Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(50)

“Thanks for what you did,” she finally said. “But it wasn’t necessary. I can take care of myself.”

“I know,” he said.

“So why did you do it?”

With Rocco’s advice to lie bouncing around in his head, he went with the utter truth. “Because I care about you.” He bent his knees a little to see directly into her eyes. “Is that so hard to believe? I care about you, and the thought of you being cold while trying to sleep or going to bed hungry drives me insane. It keeps me up at night, which means the why of it is really entirely selfish. I wanted to be able to sleep.”

Her lips twitched. “And did you?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m also sexually frustrated.”

She laughed. “How can that possibly be? We used a whole string of condoms!”

He smiled at her amusement. “I think it’s you.” He lowered his voice and ran his fingers along her jaw, liking the way her breath caught at his touch. Taking a risk, he pressed into her and murmured, “I’m not finished with you, Sadie. I want more. Go out with me.”

She froze. “Like on a . . . date ?”

“Yes.” He cupped her face in both hands now. “Is that really so strange?”

“But . . . I already put out.”

He smiled. “I want a date,” he repeated stubbornly. “A grown-up date without using our baby as an excuse to see each other. Just you and me. What do you say?”

Sadie continued to stare at him. “I don’t use Lollipop as an excuse.”

“We both use her,” he said. “Yes or no, Sadie?”

She looked over at Rocco, who’d come back inside. He shook his big shaggy head. “Don’t look at me, baby doll. I’d say yes to him in a hot second, but he doesn’t swing that way.”

“This is nuts,” Sadie said. “No one dates anymore.”

“So let’s show ’em what they’re missing,” Caleb said. “Go out with me tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Too soon? Tomorrow then. Whenever you want.”

She stared at him like he’d lost his mind. But it was the opposite. He was just realizing how much he wanted this.

“What would we do?” she asked.

“Date stuff,” he said and smiled because damn, she was cute standing there panicking at the thought of spending more time with him.

“Like go to a horror flick where I get scared and you get to comfort the little lady?”

“Are you telling me you’re scared of horror flicks?”

She blinked as she gave this some thought. “No, just chainsaws.”

“Well, that’s just common sense,” he said. “Are we going to do this, Sadie?”

She chewed her lower lip in indecision. On the one hand, she was looking adorably sexy trying to figure out if she trusted him or not. On the other hand, she’d taken a tour of his body with her sexy mouth and yet she couldn’t decide if she wanted to go out on a date with him.

The odds weren’t exactly in his favor.

“Can I think about it?” Sadie finally asked.

Caleb over looked at Rocco, who shrugged like, take it, man, it’s the best you’re going to get .

Probably true. “Sure, you can think about it,” he said, realizing this was the first time someone had asked him that. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Everything with Sadie Lane so far had felt like a first . . .





Chapter 17




A minute later, Sadie watched Caleb and Lollipop walk out of the shop heading for the pub.

He wanted to date her.

Before she could obsess over that too much, her client called and canceled on her. She didn’t know if she was bummed or relieved and grabbed her purse.

“Running away from home?” Rocco asked mildly.

“I should,” she said pointedly, but he just smiled, unrepentant.

“He’d be good for you,” he said.

Rolling her eyes, she left work and stopped at a table set up in the courtyard where a Girl Scout troop was selling cookies. In her opinion, there were five seasons: winter, Girl Scout Cookie season, spring, summer, and fall. So she searched her purse and managed to come up with ten bucks to buy two emergency boxes. Some might call eating two boxes of cookies on her own a cry for help. Sadie called it supporting young female entrepreneurs.

She opened a box and helped herself as she thought about Caleb. She’d spent a lot of time avoiding dating. That she was possibly considering jumping back in felt a little too much like her old world to her. The world where she’d been nothing to anyone, not tethered nor tied, not fitting in anywhere . . . And that had almost killed her. She picked up her phone and texted her friends: 9–1–1 .

Not five minutes later, Ivy, Willa, and Molly met her at the fountain in the courtyard. Sadie explained the situation, trying not to freak out. “I mean what’s he thinking?” she asked. “A date? With me? Is he insane?”

“I don’t get the problem,” Molly said. “He asked you out. It’s sweet. You should go. I bet he takes you somewhere really nice and you can get dressed to kill and drive him crazy all night.”

Willa nodded. “And aren’t you dying to see what he looks like beneath those sexy suits?”