you.”
Ryan was going to start downing a shot of something hard before coming into town. “Mrs. Dozynski has known me my whole life.”
Not that anybody saw much of her. She refused to learn to drive and preferred staying home to going out and socializing.
“True. But now you’re dating my daughter, no?”
“I’ll mention it to Lauren.”
“Good. I’ll get the flashing. How much do you need?”
Ryan told him and he disappeared into the back room. Josh managed to wait until he was out of sight before he broke into laughter.
“I knew I should have left you in the truck.”
“You should have seen your face when he accused you of molesting Lauren.”
“I just wanted flashing.”
“Fran’s good friends with Mrs. Dozynski. I hope we don’t have to tell Rose she can’t have half-and-half for her coffee because you were soiling Lauren.”
“I should have let Sean drown you the day he got you stuck in the toilet trying to give you a swirly.”
*
“We could have gone to the diner, you know,” Lauren said, trying not to laugh at Ryan’s expression as he read the offerings of the upscale restaurant they’d driven an hour to get to.
“The diner’s not a date. It’s just...the diner.” He flipped the menu over, saw the back was blank, then flipped back to the front. “Oh, steak tips. We’re in business.”
“So this is our first date?”
“Let’s call it our third.”
Maybe his definition of a date and hers weren’t quite the same. “How do you figure that?”
“I think lunch the day you were working at the hardware store should be our first date. That way Mitch’s wedding could be our second date. And then I spent the night.” He grinned across the table at her. “I don’t want people to think you’re easy.”
She laughed. “Funny. You’re a real funny guy.”
“Actually, that’s kind of how your dad thinks it went.”
She stopped laughing. “My dad? What are you talking about?”
“I went to the hardware store for some flashing and he wouldn’t sell me any because I’d soiled you, so I had to convince him we’d been dating before I, you know, soiled you.”
“Wait. Soiled?”
“Josh was helping him with his words.”
“Great. So you convinced him we were dating.”
“I really needed the flashing.” He winked. “Did you know Nick refers to me as your you know, whatever? He called me that the other day when we were working on the trails.”
“That sounds about right for Nick.” She traced a trail in the condensation on her water glass. “What word would you use?”
“Helpless sex toy,” he said without any hesitation.
“You’re shameless.”
He lifted his water glass, his gaze locked with hers. “When it comes to you, absolutely.”
The waiter appeared to take their order, breaking their eye contact, though his presence didn’t put a dent in the hot anticipation she’d been practically tingling with all day. The diner might not have fit his definition of a date place, but if they’d gone there, they’d probably be in her bed already.
They talked about a little bit of everything while they ate. The lodge and his family and Nick. Then they moved on to books and music and television shows and movies.
“Here’s something I never thought I’d say,” she said, “but I can’t believe I had sex with a man who can quote every line of Spaceballs.”
“It was pretty good, though, wasn’t it?”
“Spaceballs?”
“No, the sex.”
She shrugged. “A little short on quotable dialogue, but it was pretty good, yeah.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I guess I’ll have to try even harder.”