by Natalie Ann
“Terrorized how?” she asked.
“Nothing bad,” he said. “He was a prankster is all. My cousin Cade is the same way. Having them both at the same college was interesting, but Cade had his own reputation as a lady’s man. Wyatt did too. I think the two of them were damn close, but Cade was a bit worse. Wyatt was really focused on school but did have fun. Cade was just all about fun.”
“How about Ella? Only the two of them went to the same college? The rest didn’t want to?”
“Brody didn’t go to college. He took over running the bar early. Mason went elsewhere. Aiden went to culinary school. Ella wanted to go where no one else went but her parents wanted her with one of her brothers.”
“Having her cousins there wasn’t enough?” she asked finding that funny.
“You’d think it would be, but it’s not the same when you’re a multiple. We watched out for her but knew enough to back off. She got enough oversight from four older brothers. The rest of us just tried to be her friend more than protectors, but it’s hard when there are only two girls in the family. Part of the reason Jade went elsewhere too.”
“Where did Jade go?” she asked again.
“Not far. She wanted to be a Tarheel over a Blue Devil. We bust on her about it all the time.”
“I bet she came home on Sundays for dinner too then, since she was really only about thirty minutes away?”
“She did as often as she could.”
“Okay, so the last of the group is Ryder, right? Where did he go to college?”
“He went to Clemson. He went the furthest away.”
“How come?” she asked. “It seems your family is so close that you really always stuck together.”
It was just a foreign thought to her for a family to want to be that close to each other all the time, yet they worked together and she’d never seen any issues.
Grant and Garrett would butt heads now and again, but nothing like the life she’d lived with the fighting of family members.
“Ryder is the youngest of the group. I think he needed to get away. He always got busted on for being the baby of the family. And because of that I think he was purposely annoying to his brothers. Even to us at functions. Not overboard, but enough. Or maybe we were rough on him about being the baby. Depends on the view.”
“He doesn’t seem damaged because of it,” she said, laughing.
She enjoyed the conversation they were having walking along the gardens. They were stopping to look closer at some flowers, taking pictures of others. She’d never thought to do this before, not even by herself, let alone on a date.
Drake reached out and tugged on her hand, threaded their fingers together and held on. The height difference between them should make it hard to walk hand and hand, but it didn’t.
“Nah. He’s fine. He does have horrible taste in women, but that is another story.”
“I’ve heard,” she said.
“Office gossip is hard to get away from. Plus he talks about his dates all the time too, so it’s his own fault if people overhear and bust on him about it.”
“He uses those dating apps. Why do people do that?”
“Beats the hell out of me,” he said. “I’ve never had the thought of doing it. Neither does Noah. Wyatt does though. Then again, the two of them are just out to have fun more than settle down.”
“Are you looking to settle down?” she asked a bit stunned to hear him say that.
“At some point. Some people like being single. It has its perks for sure, but I want a wife and family someday. I’m not getting any younger.”
She couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. “I’m not sure what to say to this.”
“Don’t you want to settle down at some point? Or did you think you’d always be single and live with some cats?”
She laughed. “I guess when you put it that way, then the answer is I figured I’d find someone someday too.”
“What about kids?”
“I wouldn’t mind one or two. Not three or four,” she said.
“Are you an only child? You never talk about your family at all. It seems like all we’ve been doing is talking about mine. It’s your turn to tell me about your life.”
“Only child,” she said. “Not much to say.”
***
Except he didn’t believe her. Sure, her life seemed simple, but there was more going on with her. He knew it. No one’s life was that boring. That dull.
“There is always something to say. So no siblings,” he said. “What about your parents? Still alive? Where do they live? What do they do?”
She took a deep breath. “My family is nothing like yours. Just know that.”
“Not many people’s lives are like mine. Their families, that is. It was a simple enough question, wasn’t it?”
“Sure. My parents live in Michigan. My father is still in the same house I grew up in in Detroit. My mother moves around a lot with work. I think she’s somewhere in Flint now. Maybe.”
Detroit. A pretty rough area. Not a lot of jobs. Not even Flint, if he remembered correctly the things he’d heard of that area. “What do your parents do? So, they are divorced?”
“Not legally. I don’t think they ever legally divorced. My mother left when I was a teen.”
“So you lived with your father?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, then turned and crouched down. “Aren’t these roses so pretty?”
That was a sore subject he could tell. “They are. Do you want to talk about something else?”
She stood up and looked at him. “My father is a drunk that couldn’t hold down a job. I have no idea where he gets money to buy his booze now and I don’t care. I haven’t seen him since I left for college. He tries to reach out to me and I don’t answer him.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. My mother left because she got sick of working three jobs to support his drinking. She figured she made all the money and she wanted to hold onto it and spend it the way she wanted.”
Three jobs? So that meant it wasn’t like she had a big career that caused her to move around, but rather went where work might be. “And she didn’t want to spend it on her daughter since you said she left and didn’t make a comment about you leaving too?”
“No. She said it was better I stayed there since she wasn’t home enough because of the number of jobs she had.”
She was moving along another path now and bending over to look at other flowers and he knew he’d have to change the subject on his own or this date would be ruined when he’d thought it was going so well.
“So, all these colors aren’t making your eyes twitch?”
She laughed. “No. I find them all pretty. I like color. I really do. It’s just black, white, gray, brown. Colors like that are more practical.”
“So, that is what it’s about for you?”
“Yes. Why be wasteful on something bright purple and pink when I won’t get as much use out of it as if I kept with neutrals?”
That would explain the reason for the colors of her home and wardrobe. Not choice as much as a habit. As much as her upbringing. Or lack of it by the sounds of it.
He’d bet she more or less raised herself.
“I’m glad to see that you’ve splurged a bit on color lately.”
“I have. I’m in a better position and Jade made me realize that it’s okay to do that once in a while. I guess old habits are hard to break.”
“They are. But it seems to me like you are trying at it.”
“We all have to try to make changes in our lives. No one can stay the same or in one place. Even I know that.”
He moved closer into her personal space and cupped her face in his hands, lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her softly. Tenderly. Sweetly.
“What was that for?”
“Just thought you might need it. I know I did.”
“We can’t always get what we want or need in life eith
er. I’ve learned that the hard way.” But she moved into his arms and kissed him again. “It’s nice to get it now and again though.”
“Glad I can give it to you.”
What the hell was happening with them? This was supposed to be one simple date.
But hadn’t he said she was anything but simple?
He was damn right.
Color In Your Life
Dinner was nice. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary and it was exactly what she was used to.
Not that the rest of this date was anything she had ever experienced before or thought she would again. A walk through the gardens for a few hours with conversation that she’d never said to anyone before.
She didn’t want to say what she had to Drake, but he was asking and she didn’t want to lie. He seemed to accept it wasn’t a good topic for her and let it drop.
Afterward he held and kissed her and almost brought tears to her eyes though.
Then they ate dinner and now he was driving to a craft place. A place she’d heard the girls in the office talking about before.
Where ladies went to paint pictures, make jewelry, work with pottery. Mosaics. All sorts of mediums. She’d actually had to do a double take when he said what the rest of their date was about.
“Are you serious?” she’d asked him.
“Yep, I am. Color. I told you you needed some color in your life.”
That was what this was all about. He was trying to show her a world she didn’t live in. Not in a forceful way at all. But a fun way.
“So, what are we doing in there? I don’t see either one of us as having a Ghost moment.”
He burst out laughing. “You know. I didn’t realize what a great sense of humor you had. I wish you showed it more.”
“Because I referenced a movie of two lovers getting sexy over wet clay?” She couldn’t help but grin when she said that and he winked.
“That and your cat’s name.”
“That was just appropriate more than funny,” she said.
“If you say so.”
They pulled into the place. “Did you have to make reservations or something? Pick what we were doing?”
“No. That is for parties. Though I did call and check. Before you ask, no, I’ve never been here before. But I like trying new things. And again. Color. We can make things for our places. How is that?”
“I suppose,” she said.
They walked in and stopped to look at the different projects they could do. “I can draw pretty good. How about you?” he asked. “I took a few art classes in college. Painting isn’t bad. It could be fun.”
“I can’t draw much more than stick figures. So if we can do abstract then I’m all over it. Anything I do I can just call it that.”
“See? That sense of humor again. Why don’t we try painting and mosaic? Easy enough. It’s just gluing glass on things.”
“Will we have time to do more than one thing?” she asked. It was just six now.
“Sure. I can’t see either one of us painting for more than an hour. We can both do abstracts and see whose is better. Only if you use color. No black and white pieces,” he said to her firmly.
“Deal. I’ll use color.”
“We’ll put a time limit on it. We have to be done by seven. The place closes at nine, so that gives us two hours with the mosaic. If it even takes that long.”
“Works for me.”
Not even an hour later, Kara was standing back and looking at the canvas she’d been putting brush strokes on. She wouldn’t say it was a masterpiece by any means, but it wasn’t horrible either.
She looked down at the borrowed smock she had on protecting her clothing. She wasn’t a messy person and didn’t think any of the stained smears were hers.
“How are you doing over there?” she asked Drake. She’d glanced at him a few times to see him staring intently at his work. She’d wanted to take a peek, but he’d blocked her once and she figured there was no use trying again.
“I’m just putting the finishing touches on it now. You?”
“I’m done. Not much more I can do. Or should do without it looking more like a kindergarten project.”
He laughed softly. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Heat filled her body again making her wonder if he was really only talking about their canvas.
“On the count of three,” she said.
“If you insist. How did I know you’d figure out a way to put numbers in there? Do you have any on your painting?”
She looked in the corner where she put the date. That didn’t count in her mind. “Okay. One, two, three.” She turned her easel and he angled his. She burst out laughing at flowers in the gardens at Duke. There was a black cat making its way through, one with a missing piece of its ear. The paws couldn’t be seen, but she knew right away it was Tyson.
“Guess we had the same idea,” Drake said, admiring her flowers. She’d kept it simple and only did a bush of pretty pink flowers that she didn’t even know the name of. They’d just caught her eye and it seemed easy enough to paint by making dabs with the brush. Drake’s painting had a lot more going on. A burst of colors resembling a rainbow on steroids.
“Yours is much more detailed than mine.”
“But yours is good too,” he said. “I’m impressed. You said you can’t draw.”
“That isn’t drawing. It’s painting big blobs of color. When I stand far enough back, it almost resembles those flowers.”
“It does more than almost resemble them. You’re selling yourself short. Are you going to put it on one of those plain white walls in your place?”
“I’m thinking of it. It’s not like I have that many people over that would criticize it.”
Drake was actually the first person in her place that didn’t live in the building. Once in a while someone would stop over, maybe have a coffee and a chat, but not often, only when she ran into them in the elevator or lobby.
“Well, now you can have a matching set.”
“What? You’re giving me yours?”
“I am. Something to remember our date. Besides, Tyson might want to see a picture of himself now and again.”
“It is a good likeness for someone that only saw my cat once.” She really was impressed and oddly touched.
“I’ve got a good memory of things.”
She’d have to remember that about him.
They washed their hands and made their way to another room to do their mosaic projects. There were a variety of tiles in all shapes and sizes they could choose from and even some flowerpots.
“What are you thinking of doing?” she asked him as she picked up a small pot. She wasn’t one for flowers, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a little plant to start with?
“Not sure. If you do a pot, I’ll do the base. We can have another matching set between us.”
“So do you get this set?” she asked, enjoying the thought of that.
“If you’d like. As long as you don’t make it hot pink and lime green.”
“Please. Look at who you are talking to,” she said back. “I thought for sure you’d be more worried I’d do it in black and white.”
“Nah. You do a color. Anything you want.”
“What color are the walls in your house?” she asked. “I don’t want anything to clash. Of course that is if you actually plant something in it.”
“I will,” he said, grabbing a tile, so she took the little pot back to a work table where all the tools they needed were set up. “My walls are either blue or green. Just shades of those colors, but muted or light.”
Once they selected the small pieces of glass they wanted to use, they both got to work. Having the pot made it easy for her to just do a design. She’d laid out pieces in front of her to see how they worked. A variety of greens and blues, a few white, and she was ready to go.
When she glanced over she saw that Drake had all black, grays, and white. “Hey. How about some color?”
&n
bsp; “You’ve got all the colors that will go good in my house. The plate should be more neutral.”
Over an hour later, she thought she was done. When she checked out Drake’s tile, he was too. “What do you know?” she said. “We make a good team.”
He leaned over and kissed her quickly on the lips. “Yes, we do. Let’s get our grout and finish these off and we’ll be out of here well before closing.”
Too bad she couldn’t think of a way for this night to go on forever.
***
Drake started to think that maybe his mother was right. That maybe Kara was just lonely.
They’d been together for hours and hadn’t argued about anything once. Not even a flicker of a disagreement.
Instead, in his eyes, they were having a great time. Possibly one of the best dates he’d been on.
He’d always thought he had a bit of a romantic side to him, but that wasn’t really what he was angling for tonight. He just wanted to have fun. Kara seemed like the shy quiet type that wouldn’t want a place full of loud music and bodies bumping into each other while they sipped mixed drinks.
He’d dated plenty of women like that and knew the type. Not Kara!
When they pulled into the parking lot of her place, he got the canvases out of the back seat and carried them to her apartment. Her pot and his tile were on the floor in a box still drying.
Once they were in her place, Tyson came running at them, then stopped as if he wasn’t happy that his master had company.
“I thought Tyson would be happy to see me,” he said. “Looks like he isn’t as welcoming as he was earlier.”
“He’ll be fine when I give him a small can of food. There is always dry food out, but not canned, which is his favorite. He probably thinks he won’t get it since you’re here.”
“No reason to get the cat mad at me. Go feed him quick. Unless you want me to leave?” He hoped not. It was barely nine, but she could be one of those people that got dropped off and was ready for the night to end.
“Have a seat. Unless you want to go,” she said.
“I’m good. Got any coffee?” he asked.