“How was that?” He raised a brow and even though he was smiling at her sarcastically like he could tell she really was having the time of her life, she laughed.
“It was fun,” she admitted. “Really fun.”
“I guess we can just leave these here and go back up and take something else. The staff brings the equipment back up.”
“Okay.”
She had to sit beside Matt on the lift, but even that wasn’t bad. He remained quiet, content to just watch the lights of the city twinkling below them as they rose higher and higher up the hill.
“Is this place just for sledding?” Callie asked, near the top of the hill.
“Nope. On the other side, there are a few ski runs and courses for snowboarding and stuff.”
“Do you come here a lot? I’ve never been skiing or snowboarding before.”
“Really? We’ll have to come again then.” Matt’s eyes twinkled. His breath fogged out in the air above him and he looked so damn charming and boyish in that moment, Callie was almost tricked into saying yes. Almost.
“No way,” she laughed to cover up her discomfort. “This was a onetime thing. No tricking me into any more dates.”
“I was hoping you’d agree to come if we had friends join us.”
“Nope. No deal. That’s still a date. In disguise.”
“Darn.” Matt grinned, completely unfazed. “I guess I still have a couple of hours to change your mind.”
“You go ahead and try. It’s not going to happen.”
Except that, after two hours of sledding and screaming, rushing down the hill on tubes, toboggans, sleds, plastic disk things and plastic squares which Callie didn’t even know the name of, she was tempted to give in. Matt didn’t ask her again and she didn’t bring it up. She’d had fun. Real fun. For the first time in a very long time. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so much.
“I’m soaked through,” she said, as they neared their cars. “Thanks. I had a great time.”
“Whoa, there. I didn’t say the date was over.” Matt’s raspy, deep laugh filled up the night. God, he had a nice laugh. It wrapped around her like something soft and warm and did something to her insides yet again.
“What?” She whirled. Her hand fell away from the car door.
“I may or may not have had plans to cook you dinner. If that’s alright?”
“I…” it wasn’t, but something stopped her from saying it.
Dinner at Matt’s house? Cooked by him? It was way too romantic. Although, part of her was tempted to throw caution to the wind and just keep enjoying herself. She was intrigued. She wanted to see what a man like Matt would or could cook. A small part of her wanted to see his house as well, just to get that glimpse into his private life, a life outside of work.
“I promise I have the best intentions only. The rated G kind. It’s just dinner. I just thought after sledding we would be a mess, soaked and starving and you might not want to go out somewhere. I would have done it after but sledding on a full stomach would have been uncomfortable.”
Callie didn’t say so, but she was impressed. Matt really had thought ahead. Truthfully, he’d put far more thought into the date than she ever would have or could have. It touched a part of her, that part of her heart that was hard and cold, wounded and closed off.
“You’ll have your car. You can leave at any time.” He tried again to coax her into it.
“Uhh… I’m soaked.” She looked for a way to back out. “The only clothes I have are underneath these ones.”
“I’ll lend you a t-shirt and sweats.”
His eyes roved over her body, likely just assessing her for size and she shivered. A blast of heat tore at her stomach and that painful pulsing, the throbbing that never really seemed to go away since that kiss, was back.
Just go. For once in your life, do something. Don’t be old like Chantara said and look back on everything and regret that it was all wasted. Just live for once. It’s just this night. If I don’t go, he will probably try and ask for a second date since I bailed on the last part of it.
“Alright,” Callie relented. “But it had better be G rated.”
Matt smiled and it was the kind of look that melted her insides. Or it would have if they weren’t already completely liquid. Her legs felt a little weak like they might go all buttery and collapse. She needed to be in the car before that happened.
“I’ll give you my address.”
“I don’t need it. I already know where you live.” He seemed momentarily stunned, but then he recovered.
“Right.” His eyes snapped with humor. “Of course, you do. You book all my- well, everything.”
“Yeah. Yes, that would be me.”