She ran to the small bedroom she was using as her own on the first floor. Her hair was a mess, so she just pulled the curly mess back into a simple twist. As for makeup, she did a quick brush of foundation, which did wonders to even her skin, threw on loads of mascara, blush, and then found her bright-red lipstick. No matter how plain her makeup was, Shae found that when she put on bright-red lipstick, she would immediately look so much more put together.
She had very few nice clothes. Considering how often she was sweaty and covered in dirt and dust and glue, nice clothes didn’t really make sense. But it was Florida, so she found the nicest-looking summer dress she had. It was blue, with some large orange flowers in the pattern. The bright-red lipstick brought out the bright orange in the dress and it almost looked as if she’d planned this. The dress was very, very light. It was long enough normally, but in a breeze it would go dangerously high. If she were going on a date, this would be the perfect dress. Flirty, but not too tight and high enough in the front to not be too revealing. Sexy without trying too hard. She looked herself over in the mirror. Pretty good for—she checked her watch—seven minutes. She smiled and practically skipped down the hall. She didn’t know what had her in such a good mood. Well, she did know. It was rather obvious. The date with the handsome, mysterious stranger, with the promise of some good food. She never realized how easy she was to please until now.
She came out of the house to find Tristan waiting for her on her back porch. She smiled at him—a genuine, authentic smile. She really was excited about spending the night with him.
He didn’t smile at her. In fact, his face was utterly serious as he looked her up and down. “Well damn,” he said quietly. “I might be in over my head here.”
Tristan hadn’t been lying for once. He really did think he might be in over his head. The thought kept on hitting him every time he looked over at Shae and saw how gorgeous she looked in that dress.
He had no illusions. He’d known she was a pretty girl; he just hadn’t realized she was an utter knockout. She worked on houses for a living, which explained why her body was so toned. She didn’t even have to go to the gym to look like that. It was just a byproduct of what she did for a living. Even though she hadn’t put on much makeup, this was the first time he was appreciating her features. Her eyes were dark brown, almost the same color as the pupil. It gave an almost ethereal effect that went along with her dark-brown curls. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but there was still one strand of wavy hair that framed her face. She kept pushing it back, but the stubborn strand would continuously fall right back onto her cheek. He had to keep his grip on the steering wheel tight to stop himself from reaching over and adjusting it himself. But he knew he had to be smart about this. She wasn’t just anybody. She was obviously relatively reserved, and the only way he got her to agree to go out with him was because he’d staged a fire and waited until she was exhausted from the workday. If he started touching her right away, her walls would go all the way up.
Once they got to the restaurant, they were shown to their seats immediately. It was the type of place that normally had a massive wait, but because it was going on ten o’clock, it wasn’t hard to get a table.
Toni probably could’ve gotten him a table anywhere, but he didn’t want Shae to get suspicious. He was still trying to pretend to be Joe Schmoe.
He wanted to be all charming and hold out the chair for her, but the host did that before Tristan could get there. He glared at the host, who had technically done nothing wrong, as he took his own seat. Shae immediately picked up the menu and started to peruse the options. He waited a few seconds to see whether she said anything, but she remained silent. He could tell she wasn’t super comfortable in social situations, which kind of shocked him. Usually people as pretty as her blended right in wherever they went. But Shae didn’t seem to be all that normal....
And it wasn’t for lack of confidence. When he was rendered almost speechless at the sight of her as she came out, a little smile had curved her lips. She knew exactly how good she looked, and she was happy with it. “So.... Have you ever been here before?” he asked.
Shae let out a little laugh. “Oh no. The foods I’ve been eating lately are about fifty percent preservative and fifty percent carb.”
“You live in a place that nice and you eat that badly?”
“I live in a place that nice because I eat so badly. I’m really good at budgeting, which unfortunately means I tend to eat as cheap as possible.”
“Well, you need to find someone to take you to nicer places.”
Her face fell, and he knew he’d said the wrong thing. She started looking at the menu again. Before he could apologize, a waiter came up and asked them for their drink orders and asked whether they’d looked at the wine menu.
“Oh, I couldn’t,” said Shae softly in a way that told him she really did want wine.
Tristan quickly ordered two glasses of his favorite red wine. He looked at Shae questioningly, hoping he wasn’t out of bounds by ordering her drink, but she didn’t fight him.
Once the waiter was gone, she leaned forward. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said softly.
“Order wine?”
“That wine,” she said pointedly. “One glass cost more than I usually spend on an entire dinner out.”
Well, that was interesting. She was utterly cheap when it came to eating, but she knew the prices of wines off the top of her head. He had a feeling there were more layers to Shae than he realized. “Nope. You saved my life. You get the best wine.”
“You can’t use that excuse for everything.”
“All right.” He looked at his watch, then back up at her. “I say for the next twenty-four hours, I can use that excuse for anything I want. You saved my life, therefore you deserve all the things.”
She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t save your life. I’m sure you would have gotten out of the house in time.”
“Well, I’m very grateful to you for saving the house. Therefore you get wine. Now I’m done arguing about this. Tell me something about yourself.” He found himself ever more curious to know all the secrets she was hiding.
She narrowed her eyes but didn’t continue the pointless wine fight. She sighed and started looking back at the menu. “What do you want to know?” she asked without looking at him.
“Well, that’s the fun part about asking such an ambiguous question. You get to decide what I should know.”
Sometimes what people didn’t say told him more than what they did. Before she had a chance to say anything, the waiter came back to pour the wine in an overly long display before asking for their orders. Shae ordered a rare steak, one of the cheaper ones on the menu. She really wasn’t a fan of having suitors pick up the tab, from what he could tell. Tristan didn’t pressure her about it this time and ordered one of the more expensive cuts for himself before collecting both the menus and handing them over. As soon as the waiter was gone, Tristan stood. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”