Betrayal of the Dove - By Capri Montgomery Page 0,22

wasn’t rich, she didn’t go for having a man “keep” her either. She was perfectly capable of taking care of her own needs—including buying her own food.

“I know you can,” he told her. “But I’d like to buy you a meal. Consider it making up for the meal you fixed me earlier.”

She hadn’t fixed him much and it hadn’t cost her much. Thinking about what they had for lunch made her think about how hungry he just might be. They hadn’t eaten a huge meal and it was getting late. He was probably starving. All the more reason he should pick a chair and take her back to her place, and then he could go home and eat alone—or at least without her.

“And you can’t pick a chair without food?”

“No,” he shook his head and she realized he wasn’t going to cave.

“There’s a Paradise Bakery down the street if you want to stop there.”

“How about Lola’s Grill,” he winked. “Best food north of Scottsdale.”

She knew where Lola’s was. She also knew it was going to take him closer to home and then he would have to waste gas just to come back. She shrugged. “Sure; why not?” They left the store. She knew full well that they probably wouldn’t get back there in time to get the chair before the store closed. Lola’s wasn’t an extravagant restaurant; it was nice, but not ritzy. Still, that didn’t mean anybody at Lola’s moved swiftly. They were likely to be there for hours with one of Lola’s full four course dinners that took forever to finish. Slow and relaxed was nice, but she really did want to get Shane that chair. Unfortunately, her brain and her heart weren’t in agreement because while she knew she should put distance between them, her heart wanted to be closer to him.

When they arrived at Lola’s, Shane took the back corner booth so that he faced the door. Unhappy with her distance in the booth he reached out, wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. “Now, that’s better,” he smiled as he made sure she was comfortably positioned within centimeters of his body. Was he flirting with her? She couldn’t tell, but she thought maybe he was.

“So, tell me about yourself, Shane. What do you like to do when you’re not working?”

“I go up to the high country a lot,” he skimmed over the menu, just as she did. “There are some rock formations up near Sedona that are great for climbing.”

“You climb?”

“Yeah,” he looked at her with the, “didn’t I just say that,” look. Well, no, he hadn’t. He said there were formations up there that were great for climbing, not that he climbed them. But with arms and shoulders like the ones he had, she should have known he was a climber. Men had a tendency to use their arms more in the climb, while women had a tendency to use their legs to do most of the work. Jody, her delegated climb instructor at the local rock gym, had told her it was why women sometimes made it to the top faster, because the muscles in the thighs are bigger and stronger and take the climb better. She was thankful Jody had been assigned as her partner once she decided to make the gym a permanent fixture in her schedule. She graduated from the standard group instruction, to personal one on one time and that had improved her performance significantly. It also slowed things down so she didn’t feel rushed to ascend or descend the wall. She wouldn’t know about how swiftly either gender climbed. She was still in the stages of taking her time while trying not to remember how deathly afraid of heights she was.

“You?”

“Only in the gym. I love knowing if something goes wrong there’s a nice, cushioned mat beneath me to break my fall.” She held up her hand to stop him from saying what she was sure he was about to say. She could still seriously injure herself, even in the gym. She didn’t want to hear that because she already knew that and she tried to push that thought aside every time she took to the ropes. “It’s better than impacting a rocky bottom.” She assured him. “What else do you do?”

“Clean my guns.” He said so seriously that she had to laugh.

“And that’s fun?”

“It’s a necessity,” he closed the menu, indicating he knew what he wanted already. “And I have to take