Decker's Daughter - Caroline Lee Page 0,11

the way his body reacted to her told him things could be real good between them.

But it was the thought of a future with her which had his grin growing.

“Are you ready for dessert?”

Startled, she looked up from finishing her meal. “You’re still hungry?”

“Well, no.” His grin turned sheepish. “But I’m not ready for this date to end, and it’s still early enough, I thought maybe we could walk down to the putt-putt and ice cream place and get some dessert.”

Chuckling, she leaned back in her chair and folded her hands atop her stomach. “I’m not sure I could eat another bite.”

“Then we can skip the ice cream.” He leaned forward, intent on getting her to agree. “I just know I don’t want to say goodbye yet, Bobbi. I feel like I spent the whole meal talking about myself. I want to learn about you.”

“Like what?”

“I want to know…” He waved one hand, careful not to knock over his water. “I want to know what brought you to Cauldron Valley. And your favorite thing about your job. And what kind of stuff CJ likes.” He was groping at topics now. “And your hobbies. And—and your name!”

“My name?” Her lips twitched enticingly.

“My grandfather is Robert, so my cousin is Bob. Are you named after anyone?”

“Nope. And I’ve always hated my name. Who names a girl Bobbi? Not Roberta, Bobbi.” She shook her head. “I swear, my mom was such a hippie sometimes.”

“Well, what’s your middle name?”

“Rae. And that’s even worse.”

He pulled a face. “So I guess Bobbi Rae is out of the question?”

“Well, up until this very moment, I’ve thought Bobbi Rae was a stupid name too, but when you say it…”

He reached for her hand. “Yeah?”

“Well…” Blowing out a small breath, she met his eyes. “It doesn’t sound so bad.”

He was lifting her fingers before he realized he intended to kiss them, and froze. He didn’t want to weird her out so soon.

But something was tugging at him, something more than just her smile. Something which told him to skip holding her hand and move right to her lips. Something which told him to skip dating her and move right into marriage.

But he was sure that would certainly weird her out.

Decker decided it would be best to just stick with normal questions and control his urges to move their relationship from one to one hundred on the first date.

“Okay then, Bobbi Rae, will you go putt-putting with me?”

And when she nodded, joy burst in his chest.

Chapter 4

It was still early enough the sun had only just begun to paint the western sky a brilliant combination of reds and pinks when Bobbi and Decker left the restaurant. She’d grown up nearby, and although she’d never been an outdoorsy sort of person, she had to admit the Montana sunsets were just beautiful.

One of her goals had been to find a nice little house with a big porch for CJ to enjoy the sunsets. That was one of the reasons she’d splurged on the place they were in now when she’d found it. It was lovely, but it was a little more house than the two of them needed, and a lot more than she should be spending on rent.

Was it worth it?

Hey, girlfriend, focus on the date, not your money woes!

Oh, yeah.

Looking both ways, they dashed across the street toward the putt-putt place.

Decker was nice—really nice—and fun to be with. The fact he was easy on the eyes was an added bonus. She was having a lot of fun that evening and was glad the date wasn’t over yet.

But her pleasure was just going to make the inevitable discussion that much harder when it was time.

“Watch your step here,” he murmured, as they reached the curb and the puddle of water left from yesterday’s rain.

When he held out his hand, it felt natural to place hers in it and allow him to help her over the puddle.

And when they started toward the putt-putt place, he didn’t drop her hand.

And she didn’t want him to.

And why did that realization fill her with hope and dread, all at the same time?

It seemed perfectly natural for them to keep holding hands—there was that little tingle of electricity again!—as they stepped up to the attendant, but they were forced to release one another to choose their clubs and balls.

Bobbi’s was purple of course, as that was her favorite color, and Deck’s was neon green.

“You know,” she mused, as they stepped up to the first hole, and