it, a sunflower in gold and green metal. She’d probably found it on one of those shopping trips with his mom or sister. When Elaine’s sunflowers grew tall and sunny in the summer, they were Daralyn’s favorite flower. She’d stand beneath them, her head tilted back, face wreathed with a smile as she reached up to touch the over weighted blooms, making them sway.
He wanted to get out and open her door for her, but it would be kind of obnoxious, making her wait while he did that. He wished he could lean over far enough to open the door from the inside for her, but he’d end up overbalanced and on the floor. So when she got in on her own, he settled for taking her hand and showing her in his expression how much he felt the next three words.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
The gold and green pendant picked up those colors in her hazel eyes as they brightened. She smiled, but her hand was cold, and he could feel a little tremor. “Nervous?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s never been just the two of us for dinner.” She looked down at their clasped hands and seemed at a loss to say anything else. She wasn’t wearing the chain bracelet, but he knew she wore it to give her courage for class. He took it as an encouraging sign she didn’t feel like she needed that, despite her nervousness.
Her gaze lighted on the bouquet. He’d pulled a glass from the kitchen that would fit snugly in one of his cupholders, and set it up there as a vase to hold it.
“For you,” he confirmed. “Full disclosure—Mom cut and arranged them, but she was on the same page with me. I wanted to bring you flowers tonight.”
As her gaze dwelled on the bouquet, a mix of emotions in her face, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it, which drew her attention back to his face. When she would have shifted her gaze away, he told her by the touch on her chin, her cheek, that he wanted her eyes to stay locked with his. When she complied, he ran a thumb over her lips, the curve of her cheek.
He’d been nervous too. He’d been out on his own to plenty of places, but this was the first time, since he’d ended up in the chair, that he’d taken a woman out to a nice dinner. With Amanda he’d stayed in his comfort zone. A pizza place where his friends hung out, or other familiar stomping grounds.
He was in charge this evening, taking care of someone precious to him. But when he touched her, and he had her full attention like this, the nerves disappeared. It was as if he had a direct line to what was going on in her head, and why her hand had that coldness to it.
“Daralyn, you don’t have to worry about anything tonight. I’ve got you. All right?”
She pressed her lips together, which inadvertently moved them against his fingertips. When she realized that, she did a little start, but then, at his look, she did it deliberately, nuzzling against his touch, those eyes wide and full of so many things. It terrified and humbled him, even as he wanted to roar it out to the world.
She said she belonged to me.
He reined that back, because he couldn’t ignore the troublesome side to her declaration, something he would have to pursue at some point. But not now. “You haven’t answered me,” he said. “You’re not worrying about anything tonight. Got it?”
“Okay. Yes.” She gave him that smile again, a little easier.
He waited for her to put her seatbelt on, and pulled away from the curb. “We’re going to The Purple Swan. Les said you really liked the desserts. I think we should start with those and work backwards.”
Her smile grew brighter as he winked at her. “But having dessert at the end makes it something to anticipate,” she pointed out.
Yes, it surely did.
She hesitated. “I think I’m nervous because…I’ve never been on a date.”
He hadn’t even thought of that. Here he was, being antsy about it being a fancier deal, while for her, pretty much all of it was a first, wasn’t it? It gave him a full stop, realizing it.
When he’d kissed her the other night, that had likely been her first real kiss.
He wasn’t counting anything her father and uncle had done to her, and pushed the repulsive thought away before he