Page 38 of Dream Date With the Millionaire
At twelve o’clock, Dani entered the café. Lunch customers packed the place. Conversations from the crowd filled the air.
She spotted Bryce sitting at a table not far from the one they’d occupied the first time they’d met. He wore a gray suit with a white dress shirt and a yellow tie.
Dani was still angry over what had happened in her apartment, but the butterflies flapping and wreaking havoc in her stomach had nothing to do with her being upset and everything to do with attraction. He seemed to have gotten better-looking over the last week. Darn him.
A glass crashed to the floor.
An omen, perhaps? She wasn’t sure whether to move forward or retreat. Maybe he hadn’t seen her…
Bryce’s gaze caught her. His face brightened.
Maybe he was happy to see her. Maybe he wanted to get this over with.
Dani inhaled deeply to muster her courage. She could do this. She had no choice really since she’d said she was open for discussion. Unlike him, she wasn’t going to renege on her word.
He offered her a forgiving smile and raised a small black pot in the air.
She half laughed. He hadn’t been kidding about the pot.
Okay, maybe she was overreacting a little. The least she could do was have lunch with him and hear what he had to say.
She wove her way to his table, taking advantage of the time to prepare herself. All she wanted from him was an apology. Not a handshake or hug or kiss…
Bryce stood. “Miss Kettle?”
“Mr. Pot, I presume?”
He nodded.
Tension simmered between them, a strong mix of anxiety and attraction. She stood across from him like a total stranger.
Dani swallowed. Agreeing to meet him was a really bad idea.
A cell phone rang somewhere near the bookshelves.
“Do you want to order lunch before we sit?” Bryce asked finally.
“Sure,” Dani said, even though she didn’t have much of an appetite at the moment.
She followed him to the counter, where they ordered sandwiches and drinks. Bryce paid as he’d said he would.
Back at the table, Dani sat across from him. She heard the typing of keys on a laptop. She squeezed a slice of lemon into her iced tea and stole a glance at his face.
He was staring at her.
“I’m sorry.” Bryce’s voice cut through the silence at their table and the noise around them. “You took responsibility for your actions. I didn’t. I apologize for not being honest with you, for setting you up like that and everything else I said and did. It wasn’t fair of me.”
Those were the words Dani needed to hear. “Thank you. I know you feel betrayed over something very important to you. I appreciate and accept your apology.”
“Good, because I don’t like how things are between us.”
She stirred her iced tea. “There isn’t anything between us.”
“But I want there to be again,” he said with such heartfelt honesty she dropped her spoon. “After everything that’s happened, I miss what we had. I miss you, Dani. I might have started to see you under false pretenses, but my feelings for you were never faked. The things I said on our dates, the kissing, all that was true and not part of my checking up on you.”
She stared at him, transfixed by the emotion in his eyes and his voice.
“I know you said you weren’t interested in dating, but I want to keep seeing you. If you’re game, we could start over.”
“Start over,” she repeated, fighting the tumble of confused thoughts and emotions in her head.
“Yes, we could wipe the slate clean,” he explained. “Knowing what we know about each other now, we put what happened behind us and start fresh. This could be our first date.”
The unexpected proposition had her heart dancing a two-step, but doubts swirled. Dani wasn’t about to step onto the dance floor just yet. “What about my job? I still haven’t found another one.”
“Did you sign a non-disclosure agreement?”
She nodded.
“What about a non-compete clause?”
Another nod.
“Then I can’t offer you a job.”
“Nothing personal, but I wouldn’t want to work for you,” she admitted. “I learned from my mother that it’s best to take charge of your own life and not rely on others to give you what you need.”
That was something her mother hadn’t done after she married and paid the price when Dani’s father left. She would not make the same mistake.
A woman with a short asymmetric haircut delivered their sandwiches and walked away.
“I understand that, but what if I send your résumés out to some people I know?” Bryce offered. “I have a lot of connections that could come in handy.”
