"I'll keep that in mind."
Alex smiled faintly and moved to the rear window. As quick as the job was with them both working, she was still relieved when they'd finished and could get back into the car, especially since it was much warmer than it had been when they'd first come out.
"Do you want to grab a coffee at a drive-thru on the way?" Alex asked as she steered the rental car out of the parking lot.
"Sounds good," he said, and then asked suddenly, "Don't you have any gloves?"
Alex heard the frown in his voice and glanced over to see the concern on his face as he eyed the way she was holding the steering wheel. While the car interior was warm now, the steering wheel still felt like a block of ice, and she was holding it with as little contact as possible. Biting her lip, she closed her fingers around it properly, and said, "I do have gloves ... somewhere. But I seem to forget to grab them all the time. It doesn't matter, though. I'm fine."
"Here." His gloves suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision as she stopped at a light.
Alex hesitated, but the steering wheel really was cold. Sighing, she accepted the gloves and tugged them on, murmuring, "Thank you" as she did.
"I'm buying you gloves for Christmas," he decided, and then teased, "The kind with the connecting string between them so that they're always in your coat, hanging out your sleeves waiting for you ... and I'll insist you wear them."
"That threat doesn't scare me," she scoffed. "Christmas isn't for another ten months, and you're leaving in less than two."
"Maybe," he murmured.
His tone was so soft she'd almost missed the words, and Alex glanced at him sharply. "What does that mean?"
"It means I like it here and might be willing to make this my permanent home. It just depends."
Alex swallowed and turned her eyes back to the road before asking, "Depends on what?"
"On you."
Alex jerked to a halt at another set of lights and turned to peer at him with something like awe. The man was talking about a future with her. At least she thought he was. Wasn't he?
They were both silent for a minute, simply staring at each other, and then Cale turned to glance out the front window and said, "The light has changed."
Alex glanced to the light to see that it was green and eased her foot off the brakes.
Neither of them spoke again for the rest of the trip. She didn't know what Cale was thinking, but her own mind was so busy running around in circles that she was hardly able to give driving the proper attention. Alex even forgot to stop for the coffee she'd suggested when they'd started out as she pondered the possibility of a real, permanent-type relationship with him. Cale was the kind of man every woman was looking for, smart, sexy, considerate, and an incredible lover. The fact that she found him attractive was just the icing on the cake, because frankly, even a not-so-attractive man started to look like a supermodel when he had all those other traits. And he might be hers, she thought, her head whirling ... and then the more cynical side of her spoke up, saying there had to be some huge flaw to the man, or he surely would have been scooped up by some other woman years ago. He probably liked to dress up in women's clothing on the weekend and pick up men, she thought ... or maybe he was a serial killer.
"You go ahead and drive this car," Cale said as shepulled in next to her own, still waiting in La Bonne Vie's parking lot. "Your car will still be cold."
He was out of the rental before she could respond, but Alex was quick to follow.
"Get back in the car." Cale scowled at her over the hood of the rental. "There's no need for both of us to be cold."
"I can help. Two scrapers are better than one," she said lightly, and started to tug off his gloves. When he came around the car protesting, Alex kept one on and handed him the other as she slid her now bare hand into her pocket. "I only need one hand to scrape."
Cale hesitated, but then smiled wryly and accepted the glove, commenting, "Compromise is good."
"Yes it is," she agreed softly, and turned to her car to retrieve her own scraper.
"Here."
Alex straightened to see him holding out her keys.
"Get the engine going while I start scraping."
Nodding, she took the keys and slid behind the wheel, starting it quickly. As she had in his car, Alex then turned on the defroster and cranked up the heat, but she also took a second to adjust the seat back to accommodate his long legs before grabbing her scraper and getting out.
With both of them working, they had the windows scraped in no time. Cale then opened the door of his rental for her.
"Here take your glove back, this steering wheel is warm now, and mine won't be." Alex removed and handed him the second glove as she slid into the driver's seat of the rental. As Cale took it, she added, "You should probably take the lead on the way to my house. You have to pull into the driveway first; otherwise, my car will be blocking yours."