To The Single Dad in the Store by J.S. Cooper
Chapter Seventeen
“Hello, this is Steele.”
His smooth voice made me smile. It was funny how the thought of his face made me swoon now. Maybe that was the reason why I’d been such a bitch in the beginning. Maybe I’d wanted his attention from the very beginning without realizing it.
“I know,” I pointed out. “Why did you call me?”
“I had to call you, Nellie, I’d just got your text message. What’s that about?” He sounded chagrined.
“I was just seeing if we could hang out on Sunday instead of on Saturday?”
“What do you mean, hang out? I thought Saturday was a date?”
“Well, it is.”
“So, why are you saying hang out?”
“Can we change our date to Sunday, please?”
“Why do you want to change the date to Sunday?”
“Well, my best friend wants me to do something with her and …”
“And do what?”
“Hang out.”
“You can’t hang out with her on Sunday?”
“I guess she’d already planned something for Saturday.”
“I see. All day?”
“Kind of. It’s sort of a long, complicated thing and …” I stumbled over my words, not really knowing what to say. “I’m not really going to be free on Saturday. I mean, is that okay? Can we do Sunday?”
“I suppose so,” he agreed. “I have a party on Saturday, so I guess I should go to that.”
“Oh? A party? Something fun?”
“Not really. It’s for work.” He didn’t sound very excited about it. “One of those boring law firm things.”
“You weren’t going to go?”
“No. I’d much rather take you on a date than hang out with my colleagues. But I guess you’d rather hang out with your friend than go on a date with me.”
I couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice if he was teasing me or not, but I wasn’t going to let him rile me up. He had to know I liked him. I mean, he had to, right? And if he didn’t, what was the point of any of this?
“Why are you so quiet, Nellie?” He interrupted my thoughts. “I’m just joking. It’s okay. We’ll go out on Sunday.”
“Are you sure? I’m not sure if you’re upset with me.”
“No, why would I be upset?”
“I don’t know—because we made plans to have a date on Saturday, and now I’m calling you a couple of hours later to tell you that the date is no longer happening?”
“Well, number one, you didn’t call me, I called you,” he said, and then we both started laughing. “I’m glad you’re a good friend, Nellie. It’s nice that your friend can count on you. And I should go to my work function, anyway. The partners will want to see me there.”
“So then, it’s not a bad thing that I’m not going?”
“No, it’s not a bad thing at all. I mean, I would much rather see you, but if I can’t see you, I guess I’ll work.”
“It’s a party, it’s not work.”
“Trust me, when you work at a law firm and you go to a law firm event, it’s work.”
“Okay. I believe you.”
“Just wait until you’re in the working world, Nellie. You’ll see.”
“Don’t remind me.” I lay back in the bed and made a face at the ceiling. “I don’t even want to think about having a job and what comes next.”
“Well, I guess you’re lucky.”
“What do you mean you guess I’m lucky?”
“I mean, it doesn’t seem like you have to work.” He paused. “I mean, not that you said that, but …”
“But what? Because my parents own a bank, I don’t have to work?”
“Well, I would think if your parents owned a bank, you wouldn’t have to work. Right? Unless the bank is not successful, and then that’s really not a good thing.”
“I know,” I laughed. “I mean, yes, my parents are successful, and yes, they would support me while I figured out what I want to do, but I don’t want to be that sort of person, you know? I don’t want to be the trust fund baby that lives off their parents’ and their grandparents’ money. I want to achieve something. I want to do something with my life. You know, my brother, he’s engaged to this wonderful woman called Birdie, and I’d known her since we were young. And Birdie comes from a well-to-do family as well, but she has a job and she’s really going for it, and—”
“Did you say her name was Birdie?”
“Yes. Why? Do you know her?”
“No, I don’t know her, but that’s a really funny name. Birdie, like a bird?”
“Yes, Birdie like a bird. It’s B-I-R-D-I-E, though, not B-I-R-D-Y.”
“Okay. So, that means she’s not a bird?”
“No, she’s not a bird. You’re so goofy.”
“I know. You bring out that side in me.” He paused. “I’m really glad you were a Karen that day in the supermarket.”
“Stop calling me that!”
“What? It’s funny. Maybe you should change your name to Karen.”
“Steele, if you say that to me one more time …”
“What, you’re going to hang up?”
“Yes! It’s annoying, it’s frustrating, it’s—”
“I’m sorry, Nellie.” His voice was low. “Maybe I said the joke one too many times.”
“You said the joke 200 too many times. I’m over it.”
“Could you imagine if we were married and I said, ‘I take thee, Karen’?”
“No. I would walk away. I would say, ‘I do not want to marry this man.’”
Even though we were just joking, my heart skipped a beat at the thought of us being married. I didn’t want to jump the gun—we hadn’t even been on a first date yet, let alone anywhere close to marriage. But the fact that he was comfortable enough with me to make that sort of comment warmed my heart. It showed me that maybe, just maybe, he could see the potential in someone like me—even though our beginning hadn’t been the most auspicious.
“So, where are you right now, Nellie?”
“What do you mean, where am I?”
“What do you think that means? You’re smart. You’re in college.”
“I’m smart, but…”
“Are you in bed, Nellie? That’s what I’m asking you.”
“I’m lying on top of my bed.” My heart was thudding. I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was going, and while I was definitely tempted by the thought of talking dirty with Steele, I wanted it to be more special. I wanted … I don’t know. Maybe I was old-fashioned in a way I never knew was possible for myself.
“Don’t worry, Nellie. I’m not going to ask you if you’re touching yourself.” He lowered his voice. “But are you?”
“Steele!” I giggled, nervously. “You just said you weren’t going to ask me that.”
“I know, but I can’t stop myself.”
“Are you touching yourself?”
“Do you really want to know the answer to that?”
I licked my lips and closed my eyes. “Yes,” I whispered. “I do.”
“Well, Nellie …” he said, softly.
“Yes, Steele?”
“I’m not going to tell you.” He chuckled.
“What do you mean you’re not going to tell me?”
“I’m not going to tell you because we haven’t even been on a first date yet. I mean, we hung out tonight, but, as you said, that wasn’t a proper first date.”
“So?”
“So, I’m not going to have phone sex with a woman no matter how much she begs me without even taking her on a proper first date.”
“I haven’t begged you to have phone sex!” I said, flabbergasted.
“Oh, I wish I could see your face right now.” He chuckled. “I bet you’re all angry and red.”
“I’m not.”
“FaceTime me then, and let’s see.”
“No. I’m going to sleep.”
“Come on, Nellie.”
“Nope. Night-night, Steele.”
“So, I’ll see you on Sunday?”
“Yeah. Shall I arrange the date, or—”
“Of course not,” he said. “It’s our first date. I have something special planned, and I still want to do that for you, okay?”
“Okay, because I was going to do a picnic on Sunday—”
“You could do the picnic on our second date. Okay, Nellie?”
“So, there’s going to be a second date?”
“I think we both know there’s going to be a second date,” he said with a laugh. “I’ll speak to you later, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And sweet dreams, Nellie.”
“You, too, Steele. Sweet dreams. Night.”
I hung up and stared at the phone. I wished I had a photo of him so I could look at his handsome face as I drifted off to sleep.
He’d taken that surprisingly well. He hadn’t been upset at all. He was a good guy. I could feel it in my bones. He was a really good, nice guy, and, well, I was excited for Sunday. Really, really excited. I couldn’t wait to see what this date was going to be. I was going to make sure that it was special for both of us.
I wanted to kiss him again. Shit, I wanted to do more than kiss him. I stared at my phone and thought about calling him back. I was horny as hell, and I wanted to pleasure myself to the sounds of his voice. Why had I been such a kid? Why had I cared that we hadn’t technically had our first date? He was sexy and I knew that he liked me. And, well, if he could make me feel this way already, I couldn’t imagine how turned on I was going to be after we really got down and dirty.
Fall asleep. Nellie, just fall asleep.I tried to stop thinking about him. I didn’t want to fall for him too fast and too hard. I didn’t want to rush into something just in case it didn’t work out. I had to take this nice and slow because he could be a keeper. And that scared me in a way because I wasn’t sure if I was ready to meet the man of my dreams.