“I love it,” I said. “It’s really good.” Subconsciously I lifted my glass again for another sip. It was starting to settle and warm my throat. The deep taste lingered on the edge of my tongue and I thought of Caroline. The wine was exceptionally better than anything we’d downed in school late at night while binge watching HGTV.
“Good.” He grinned and leaned forward, placing his chin on his hands. “So, tell me about yourself.” A smirk in the corner of his lips told me he was joking before it became a full smile.
I laughed, searching for a witty rebuttal. “As this is our first date, I'll tell you that I like long walks on the beach and getting caught in the rain.”
“That sounds about right for first date conversation.” Jacob laughed. It was rich and comfortable, and something about it made my soul happy. “I’m glad I’m finally able to take you on a real date instead of a Monster GO walk or something.”
“Thanks for taking me out,” I said. “I’m beyond happy to be here with you.”
“I'm just glad you agreed to come,” he replied. “I was half afraid you wouldn't.”
“Why wouldn't I?” I asked, puzzled.
“Let's just say that the last time I was this excited about a date, it didn't go so well,” Jacob said, taking a sip of his wine.
“You can't just leave me hanging with a story like that,” I told him. I was rather flattered that he was excited about our date.
He blushed slightly. “The last time I was this excited about a date, I was thirteen and she was a year older than me a
nd on the cheerleading team.”
“Sounds like you were batting above your league,” I remarked with a smile.
“Way out of my league,” he agreed with a chuckle.
I paused. “The last time you were this excited about a date you were thirteen?”
“Yeah.” He looked down at his menu and then fixed his tie. “I've been excited about dates, but never this excited.”
My heart melted.
“I'm excited too,” I admitted. “But, are you as cute now as you were then?”
“I was such a ridiculous looking kid,” he said with a laugh. “Crazy hair, huge glasses, braces, and terribly scrawny.”
“Glasses and braces, huh?” I smiled at him. “But you’re like a solid six-foot now, so you probably weren’t really that short.”
“Oh no, I was short,” he assured me. “I’m six-foot now, but I probably grew about three feet in college. I was tiny then.”
“How short are we talking?” I said, muffling my giggle as I spoke.
“I bet you I was probably five-five when I graduated. Maybe shorter,” he said with a shake of his head.
“No way.” I took another sip of my wine, thoroughly enjoying myself. I liked hearing about his life. I wanted to know everything about him. I wanted to know where he came from and how he got here and everything in between.
“Oh yeah. Better believe it,” he said. “And that was graduation. I was probably five-foot going into high school.”
“Oh dear,” I said, trying to picture a more miniature Jacob. “I think even I was taller than that.”
“I’m sure you were,” he said, amusement dancing on his face and in his eyes. “I think just about the whole school was.”
“Wow. That’s kind of rough,” I said while trying to scale back the appearance of my delight, though if we weren’t in a nice restaurant I’d already be cracking up.
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun,” he said, smiling but dripping with sarcasm. “It was a great confidence boost for little Jacob; new kid, coming into a big new school, trying out for the freshman basketball team feeling like the hoop was too tall for me to see.”
“You tried out for basketball?” I said. “You couldn’t have thought that was a good idea.”
“Oh, young Jacob had an abundance of ideas that he thought were good at one time that later proved to be disastrous. Basketball was one,” he said. “Swim team was another.”