Chapter 3

Jaime

M y phone buzzes on my desk and I can't keep the smile off my lips seeing the text from Bryan.

Hi princess. I'm free tomorrow night now. Fred is back and no one needs me on short notice. I know it's last minute, but would you like to get dinner with me?

‘I would love to,' I respond, waiting anxiously as three dots pop up immediately. Last Friday was like a dream. The fact that I didn't really know him disappeared as soon as we started talking, and deep inside, it felt like I'd known him forever.

We spent over three hours at Gilbert's and I'm glad they're a twenty-four hour diner because I'd have been so embarrassed if we'd made them stay open late just for us. I didn't want to leave but it started sleeting and Bryan insisted on taking me home before it got too bad out.

That alone made me like him more, but then he compounded it by asking if I needed anything from my car before I went home. I was a bit confused about that but when he said he'd drive me home, my heart swooned. It didn't even matter that I had to admit everything to Jillian in order for her to take me to get my car Saturday afternoon once it warmed enough that any possible ice had melted.

Being with Bryan was amazing, and every time he called me princess…the parts of me that were only mildly buzzing woke swiftly and were completely gaga over him as well. He pulled up as close as possible to the door and before I could unbuckle, he did it for me, then stopped me from trying to open the door.

His quiet ‘I'll get it' had my heart pattering and when we were at the front door, I wanted him to kiss me more than anything. It was a bit of a let-down when he didn't, but I perked up a bit when he mentioned us doing dinner again.

I've been waiting all week for him to mention it again. We've been texting off and on, and every time he calls me princess in them…oh yeah, it gets to me even more.

What time works best for you? Since I'm off this weekend as well unless an emergency pops up, it can be as late as you need.

‘I should be done on time tomorrow. Nothing's popped up this week that's urgent (knock on wood),' I add because let's be honest, I don't want to jinx myself. ‘Do you want to meet somewhere?'

How about I pick you up at six-thirty at your house? Is there anything you'd like to do?

Not going to even begin to lie, I like that he's asking for my opinion while also wanting to pick me up. I will never argue getting to ride around in comfort, especially not with him.

‘Do you like old movies?' I reply because the old theater is doing a dinner and movie, and I'd wanted to go see it tomorrow night anyway. I've been trying to get Jillian to agree to come with me because I really can't stand going by myself to things like it.

Depends on the movie why? Do you like the Myers Theater's dinner events?

‘Yeah, I do. They're playing "Arsenic and Old Lace" this month. I was going to see if Jillian wanted to go with me so if you'd rather not that's fine.'

It starts at six doesn't it?

‘It does,' I answer, unable to hold back a smile at the thought of going to it with him. ‘I was going to flex off some of the time I worked last week and leave early if she agreed to go with me.'

How about I pick you up at five-thirty then? And if you run into any delays at work just let me know and I'll pick you up there.

Seriously, can he possibly be any more perfect? ‘Sounds perfect.'

I'll see you tomorrow then, princess.

‘See you tomorrow,' I respond, and the second I get home, Jillian lets out a loud squeal clapping like an idiot drawing Maia's attention our way. Thank god Mom and Dad aren't in the room or they'd be asking questions for sure—especially after Jillian brought up my dinner with him last week at Sunday dinner so pretty much everyone knows we semi-quasi went out already.

"Bryan called to set up your date, didn't he?" Jillian asks and I laugh softly as Maia's face lights up as well at my smile.

"Texted but yes, and you're off the hook for the movie," I add to her, making her eyes nearly bug out of her head.

"He's taking you to the Myers Theater to have dinner and watch that old black and white film?" Jillian asks and I nod. "Damn, the man must be in love to sit through torture like that."

"Not everyone hates old movies," Maia says with a little shrug as Jillian looks at her in surprise. "Sometimes it's nice to think about living in a time when the only thing a guy wanted wasn't sex."

"Don't let Jeffery hear you talking about sex, or he'll claim we're bad influences," Jillian teases her, making her blush and I give her a little hug shooting a warning look at my sister.

"He thinks I'm a little kid," Maia says with a shrug.

"Actually I'm pretty sure it's that he doesn't think of you as a kid that's the issue," I muse surprising her a bit. "He'd rather you were a kid because then he wouldn't be interested when he doesn't want to be because he has trouble trusting women. He is though and that creates another issue since Mom and Dad are your legal guardians now."

"You think so?" Maia asks and I nod, making her smile a bit more while Jillian silently laughs in her chair.

The next day seems to drag by, but the clock finally rolls over to three and I slip out heading home to change. Into what is the question though. The theater can get a bit stuffy but it's freezing out and a coat can only do so much.

I finally settle on a pair of black legging style pants that will be comfortable but still a bit stylish and a pair of heeled knee-high boots. Then slip into a soft white cami before topping that with my favorite grey cowl-neck sweater that has lace inserts which will help if it's warm in the theater.

I don't bother to do much more on the makeup front. I use as little as I can even at events and my daytime makeup is still holding up well.

I do curl the ends of my hair to give it a little more bounce. Mine's not quite as stick straight as Jennie's is, but it's definitely straighter than Jackie's, Jasmine's or Jillian's is. It's probably the most like Julie's but she tends to keep hers shorter than I do. Her's is probably shoulder-length whereas mine hits more around my breasts.

I grab my coat and head downstairs when I see it's nearly five-thirty already. Deciding on an outfit took a lot longer than I anticipated.

Bryan's pulling up to the house when I reach the front hall, and I open the door before he can knock, not wanting to get into it with Mom and Dad right now. They know I had dinner with him last week and that we're going out tonight, but we don't need to do the whole greet the date thing. Not when they already know him so he's not a total stranger and I don't want them asking anything stupid that sends him running again.

"Everything okay?" Bryan asks, staring down at me and I'm a bit confused. "I didn't mean to make you feel rushed by suggesting five-thirty," he adds, and a smile crosses my lips because that's probably one of the sweetest things anyone could possibly say. I'm always early to places and it's at least a twenty minute drive to the theater, but that actually didn't even cross my mind until now. "We have plenty of time to get there. I already picked up our tickets and doors don't open until six."

"You already got the tickets?" I ask in surprise making his brow lift my way. "Sorry, I'm just so used to paying when I suggest doing something."

"Well, if you decide you want to take a last-minute trip to Paris, I'll let you pick up the tab for that, but dinner and a movie, I can handle, princess," he states making me laugh fully as he guides me to his car.

The drive is pleasant as he tells me about his week covering for Fred in the department's robbery unit. He apparently came down with the flu after responding to a woman's house that was robbed. It happened when she was down with the bug, but Fred was cleared yesterday to return giving Bryan the day off.

I finish telling him about the new ad I'm coming up with as we reach the theater. "I'm excited for it since it'll be a replacement to the one currently out there that's boring. It's for Do-You. The program came out almost two years ago and people keep sending in requests for updates on. It'll highlight some of the unused built-in functions it already has in hopes of generating more purchases since most of the update requests are things it can already do.

"I was already excited hearing about that on Wednesday, but my boss told me this morning that starting next week, our IT guru Wyatt and I are supposed to work together to do some videos to put out that will show users how to work them and it honestly sounds like a lot of fun. He's going to record his screen as he works through them, and then I'm going to get to put them together in a catchy way that will have people actually watching them. I'm really looking forward to work on Monday which should honestly be crazy right?"

"Not when it's doing something you enjoy. Some weeks I'm eager to get to the station and see where I'll be covering, other weeks when I know it's for some of the units, not so much honestly," he says and I wait until he's come around to get the door, which I love that he does because it just makes the passenger princess feeling last a lot longer, to ask him anything else.

"Is there anywhere you like working more than the others that you'd want to ask for a permanent move to? I like my mostly routine life. Even though the work changes based on what ad we're working on, and I may occasionally work late, it's still the same day after day. I can't imagine going from unit to unit and being expected to know all the ins and outs needed for it."

"It's mostly structured regardless of which unit it's for though," he says as his hand slips onto my back, warming me despite him not really touching me but my coat, guiding me towards the doors. "I like details, no matter what type of issue it is, if someone was robbed, or someone's being stalked or harassed, there are details that are going to help figure out who's behind it if they're unknown, or to nail them if they're known. That's what I like, but whenever I have to help out with anything related to traffic incidents, I get the urge to turn in my badge.

"The homicide unit will only take a traffic fatality case if there's evidence that it was intentional. I'd prefer a straight up homicide investigation than trying to lay blame on someone when most of the time, it's truly an accident," he adds, and I nod certain it's not easy in those cases. "It's rough to think that involuntary manslaughter charges are appropriate when someone simply looked away from the road for a few seconds to calm their toddler and missed seeing the light change and ended up hitting someone who died."

"I'm sure they have enough guilt eating at them let alone being charged with a crime on top of it," I agree, letting him hand over our tickets to the usher. My heart flutters when we're led to one of the nicer tables and I hope it wasn't all they had left.

The theater is divided into sections. The floor where we're seated has regular tables, staggered around so no one's view is obstructed. In addition to doing the dinner and movies, they also do community productions here so there's also a spot where an orchestra could sit that is used as a bar during the movies.

Around the balcony areas, there's a long bench table for the food to be delivered to those sitting in more normal theater style seats. The meal's the same but the balcony seats are cheaper than the floor seats, so they either sell out faster or are the last available depending on what's showing.

Bryan guides me into the comfy booth-like seat when the usher stops at one of the nicest tables and I can't help but smile as he settles in next to me. They're soft and cushiony, but also a little more private than the regular seats along the floor. I know they cost more than the regular tables as well and I glance up at him shyly.

"I hope you don't mind the seats. I thought they looked more comfortable than any of the ones on the balcony or the normal tables," he says before I can bring it up and a little flush settles onto my cheeks. "There were plenty of cheaper tickets still open if that's what you're wondering," he adds, and the flush deepens a bit. "Like I said, I can afford the tickets with ease. Honestly, it's not more than what I'd spend if we went to see a new movie and got drinks and popcorn, even on top of a regular meal."

"I…" I pause getting myself together to tell him the truth. "Most of the guys I've gone out with were closer to my age and always complained about how much it cost, so they expected a decent return. The ones that know my family always expected me to pay for everything."

"Boys are idiots, but I'm not a boy, princess," he says making my heart race with need. "I'm thirty-six," he adds and that makes me a smile a bit more.

I'm not at all worried about the age difference, not when Dad's nineteen years older than Mom is. They've never had an issue with any of the other's age differences. Adam's about thirteen years older than Jasmine is and Jude's also about thirteen years older than Eden is, so there shouldn't be any concerns here.

"I've never been married. Don't have any kids or even a pet, so there's just me to take care of," he continues, and I want that to change more than I ever imagined. "I bought a cheap little house ten years ago that was in bad shape in a previously bad neighborhood. It's been upgraded since then—the house and the neighborhood—and I've had offers for it that are way more than what I spent on it even with the updates I did. It's easy to get to the station from though and I didn't need anything bigger, so I always said no.

"That was my biggest expense up until about three years ago when I paid off the equity loan I took out to cover some of the bigger renovations I did. The place was dirt cheap because it needed a lot of work, and I pretty much ended up getting what's equivalent to a car loan term-wise for it, so I had it paid off in six years. After four years, I had plenty of equity in it with the repairs I'd made and market changes making it worth more than what I paid, which let me take out a loan to do the rest, and I paid that off in three. I've got some savings, nothing huge, but enough to get by for at least a year, maybe two, if something happened.

"I haven't dated much over the years. It's hard for me to open up with new people unless I'm comfortable around them, so relationships haven't went anywhere since…" He stops, his expression falling, and it makes me incredibly curious.

"I get what you mean about not opening up unless you're comfortable with someone. I'm the same," I say when he takes a moment to seemingly gather himself. "You don't have to tell me now if you'd rather not get into it."

"It's not that," he states, his eyes flowing over me making me warm. "I don't want to run you off talking about past relationships."

"You won't. Well, as long as you don't try and talk about…your love life with them that is," I get out as delicately as possible because I really don't want to know anything about him with other women. Dates are one thing, sleeping with them is a complete other that I don't know if I could get past because I honestly feel extremely possessive of him.

"I would never be that crass," he says lifting my chin his way when I glance away, feeling my cheeks grow warm. "There would have to be women to discuss that to start and there haven't been any in my home," he adds and that makes me feel a million times better, although it doesn't entirely mean he hasn't spent a night or two with women in their homes.

"I've never been serious with anyone," I offer him as his thumb strokes my cheek making me want his lips on mine now. "Letting them in to go out on a date was hard enough but then when I did and I learnt they just wanted either sex or access to my family or their money, it made me pull back even further. I wouldn't begin to let them touch me and honestly, I haven't been out on a date in over a year."

"I can't say I'm not happy to hear that," Bryan whispers into my ear as a waitress comes up to our table.

"Welcome to the Myers Theater's showing of Arsenic and Old Lace . To go along with tonight's showing we have several popular dishes from the 1940's that we'll be serving through the film. Have you had a chance to look over the menu? If there are any dietary restrictions we do have substitutions on the back of the menu that can be selected instead," the girl says giving us a polite smile and it settles a piece of me when she barely gives Bryan a glance.

"I'm good with the menu as-is," I state glancing up at him with a grin. "I saw it online when I got the notification of this month's showing."

"I saw it while getting the tickets, so I'm good with it too," he tells the girl who nods.

"Included with the meal, we are also featuring a special, non-lethal," she adds with a bit more of a smile, "arsenic themed drink to go along with the movie. It comes in a regular cocktail or for those guests under twenty-one or who simply prefer not to drink, in a mocktail version. Could I interest either of you in one? We'll have coffee, iced tea, and water available for the table, or if you'd like something different, for an additional fee, the bar can prepare any drink you'd like, including soft drinks."

"Since I'm driving, I'll do the mocktail," Bryan says and the girl nods.

"The mocktail please," I tell her, and she notes it on her little tablet before heading to the next table. Bryan's eyes are on me, and I add to him, "I don't really drink much. Mostly it's just a glass of champagne when I do. The mandatory Sunday dinners are to celebrate that month's birthdays and anniversaries, so we break it out then and at holidays, but other than that, I'm an occasional glass of wine type. I just don't see the need to drink, especially to excess. I don't like feeling out of control."

"I have the occasional beer while at home, but I never drive if I do. I know they say one beer won't affect you, especially someone my size, and even more if you've eaten, but I saw far too many wrecks while I was a patrol officer due to drinking to risk it. Not knowing who might call me in also stops me from doing it regularly. You never know when you might have to draw your weapon and then if you do fire it, your blood gets drawn to confirm you weren't impaired. One beer might not be a problem, but I don't ever want to run into the chance where I had just one too many and while maybe I wasn't close to the legal limit, it's still noticeable enough in my blood for an attorney to use against me."

"That's smart," I muse, not liking the idea of him having to use a gun at all but it's his job and it's clear he loves it. I just hope he'll come to love me as well because I'm pretty sure I'm already there.