And that was why she shouldn’t have gotten on a motorcycle with Mitch. Because after two years of being fairly content to live her life without a man in it, she was once again aware of her inner thighs in a context other than wondering if they’d rub together if she made another run at the movie-night snacks. Damn him.
She leaned back as far as she dared and turned her head to the other side, checking out the roadside foliage, in an effort to discourage any further conversation.
As the miles passed, though, she relaxed again, and when he leaned back and turned his head to ask her where she wanted to eat, she didn’t bother freaking out over the close contact.
“You choose,” she hollered back to him.
After a while, he pulled the bike into the parking lot for a restaurant that was a little more upscale than what she was used to. She’d been there once, for a baby shower, but it wasn’t the kind of place she’d eat on a regular basis.
“Not really dressed for this place,” she said after he’d shut the bike off and they’d removed their helmets.
“You look fine and they don’t have a dress code.” He must have seen something in her expression, because his face softened. “Look, the service here is top-notch. You’re on your feet most of the day doing this, so let’s let somebody wait on you for a change.”
“Okay.” She wanted to point out it was a little expensive, but he obviously knew that if he was familiar with the service.
She had to admit, once they were seated at a table under subtle lighting with music piped in at just the right volume, that it was nice to relax and not be the one running back and forth to the kitchen for a change.
“When you go to a restaurant, do you spend the whole time comparing it to yours?” Mitch asked after the server had taken their orders.
“Not really. I don’t get out to other restaurants often, for one thing. And the Trailside Diner works well for me and for the town. That’s all that matters.” She took a sip of her iced tea, watching him over the glass. “When you go to a restaurant, do you spend the whole time wondering how you’d blow it up?”
He laughed and shook his head. “The last thing I do when I’m sitting across the table from a beautiful woman is mentally demo the building.”
Paige felt the heat spread over her cheeks and hoped the lighting was dim enough to hide it. “How did you end up destroying buildings for a living, anyway?”
“I’d always had an interest in buildings and engineering. During college I got a part-time job with a demo company. Small stuff, mostly. But I had an eye for it—the ability to see how any action would impact the structure. After I got my degree, I signed on with a good company and built up my résumé and my skill set until I could get the loan and backing to go out on my own. I get to secretly be a math and science geek and still have the coolest job in the room.”
“Do you still have to travel as much yourself, or do you have enough people now so you can relax and delegate?” When his expression changed—became a little more guarded—she replayed her words in her head and realized he might think she was fishing for signs he was heading toward settling down. “Sometimes I wonder if I’ll reach the point where I can hire a morning waitress and I can just be the owner. Or if I even want to.”
“I’m barely surviving this so-called vacation. It seems like I’m calling or emailing the office or Scott every half hour.”
“But you don’t have to, right? They’re doing okay without you, so you could take more time for yourself.”
“I don’t want to be hands-off. Northern Star Demolition doesn’t leave me a lot of time and energy for anything else, and I like it that way.”
Point taken, even if that’s not what she’d been going for. “How are things going at the lodge?”
He shrugged, but she noticed the lines in his face relaxed a little. “Hard to say. We can slap paint on it and fix broken boards all day long, but we haven’t sat down and figured out how to make it sustain itself financially. Or if it even can.”
“The economy will swing around again.” She gave a nervous laugh. “And here I am grilling you about work stuff when we’re in a fabulous restaurant.”
“You can talk about whatever you want, as long as you keep talking to me.”
Thankfully, their server chose that minute to show up with their food, because she had no idea what to say to that. She wasn’t even sure she could say anything, since everything inside her had melted a little.
She was in so much trouble.
*
Mitch wasn’t going to make it through the day without kissing Paige. He wasn’t sure how he was going to pull off the kiss, though. If there was one thing he’d figured out about Paige Sullivan, it was that moving fast would be like stomping his foot at a skittish cat. She’d flee and it would be a good long time before she let him get close again. But he wasn’t going to have a minute’s peace until he kissed her.