He leaned forward, so our bodies were nearly touching and brushed a lock of hair off my face. My head tilted up, and I stared into those deep eyes, hanging on to every word with bated breath.
“Let’s suspend all preconceived notions about each other then. What do you think?”
I nodded. “I’d like that.”
Eleven
Jensen
Emery wasn’t what I’d expected.
I knew that I had told her to put preconceived notions behind us, but she was turning me on my head. I had thought she was just a hot piece of ass. Patrick wasn’t lying when he’d said I got a look in my eye when I was chasing women.
But Emery didn’t seem to be the kind of girl who just fucked around. She was smart. Another quality I was not used to in the women I dated. She was clearly driven and seemed to have her shit together. It was actually refreshing.
I hadn’t really known what to expect, walking into this. When I’d seen her at church, I couldn’t help myself. Landon had said she was going to be here for only a few days. What would he care about me going on a date with his ex? It wasn’t like we were going to get married or anything. No, I’d definitely sworn that off after Vanessa.
But, if this was a quick trip for her, then it wouldn’t be any different than hooking up with someone I met when I was away on business. We happened to meet in Lubbock and not when she was in Austin.
Emery’s phone buzzed noisily while we waited in line at Torchy’s. Her laugh was effortless, and I enjoyed the flush that followed. Whoever had just messaged her certainly made my night easier.
I raised my eyebrows as she shoved her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “What was that about?”
“Heidi,” she said, as if that explained it.
Heidi. Right. They had been together at the wedding. I liked Heidi. She was a bossy, hard-working, and energetic woman and an HR nightmare. Not for me, mind you, since I didn’t mix business with pleasure, but half of the men on my staff were head over heels for her.
“Heidi’s great. I don’t know what we would do without her. Though you’d never guess that from talking to her about it. How long have you known each other?”
We scooted forward in line, and she edged closer to me. I was glad that I’d gone for casual. I did enough fancy dinners to know when a girl was into it. As soon as she’d said that she didn’t carry a purse, I knew a fifty-dollar steak wasn’t going to do the trick. Plus, even though this never happened, I really did prefer this. Tacos were my favorite.
“That sounds like Heidi. Always the hard worker who acts as if she couldn’t care less,” she said, flipping her hair off her shoulder. “We’ve been best friends basically forever.”
“Well, she’s lucky then.”
She shook her head and nudged me. “Nah, I’m the lucky one. She keeps me on the straight and narrow.” She mischievously grinned up at me. “Well…mostly.”
I decided right then and there that I liked that look and would do a whole lot to make her keep looking at me like that.
“No one wants to be too straight and narrow.” I leaned down and whispered into her ear, “I color outside of the lines.”
She burst out laughing as we reached the front of the line, and I held out my hand so that she could order first. I left her to fill up her drink and then grinned at the woman behind the counter.
A few minutes later, we had our tacos in a bag, and I hefted them up to eye-level. “Ready?”
She tilted her head in confusion. “Tacos on the go?”
“We have places to be,” I told her.
Her eyes flickered between me and the bag of tacos. I couldn’t read what was going on behind those eyes. Is she enjoying this, or am I going too far? I did have things planned for the night, but they could change if she wasn’t interested. She looked adventurous, and I wanted to see if I was right.
“All right,” she said after a minute, “lead the way.”
We moved back out to my truck, and I passed her the bag of tacos after she hoisted herself up into the passenger seat. I didn’t always drive my truck either, but where we were going, it was always better to have four-wheel drive.
I sped us out of town, and Emery handed me my tacos. She suspiciously eyed me while we ate.
“Where the hell are you taking me?” she asked halfway through her second taco.
“You haven’t guessed?”
She seemed to consider it. “I mean…I know what’s out this way, but I have no idea why you would be taking me into the middle of nowhere on a first date.”
“Lubbock, by definition, is the middle of nowhere.”
“That is a fair point,” she agreed.
Her leg was bouncing in place, and I could see she was curious but trying not to be.
“You don’t like surprises?”
She shrugged and then grimaced. Then, she shook her head. “I mean…sometimes. Like, surprise, my sister is pregnant, that’s awesome. But I’m kind of horrible at this waiting thing. I was that kid who would sneak into my mom’s closet and peek at my Christmas presents. I called Oklahoma before they announced scholarship letters and convinced the person in administration to tell me whether or not I’d made it.”
I couldn’t help it; I laughed. She sounded just like me. If someone had planned something like this for me, I would be losing my mind, having to know what was going on.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she said, swatting at my sleeve. “I’m impatient.”
“I don’t fault you. I am the same way.”
“So…where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
Then, she slumped back down. “Ugh! Okay. I’ll wait.”
Luckily, she didn’t have to wait for long. Before she knew it, we pulled into the small town of Ransom Canyon. It was only about twenty minutes outside of Lubbock and generally considered a sort of suburb of Lubbock. Not that Lubbock actually had suburbs. It was just one of the closest towns.