***
The drive back to her apartment was quiet, but not uncomfortably so. Dylan found he liked it. Most of the women he dated found it necessary to fill any silence with endless chatter. Then again, he couldn’t picture many of the women he took out wanting to spend the night at a baseball game. Sure, some may have gone, but not because they enjoyed the sport. Rather, because they wanted to be with him. Or maybe a better way of putting it was they wanted to be with rich CEO Dylan Talbot, not the man himself.
He’d known Callie was different from their very first meeting. The time he’d spent with her since only reinforced his opinion.
“Any interest in stopping for ice cream?” They’d pulled off the highway and he could see a brightly lit ice cream stand up ahead.
“I’ve got plenty at home we can eat. It’s always been a weakness of mine. That and licorice. I’ll take that over chocolate any day,” she admitted.
Anyone else and Dylan would assume she was inviting him back for more than just ice cream, but not her. Still, that didn’t stop the image of her lying naked in bed, mahogany colored hair spread out on a pillow, from popping into his head.
Don’t. Go. There. Dylan gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white.
“That was one hell of a game,” he said, hoping a conversation about baseball would get his mind and body back under control and out of the bedroom.
“Cosgrove’s play in the eighth was incredible. I don’t think the Sox would’ve pulled off the win without it.”
Her voice was so animated. Full of excitement. Dylan loved how she could be so excited about a play in a baseball game.
Loved? Where had that thought come from? He didn’t associate the L word with anyone except family these days.
He liked that about her, he mentally amended his thought. Somehow, though, the word didn’t feel right. It didn’t do justice to what he felt right now. He liked that Bill, his running buddy, pushed him extra hard when they were training together. The emotions he felt now were nothing like that. Was there something between like and love? There had to be. He just didn’t know what it was.
“The ump’s bad call in the ninth helped. Stiles was safe.” Dylan figured it was best to keep up a steady conversation about a safe topic. It didn’t get much safer than baseball.