Page 25 of Unravel Me

“You are now free of me.” I slightly bow, awkwardly laughing. “Thank you for everything. I owe you.”

He pauses, his tongue poking out to lick his lip and leans on the car as his eyes bore into me.

“Let me take you to dinner tonight.” His voice is low and husky, and I thought I heard him wrong.

“Oh...” I start, my mind racing to find a reason to say no, but I can’t find one. There is no logical reason to decline the invitation, even if his question made butterflies storm my stomach. In a few hours, Penny is going to the airport to fly out for a destination elopement she’s shooting tomorrow, leaving me alone on a Friday night to unpack. Which just sounds sad and lonely.

But dinner with Rhett. That feels like a choice.

Like a major choice.

“It’s only dinner, I promise,” he interjects, like he can read my racing thoughts. So, I nod with an expressionless face.

“Yeah. Okay. Let’s do dinner. A thank you dinner.”

Rhett smirks, chuckling as he pulls out his phone.

“I guess that means I need your number.” He winks at me, and I put my info into his phone, parting ways as quickly as I can. Which also means glancing back to see him strut away to his truck.

And look way too good doing it.

“Say nothing,” I blurt out, sliding into the driver's seat as Penny swivels dramatically towards me, her mouth wide open.

“Audrey Elson, did you just agree to a date with Red?”

“It’s dinner. It’s simply a ‘thank you’ dinner.” I calmly pull out of the parking spot with my fingers tightly gripped around the leather steering wheel.

Penny taps her nails on the dashboard. “So, let me get this straight. He is taking you out to dinner...to thank you…for…”

I grow flustered, my words jumbling in my mouth. “I don’t know...he…we...it’s just dinner and...”

“You like him.”

The words hang in the air between us as we wait at the red light. Rolling my eyes, I try to settle the butterflies in my stomach.

“He probably pities me. I’m sure dinner is a formality. It probably feels like the proper thing to do for him.”

Penny snorts. “Yeah, okay. Honey, I don’t think that man cares about formalities. I think he sees a gorgeous single woman who he keeps running into and he wants to see where this goes.”

“Well, joke’s on him then, because I am not ready for a boyfriend. My life is a freaking mess right now. I barely know right from left.”

“Who said anything about a boyfriend? It could just be a casual fling. A summer fling!” My best friend claps like she just thought of the cleverest idea.

Chewing my lip, we turn down the next street, and it occurs to me I still need to tell Penny about the job offer and transfer to New York.

Now isn’t the right time though.

“That’s it. I’m canceling it. I don’t know what I was thinking. I cannot go on a date with him!” My palms grow sweaty on the steering wheel, and I want someone to shake some sense into me.

“Aud, listen to me.” I park the car into front of Penny’s apartment and put on the hazards, leaning my forehead on the steering wheel, overwhelm sinking into me with its deep talons.

“Don’t overthink this. You like him, yeah?”

The car feels like it’s spinning.

“He is a nice guy, I guess,” I mumble into the steering wheel.

“Then go to dinner. The worst that can happen is you have a really good meal and don’t spend tonight alone.”