She shook her head.
“Well, you’re gonna love the tractor ride later.”
She laughed, and I felt a little better. At least she thought I was funny.
“So where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise.”
I slowed down and turned onto the dark, unpaved, wooded road to our destination, and she sat up a little straighter. Then she saw the sign illuminated at the entry of the lot, and she broke out into a dazzling smile. “A drive-in?”
I grinned. “I got Brian to open it just for us.”
“I’ve never been to one,” she said, almost in awe. She beamed at me, and all my reservations about the night slipped away.
“You’ve never been to a drive-in?”
“No. We never really did this kind of stuff growing up.”
I pulled into the lot and parked us with the bed of the truck facing the screen.
“What kind of stuff did you do?” I asked, putting us in park.
“Not stuff like this,” she said.
I guess that tracked. She didn’t really strike me as a swimming-hole, pinball-machine-in-the-pharmacy-during-the-summer kind of woman. But I liked that I was giving her an experience she’d never had. It somehow seemed impossible that I could.
“Stay here for a second while I set us up,” I said.
I jumped out of the truck and went to the bed. I blew up a twin-size air mattress and covered it with a thick, red, patterned Aztec blanket. I’d brought some heavy blankets and pillows and propped them against the back window so we had something to lean on. I lit a citronella candle for the one or two mosquitoes that might be out this time of year and put it on the roof. Then I plugged in some white Christmas lights to a portable power inverter and ran those along the sides to give us some light to eat by. When I was done, I went to get her.
I opened her door for her. “All ready.”
She hopped out and came around the back. “Oh wow,” she said when she saw it, smiling.
I helped her up and climbed in after her. Then I grabbed the picnic basket Doug dropped off and started pulling things out.
Doug had outdone himself. There was homemade goat cheese with sliced pears drizzled in honey, dried fruits, bruschetta sandwiches on his fresh baked crusty bread that he made himself with his own sourdough starter, two thermoses with hot chocolate in them—Doug was a lot of things. But when it came down to it, he was a very, very good friend.
Annnd I think he was trying to make up for the pig.
She watched me set it all up. But when I handed her her thermos, I noticed she looked a little serious.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “This is all so nice.”
I sensed a “but” coming.
“But I feel like I do have to remind you that I’m really not looking to date right now. You didn’t have to make such a big deal about me coming,” she said.
I stopped what I was doing. “Okay. We need to clear something up,” I said, looking her in the eye. “When you come down—no matter what you come down for—I’m going to make a big deal over it. Because it is a big deal. You’re driving four hours, round-trip, to be here. That’s not nothing. And if you’re staying the night, this isn’t going to be a quickie situation. While I’d like to say that I could spend all twelve hours of your stay pleasuring you, I can’t.”
She laughed.
“We’re going to do other things,” I said, going on. “We’re going to eat, and we’re going to hang out. And I’m going to put effort into that because you’re putting in effort to be here. And it’s going to be like that every time. Okay?”
The corner of her lip twitched. “Okay.”
I smiled.
Part of this was my hospitality background and my upbringing. It was in my blood. I was raised to cater to the needs of tourists. My life and the lives of everyone in this town were dependent upon people enjoying themselves while in Wakan. But the other part was something else.
I liked her.
I wanted her to like coming here, because I wanted her to come back. I knew the second I saw her pull into my driveway that this couldn’t be the last time.
If all she wanted was sex for now, it could be just sex. I preferred sex with someone I liked and looked forward to seeing. This worked for me.
But there was a connection. I’d sensed it before, and it was the same now. I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t know if it meant anything or if it would lead to something else. Probably not, all things considered. All I knew for sure was that she needed to come back.