Luckily, no blood was spilled in the shower and I was dressed, made up, and my hair had been tamed into a sophisticated twist with tendrils falling around my face in under twenty-five minutes. I considered it a minor miracle, although not the type that would reasonably put me in contention for canonization.

Slipping my right foot into my second stiletto, I adjusted the strap and buckled it before straightening and preparing myself to walk back into the living room.

I’m going on a date with Rhett Hennessy.

I will not worry about being cool.

I will not worry about being awesome.

I will be my own damn self, and if that’s not good enough for him, it’s not meant to be.

With that pep talk bringing me solidly back to earth, I strode in his direction. He rose from his seat on the sofa, his face unreadable.

He kissed me when I was looking like a hot mess, so he has to appreciate this effort, right?

Rhett stepped forward, meeting me in the middle. “You’re beautiful, Ari. Whether you’re wearing a T-shirt with a pencil jammed in your hair or a ball gown, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Thank you for not telling me I missed my shot.”

His words, ones I didn’t realize I needed to hear, echoed with sincerity.

“I wondered if you were ever going to let me know what happened with my brother. I kept myself busy all day trying not to think about it.”

Rhett reached for my hand and gripped it. “Turns out he’s a hell of a lot more levelheaded about the situation than I would be if I had a sister. But I don’t, and he’s not standing in our way. So let’s go see what we think about this.”

As I let Rhett lead me to my front door, I appreciated his no-nonsense approach. With all the waiting, longing, hoping, praying—on my side of the fence, obviously—it was hard not to wonder if reality would be anything near what I’d dreamed of as a teenager.

Neither of us were in high school anymore, and those old feelings might not have faded, but they weren’t relevant here. This was new ground for us to cover, and I was going to put everything else behind me.

Except . . . I did have one tiny confession to make. As Rhett led me around to the passenger side of his Jeep, I had to tell him.

“Remember that hit-and-run, the one that smashed the taillight of your Jeep when you were a senior?”

He paused, his fingers gripping the door handle. “Yeah?”

“It wasn’t exactly a hit-and-run. It was more of a hit-and-walk.”

“You and a Louisville Slugger the day that the rumor went around at school that I knocked up Kim Leander.”

My mouth dropped open. “You knew?”

“That you were pissed I could throw away my life like that? Yeah, I knew. I watched you do it. It put a hell of a lot of things in perspective for me.”

I jerked my head back. “Like what?”

“Like that I wasn’t going to back myself into a corner by making stupid mistakes when I was eighteen.”

“Well, I guess that’s a good thing.”

He met my eyes, and his green gaze shone. “I never touched Kim Leander, Red.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.”

“Oops.”

He smiled. “I’ll let you make that taillight up to me sometime. Don’t worry.”

And so started my first real date with Rhett Hennessy.

21

Ariel

I couldn’t help but keep trying to guess where Rhett was taking me. Maybe a regular place he took his dates? A New Orleans classic? I flipped through the possibilities but came up empty.

“Where are we going?”

He glanced over at me with a smile. “Sometimes I forget you’ve been gone a long time.”

That didn’t answer my question. “And?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Patience, Red. Patience.”

I folded my hands together in my lap, resisting the urge to tug my dress down when it rode up my thighs further as I fidgeted in my seat. When we pulled up to a stoplight in an area of old warehouses, I was officially lost.

“Where are we?”

The car in front of us laid on the horn because the truck first in line at the light wasn’t moving.

Rhett twisted to look at me. “You don’t know New Orleans that well at all anymore, do you?”

I glanced out the window, trying to place the street. I had nothing. “If you recall, I left when I was seventeen, and before that, I never had my own car. I went from home to school and church and not really anywhere else.”

Rhett drove through the green light and took one more turn before pulling into a parking lot across from a warehouse that looked like it had been rehabbed and then upper stories added with new, modern construction. The red brick that colored the surrounding buildings was missing on this one, as it was black with a giant gold logo painted between the old storeroom-type windows. The newer-looking upper stories had solid glass walls supported by thick wooden timbers.

The building was breathtaking. I’d never seen anything like it in New Orleans.

“What is this?”

“The Seven Sinners Distillery. It’s been around longer than I’ve been alive, but the family gave it a facelift and opened it to the public with a restaurant just before . . . well, just before I left town.”

My gaze traveled over the exterior, marveling at the gorgeous design of the building, marrying the old and new, and the bold logo. “It’s amazing.”

Rhett opened his door and climbed out of the Jeep. “I’m glad you like the looks of it. The food and drinks are supposed to be just as good, if not better.”

I latched my purse, which had somehow become unlatched in all my fidgeting, and reached for the door handle. Before I could grasp it, Rhett was there swinging it open.

“Wow. Full gentleman treatment.”

His smile turned wolfish and his eyes flashed. “I wouldn’t say I’m fully a gentleman.”

My mind went to all the places it probably shouldn’t, and Rhett’s had obviously gone there too. What would it be like if he carried through on all the thoughts I could see blazing in his gaze? That thought made me wish I’d tossed a second pair of panties into my purse. The ones I was wearing were a lost cause, which seemed to be a theme around him. Maybe I could just take them off . . .