The Billionaire Glitch Date - Elle James Page 0,17
all to be happy.”
“Watch it. You’re older than I am, based on your profile.”
“Does that bother you?” she asked.
“Not at all. I just don’t consider twenty-eight and twenty-nine old.”
She wrinkled her nose. “For a woman, we’re getting close to the cutoff.”
“Cutoff?”
“When we hit thirty, it can be more difficult to get pregnant. That family we always wanted but didn’t have time for in our twenties might prove elusive.”
“You’re not old in your thirties.”
“It’s one of those things that nature decides for us. We have no control.”
“That’s what fertility treatments are for,” Dillon said. “And you can have all your children at once. A veritable litter of children.”
Ariana laughed. “You make it sound easy. Some of the women I worked with in the corporate world waited to have children, and now they can’t. Their egg supply dried up.”
“Is that why you decided to try BODS?” He looked down at his hand still holding hers. “Are you afraid you might be waiting too late to start a family?”
She glanced out the window, trying not to be too affected by his hand holding hers. “Sam and I wanted to have children. We were trying when he was diagnosed with cancer. He fought it for four years before he succumbed. Babies just didn’t happen for us. One day, I hope to have a child or two.” Ariana smiled up at him. “How about you?”
“I always imagined I’d have kids someday. I guess Emma’s right. We’re not getting any younger. If we’re going to have kids, we need to start working in that direction.”
“So, you need a wife…just to have children?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Of course not. Our parents had a really good relationship. They showed us what we should aim for. A partner in life, someone to love and cherish and share all the good and bad that comes along with any union. And they had five children. I liked having brothers and a sister to grow up with. We never lacked for companionship. We were each other’s friends,” he grinned, “when we weren’t beating up on each other. Yeah. I’d like to have kids.”
She could picture a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes like her father. Her heart warmed to the image. “You’d make a good father.”
“I like to think I would. I’d teach them to take care of cattle, hammer a nail, fish, ride a horse, and so many other things a kid needs to know.”
She met his gaze. “Kids need to know all that to be well-adjusted?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Of course.”
“I never learned to fish or ride a horse,” she said softly. “I think I’m pretty well-adjusted.”
His eyes widened. “Riding a horse, I can understand. But you’ve never held a fishing pole?”
“My parents were older, and my father was an accountant. He wasn’t much into the outdoors, except when it came to his lawn and flower garden.”
Dillon pushed back his chair and rose to his feet.
Ariana frowned. “Are our thirty minutes up?”
“We’ve actually been here longer than the requisite thirty,” he said. “That’s not the point. We’re leaving.”
“That’s too bad. I was enjoying talking to you,” she said as he hustled her out of the coffee shop.
“Sweetheart, we’re going to further your education,” he said as he held the door open and waited for her to pass through.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re going fishing.”
“Does this count as part of our date?” Ariana asked as he led her toward his truck.
“We haven’t kissed goodbye yet, so I’d say yes.”
Heat rose up her neck into her cheeks at the thought of kissing Dillon. “What about the glitch with the BODS system? The fact that I’ve never gone fishing and I haven’t been on a horse should have flagged me as incompatible with you.”
“And I asked for a tall woman. But you don’t hear me complaining?” he said with a grin. “I might even change my mind about short women because of you.”
Ariana ground to a halt next to the passenger door of a pickup. “What do you have against short women?”
“Nothing. Except I have to bend so far down to steal a kiss.” He winked. “Purely gratuitous. No other reason.”
She smiled. That was twice he’d mentioned kissing. Was he talking about kissing women in general? Or had he thought about kissing her…in particular?
A shiver of awareness spread throughout her body.
He held the door open for her to climb up inside his truck.
When she hesitated, he waved her forward. “Hop in. We have all the fishing gear we