for some time. There’s no need to blame yourself, I promise.”
She looked like she wanted to press for more details but stopped herself.
He gave the teenage waitress a little wave so she would bring his bill over then turned back to Quinn. “I do have one question.”
The waitress brought over both their checks. They both got out their credit cards and handed them to her.
“What’s your question?”
“If you had known who I was the night of your birthday, that I was a student...would that have changed stuff about that night?”
She nodded rapidly. “Oh yes. Whether you were still in my class or whether I’d withdrawn you, there was no way I could’ve let you...”
He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a face so red in his entire life.
“Eat your cupcake?” he finished for her with a grin.
“Oh my God,” she muttered.
There was no way he was stopping now. “It was a delicious cupcake.” He licked his lips in memory, and her face turned a touch redder.
As they stared at each other, it was honestly all he could do not to reach across both their tables and kiss her.
“Here you go.” The waitress returning to their table stopped him. “I just need you to sign here, sir.” She handed him the credit card slip, then rocked awkwardly on both feet as she turned to Quinn.
“Um, your debit card wouldn’t work for some reason. Do you have another card I could try?”
Now Quinn’s face burned red for an entirely different reason. “No. Do you mind trying it again?”
The teenager looked decidedly uncomfortable. “I mean, I can, but I’ve tried it on two different machines, and it didn’t work. We also take cash...”
Quinn frantically searched through her purse and computer bag, obviously looking for any sort of spare change. “I might need to call my bank and see what’s going on. I don’t seem to have—”
“How about you put hers on my card, too.” Baby slid the card back toward the waitress.
Quinn shook her head, rubbing her eyes with her fingers. “Baby, I—”
He willed her to look at him so he could give her a smile and let her know it was okay. But she kept staring down at her computer. He picked up the card and handed it to the young girl, nodding. She scurried off.
“Hey,” he said when Quinn still didn’t look at him. “I can’t leave you here to work off your debt in indentured servitude.”
She gave a strangled chuckle. “I probably should’ve let my bank know I was leaving Boston so purchases out here wouldn’t seem suspicious.”
She finally looked at him and he winked. “Yeah. All banks know that the most cunning credit card thieves head immediately to Western Wyoming.”
“Crime capital of the world.”
Atta girl. You can recover from this.
“Thank you for lunch, I guess. And for fixing my car for what I’m sure is way less than fair market price—”
“Go out with me.”
“Baby—”
“Let’s start over.” He reached over and grabbed her hand. “Let’s pretend you were never my instructor; I never missed our non-date, and there was never any car or credit card issues, or secret identities. Just a man asking a beautiful woman out on a date.”
“We’re very different, you and I.”
He shifted closer to her. “Differences are what makes things interesting.”
The waitress came back and gave him the second slip to sign. Baby did so, then stood up. “Say yes, Q–U–I–N–N.”
“And...eating cupcakes? Did that happen?” She popped her hand over her mouth like she couldn’t believe the words had escaped.
He threw back his head and laughed. This woman. God, he wanted to know everything about her.
“You know what,” she said before he could respond. “Forget I said that.”
Dammit, she was going to turn him down, cupcakes or not. “Go out with me, Quinn.” She opened her mouth to object, but he didn’t pause to let her. “And I am not talking about a non-date. I want a real date, with you, whenever and wherever you’ll allow it.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and reached up to tuck that ever-unruly strand of hair back into her bun. “Okay, I’ll go out with you Blake Bollinger, but on one condition.”
“Done.”
She smiled as she shook her head. But it was the truth. He doubted there was anything she could say that he wouldn’t agree to.
Have their dates out of town so there wasn’t any chance of running into her brother? No problem.
Take her somewhere fancy, fitting the high-end clothes and makeup she wore? No problem.