I pick up the bowl and spin around. "Would you take this out to the table?"
"Sure thing." He goes out there while I fill some glasses with water. He comes right back. "Need anything else?"
"No, I got the rest."
He starts searching through the drawers. "Got a corkscrew?"
"Second drawer on your left. And by the way, it's not good manners to go through people's stuff without asking."
"I did ask." He finds the corkscrew.
"Yeah, after you already started searching."
"When a job needs to be done, I do it. I don't wait around to be told what to do." He has the corkscrew in place and opens the bottle faster than I've ever seen anyone open a bottle of wine. "When you're leading a construction crew, you can't be indecisive. You can't stand around, figuring out what to do. You make a decision and you go with it."
"This isn't a construction project. It's just dinner."
He goes to open a cupboard, then stops. "Wine glasses?" He grins. "See? I asked that time."
"Next one over." I go outside with our waters and moments later he appears with the wine. "You can sit down. I just need to get the bread."
I go in and get it and as I'm walking out, I smile a little, seeing how nice everything looks. The flowers, the wine, the meal that I made.
I actually made a meal. A real dinner. And I have a guest. A guest who can be kind of annoying at times, but overall is a good guy who brought me flowers and wine.
Even if we never do this again, I'm glad we did this tonight. It's normal. And it seems like a really long time since I've done anything normal. Normal used to bore me, but now? Normal is good.
I'm doing something normal. And normal is good.
Chapter Ten
Nash
"Callie, that was awesome."
We just finished dinner and are now lingering at the table, having another glass of wine.
"It's just spaghetti," she says.
"Yeah, but that sauce was freaking amazing. Best I've ever had, and I've eaten at some damn good Italian restaurants back in Chicago."
"Thanks." She smiles, drawing my attention to her lips. She has full, beautiful lips. "Thanks for the wine. It's really good."
I chuckle. "I got it at the gas station down the street, but yeah, it turned out to be pretty good." I swirl it around in my glass.
She stands up. "I'm going to clean up the dishes."
"You're not kicking me out already, are you?"
"No. You still have to finish that pie Lou gave you. I'll bring it out." She takes our plates and goes inside.
I take the pasta bowl and bread basket and meet her in the kitchen. "Where should I put this stuff?"
"You can just leave it there. I'll get it later." She's at the sink, rinsing off the plates.
"You made dinner, which means it's my job to clean up." I stand behind her, reaching around for the plate she's holding, but in doing so I rub up against her.
She freezes and there's a moment of silence, a tension in the air. Sexual tension. It's been there all night. Actually I think it's been there since the moment we met but I've been trying to ignore it.
"I've got it," she finally says, sounding breathless.
"Callie." My hand is still on the plate she's holding. I pull it away from her and set it down in the sink.
"What?" She turns around so she's facing me and I notice her chest rising and falling. Our gazes collide and I can see it in her eyes. She wants this as much as I do.
Before any rational thought takes over, I bring my hands to her face, gently tip it back, and lower my lips to hers. I kiss her softly, gently, finally feeling those gorgeous lips I've been staring at all night. I feel her hands move to my sides, gripping my shirt as she kisses me back.
We both stop for a moment, our lips barely touching, her warm breath mixing with mine. Then her tongue slowly licks over my bottom lip and I'm gone. Completely gone. I tangle my fingers in her hair, gripping the back of her head and pulling her into me, kissing her fiercely, my tongue pushing past her parted lips. My body presses into hers, backing her up against the sink. She moans and grips my shirt even tighter.
I don't think I've ever been this turned on by just a kiss. I want to do more, so much more, but I've only known this girl a couple days and I don't feel right moving this fast with her. I'm just starting to get to know her and she still hasn't told me much about herself. I like Callie. I like her a lot, and I don't want to screw up our friendship, or whatever this is, by having sex with her tonight.
She moans again and I almost change my mind about the no-sex thing. My arms are primed and ready to lift her up on the counter and do her right here in the kitchen.