Chapter Two
Reaching for her telephone, Haley was just about to phone in her order to the local Chinese restaurant when it started ringing. Picking up the receiver, she said, “Hello.”
“Hi, can I speak to Haley James, please?”
“Speaking.”
“Oh, hi. It’s, uh, Nathan. Nathan Scott.”
“Hey. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”
“No, I wasn’t sure whether to call or not but…”
“But?” she prompted when he didn’t say anything else for a few moments.
“But I wanted to talk to you.”
“Okay, about what?” Silence greeted her question and she frowned. “Nathan, are you still there?”
“Yeah, I am. Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it and you can say no if you want, there’s no pressure but I thought I’d ask anyway.”
Haley’s frown turned into a smile as she listened to his ramble. “Just ask me.”
“Would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight?”
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she heard his question. Wow. She certainly hadn’t been expecting him to ask her that.
“Haley? Are you still there?”
“Uh, yeah. I am. Sorry.”
“No, don’t apologise. I—maybe I shouldn’t have asked but… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since our little fender bender this afternoon and...well, I figured there was no harm in at least asking. You can just say no if you don’t--”
“No!” she blurted out.
“Oh, okay. Sor--”
“No, I meant yes. Damn!” She couldn’t believe how tongue-tied she was just talking to him on the phone. “I-I’d love to have dinner with you. I was actually just about to order some take-out so you’d be saving me some cash,” she teased which earned her a deep laugh from the other end of the phone line.
“Well I aim to please,” Nathan kidded back. “It’s not too late for you is it ‘cos we could go out tomorrow night if that’s better for you.”
“Tonight is fine.”
“Great. So, uh, I’d better get your address unless you’d prefer to meet me somewhere.”
“No, it’s fine. I live at 55 Beech Lane, apartment 9.”
“Okay, got it. I’ll pick you up in, say, an hour?”
“An hour is fine. See you then.”
“Yeah, you will.”
As she hung up the phone, Haley’s smile seemed to grow even wider if that was possible. Getting up from the couch, she practically ran to her bedroom and started looking through her closet for something to wear. Dammit! She didn’t know where he was taking her. Should she dress smart or casual or a mixture of the two?
Taking a few things from it, she held the outfits up against her as she stood in front of her full length mirror, tossing each of them onto her bed as she deemed them unsuitable. Finally, she settled on her little black dress which she thought would cover a whole variety of places he might be taking her to. It was dressy without being overly so plus it meant she could wear the new pair of high heels she’d only just bought. With Nathan being so tall she needed to boost her height a little which would hopefully save her from feeling like Polly Pocket all night, she thought with a giggle.
Having already showered when she got home, she quickly got dressed and then sat down at her vanity to apply her make-up and do her hair. Up or down? she silently asked herself. Finally deciding on up, she swept her hair upwards into an elegant twist and secured it with a silver clip which matched the silver pendant and earrings she had put on.
Slipping on her shoes, she grabbed her wrap and purse and made her way out into the living room just as the buzzer of her intercom sounded. Taking a deep breath and counting to five, she walked over and answered it. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Nathan.”
“Come on up,” she told him, adding, “I’m on the third floor.” Pressing the button to release the lock on the main door, she nervously waited for the knock on her front door which happened a few minutes later.
Opening the door, she willed herself not to drool as she saw him standing in front of her in a simple outfit of black pants, a light blue shirt and a black leather jacket. Her heart sped up when she saw the pretty bouquet of flowers he was holding.
“Hi,” Nathan said as his eyes roamed all over her, taking in every gorgeous inch of her. The black dress she had on was fairly conservative compared to some of the outfits his previous dates had worn but it looked amazing on her. Her legs were just as awesome and noticing the heels on her feet which somehow made her legs look even longer, well, he practically melted.
“Hi,” Haley replied shyly. “I, uh, wasn’t sure where we were going so I didn’t know if I should dress up or not. Is this okay?”
“It’s more than okay,” he told her, smiling to try and reassure her. “I haven’t booked anything since I wasn’t sure what you liked but I know there’s a great Italian place not far from here.”
“Yeah, I know it. I’ve only been there a couple of times before but their food is amazing.”
“Okay, then. Let’s hope we can get a table.”
“Uh, are those for me?” Haley asked, gesturing to the flowers.
“Yeah, they are.” Holding them out to her, he watched as she took the flowers and brought them up to her nose, breathing in their scent.
“They’re beautiful, Nathan. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Let me just put them in some water and then we can go. Do you want to come in for a minute?”
Nodding his head, he replied, “Sure,” as he crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him. “I like your apartment.”
“Thanks. It was one of the first apartments I saw when I moved here and I liked it from the outset which was a relief. I had visions of spending months looking for the right place.”
Noticing some framed pictures on a glass shelf, Nathan walked over to look at them. “Is this your family?” he asked.
Glancing at him from where she was standing at the kitchen counter arranging the flowers into a vase, she saw what he was looking at and she nodded. “Yeah.”
“There seem to be a lot of you.”
She laughed. “Oh yeah. I’m the youngest of six and most of my siblings are married now so the family is even bigger with their husbands and wives and all of their kids. How about you? Are you from a big family?”
“No. It’s just me, my brother Luke and our parents. I’m betting though that we probably have more family arguments than yours even though there are just four of us,” he joked.
“Oh, you can’t say that until you’ve been in the middle of a James family argument, believe me. A couple of my sisters are the biggest drama queens you could ever meet.” Carrying the vase into the living room, she placed it on the coffee table before stepping back. “Thanks again for the flowers, Nathan.”
“You’re welcome again. So, you ready to go?”
“Uh huh. Let’s go eat, I’m starving.”
* * * * *
The time seemed to fly by tonight, Nathan thought to himself as he walked Haley back into her apartment building. It felt like they’d only spent an hour together instead of four and he had a feeling that had the restaurant not been closing up for the night, they would still be in there.
He couldn’t get over how much he enjoyed her company and he was more than happy that he had asked her out tonight. Another thing that surprised him was just how nervous he had felt doing that. He knew he had a reputation of being a bit of a player when it came to women but if anyone had heard him on the phone with Haley tonight, that reputation would have been shot to hell.
“I had a great time tonight, Nathan,” Haley said when they reached her front door.
“I did, too. Thanks for agreeing to come out with me. I really wasn’t sure you would.”
“Why’s that?”
“I don’t know, I just figured you had me pegged as an arrogant jerk and that apart from letting me pay for the repairs to your car, that you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”
She smiled. “I admit I did sort of think that at first but I changed my mind. Apparently us women have a tendency to do that,” she teased, reminding him of his words to her earlier that day.
Mock-sighing, Nathan shook his head. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t even know why I said it, it’s not what I think.”
“Good to know.”
They stood there in silence for a moment, simply looking at each other before they both looked away.
“I guess I’d better get going since it’s pretty late.”
“Oh, okay. I was going to ask if you wanted to come in for a nightcap or some coffee but--”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to keep you up.”
“You’re not. And besides, tomorrow is Saturday so I can have a lie in if I want.”
A picture of her in bed suddenly popped into his head and Nathan felt himself harden. “Uh…yeah, I guess.”
“So, do you want to come in?”
“Yeah, I’d like that,” he said and watched as she unlocked her door.
Once inside the apartment, Haley kicked off her heels and sighed blissfully.
“Better?”
“Much,” she replied with a smile. “They may be pretty to look at but those things? Are torture devices.”
Nathan laughed at her description and followed her into the kitchen. “Thankfully us guys don’t seem to have that problem.”
Giggling, she replied, “Well, you’re lucky. So, what would you like to drink? There’s tea, coffee, beer or wine.”
“Coffee’s fine and probably for the best since I have to drive home.”
“Right, of course. Take a seat and I’ll put the kettle on. I hope instant is okay, I need to go to the store and get some more filtered coffee.”
Instead of going into the living room, he sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter and rested his elbows on the worktop. “Instant’s fine. Okay, I’m curious to know since you’re a mechanic, do you do much cooking?”
“Ah, you mean that a girl doing what is still regarded as a male job can’t be someone who cooks or bakes too, right? It’s gotta be one or the other.”
“No, not at all,” he said raising his hands in front of him in a defensive gesture. “I was just--”
Haley laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m just teasing. I do like to cook and I had a great teacher in my mom.”
“You’re lucky, my mom can’t even boil water. I think the one and only time she tried she burned the pan.”
“Wow, that’s…uh…” Haley bit her lip to try and stop herself laughing.
“Yeah,” he mumbled before breaking out into laughter. As his laughter subsided, he kept his eyes on her as she grabbed mugs from a cupboard and just as she was about to spoon the coffee into the cups, he stopped her. “You know, maybe I should skip the coffee. It’s getting late so I should probably get going.”
“It’s not that late,” she said repeating her words from earlier.
“It’s after midnight.”
“What? Do you turn back into a pumpkin now or--”
“Very funny,” he said smirking at her.
“I guess if you really want to go…”
Getting up from his seat, he looked at her. Really looked at her and he knew in that instant that if he didn’t leave now, he wouldn’t be leaving at all. At least not for several hours. He hardly knew her but god, he really wanted to. He’d had an amazing time tonight and, truth be told, he didn’t want it to end. Not yet at least.
Haley followed him as he walked towards the front door. “Thanks again for dinner, Nathan, and for those flowers. I had a great time.”
“You’re welcome, and I had a great time, too. I’m really glad I asked you out.”
She smiled at him. “Me too.” Hesitating for a moment, she decided to do what she’d been wanting to do all night and she pressed her lips to his cheek, wishing she had the courage to kiss his mouth instead.
Wrapping an arm around her back, Nathan held her to him and he inwardly sighed at the feel of her soft lips touching his cheek. “I-I’d better go,” he whispered into her hair and he felt her nod against him. “Can I ask you out again sometime?”
“I’d like that.”
“Good. I’ll call you soon.”
“Okay,” she said, taking a step back from him. Opening her front door, she watched him leave and she felt a tug of regret pull at her but she kept quiet. “Bye then.”
“Bye.” Nathan watched as she closed the door behind him and he began to walk towards the stairwell. He’d only taken a few steps when he stopped. He stood there for several moments before he made up his mind and turned back to Haley’s apartment. There was a slight hesitation before he finally knocked on the door and it felt like forever for her to open the door even though it was probably less than a minute.
“Nathan? Uh, did you forget something?”
Taking a step forward, he cupped her cheek in his palm and whispered, “Yeah…this,” before he covered her mouth with his and kissed her the way he had been wanting to all night.