“It’s a date,” he joked, or at least, I thought he was joking.
After he closed the door behind him, the limo driver took off without needing to be told where we were going. I was still in the dark. Tanner didn’t seem to want to shed some light on it for me, though. As the driver eased us into the light traffic, Tanner turned to me, not offering an explanation for the limo or the suit either.
“How was your day?” he asked. “You worked your whole Saturday away, didn’t you?”
I chuckled and shook my head before I shrugged. “Not the whole day, no. I worked a little bit this morning, but then Brit came over for lunch and stayed to help me get ready.”
“Who chose the dress?” He dragged his gaze over me again, pretending to wipe a bit of drool from the corner of his mouth once his eyes came back to mine. “If it was Brit, I owe her a huge thank you.”
“It was her,” I admitted, smoothing the fabric out over my thighs. “You don’t think it’s too dressy? I was so glad when I saw you weren’t just wearing jeans, but I still feel a little overdressed.”
“You won’t be,” he assured me. “Not where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?” I asked curiously. “You never replied to my text when I asked earlier, either.”
“Because I want it to be a surprise,” he said.
I sat back, arching a brow at him. “What is it with you and surprises?”
“I don’t really know.” He shrugged. “I guess I just haven’t had so many in my life. I’ve always known where I wanted to go and what was going on in every facet of my life. Everything was pretty cut and dry there for a while. The idea of surprises is just appealing to me at the moment. For the record, it’s not because I’m not interested that I haven’t looked at the designs. That email has been burning a hole in my brain ever since it landed in my inbox. I just really don’t want to ruin the surprise.”
“What happens if you walk in and you hate it?”
“I won’t.”
My head tilted as I studied him. “You have no way of knowing that for sure. Do you have any idea how terrible I’d feel if that ends up happening?”
“You wouldn’t have anything to feel terrible about. It’s my gamble, and I’m happy to take it.”
“Well okay then.” I still wasn’t happy about the situation, but I couldn’t exactly whip out my phone and force him to look if he didn’t want to. “It’s your house. All I want is for you to walk in and feel at home.”
“And I’m sure I will.” He grinned. “From now on, for the rest of the night, no more talking about work, though. Okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed tentatively, but I forgot about everything else when the limo slowed to a stop outside one of the most expensive restaurants in the city—and that was saying something. I’d never been there before, obviously, but even I knew about its reputation.
The head chef was known worldwide, and it was supposed to be nearly impossible to get a table there. The meals were a whole production and the waitstaff were apparently put through a rigorous interview process. I’d watched an interview once with the designer who’d done the inside of the dining room, and it had taken them forever to get every detail just right.
I turned to gape at Tanner, who was grinning at me like a mouse who’d gotten every last block of cheese. “You know it, then?” he asked.
“I know about it,” I said. “How did you even get a table here on such short notice?”
“I’m special.” He wagged his eyebrows at me and grinned. Then he climbed out of the car and held his hand out to me again. “I’m joking. The chef is a fan of baseball. He invited the team for dinner here one night shortly after it opened and told us there would always be space for any of us if we wanted it. I wanted it, so I called.”
I shook my head. “How can you say stuff like that so casually? Do you have any idea how big of a deal this is? It’s huge. Us mere mortals would have to wait months to get in here.”
“Stick with me, I’ll make you famous.” He tightened his grip on my hand as we walked into the restaurant together. The maître d’ greeted him by name and ushered us through the gorgeous dining room to a table in the corner.
After we were seated and had ordered our appetizers from the choices for the evening, our discussion turned from small talk to what Tanner wanted to do with his future. “You must miss baseball if it comes with perks like this.”
“I do,” he admitted. “I don’t miss it for the perks, though. I miss the game more than I do anything else, but I also miss the sense of purpose it gave me.”
“Being a billionaire isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?” I asked lightly, but since this had come up on our weekend at the lake house as well, I was honestly curious about whether he’d made any decisions yet.
He sighed. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it, actually. I wanted to get your take, so I’m glad you asked.”
“Lay it on me,” I said, settling in with a glass of the most divine red wine I’d ever tasted in my hand. “I can’t promise that I’ll be much help, but I can try.”