NELSON PULLED UP in front of the Goat and Barley. Tonight he and Mariah were on their first official fake date.
Mariah had planned out a schedule of dates. On a spreadsheet. This first one was to play darts, on a Thursday night. Nelson recognized immediately that she wanted to do something where she felt in control. She would easily win any dart competition against him. That would give her the upper hand.
Mariah had her lists, but Nelson had insider knowledge. And even though he was surprised that he enjoyed Mariah bossing him into this date, he’d insisted he got to plan the second one.
He had some surprises lined up for her tonight, as well.
It was cold outside, but he was waiting for her in the parking lot. Once her car pulled in, he walked over to open her door for her.
It was easy to read the surprise on her face. This wasn’t part of her script. Neither was the kiss.
The kiss was purportedly to sell them as a couple. Nelson had his own reasons to surprise Mariah with some kissing action.
He’d hoped his memory had exaggerated how enjoyable their first kiss had been. After all, this was Mariah. They’d been at odds with each other for months. He didn’t like the idea that she was holding on to the best kiss title he had to give out.
Unfortunately, when he pulled her shocked body close to his, it was his breath that hitched. When she looked up at him in surprise and licked her bottom lip, he forgot who was watching, and why he didn’t want this to be so good.
Then their lips met, and he forgot everything but kissing Mariah.
Eventually, the pesky need for oxygen made itself known and he pulled back, his breath shaky. In the background he could hear comments from other patrons.
Right. This was to sell their fake date. He didn’t dare let her know how much that kiss had rocked his axis.
“Appropriate use of PDA?” he asked, his voice husky.
It took her a moment longer to come back to the here and now. The kiss had thrown her off, and he liked a flustered Mariah. She could deny it all she wanted, but he knew she enjoyed the kissing, as well. She had opened to him, fitting herself against his body in a most satisfying way.
“Right,” she finally said, looking around at their audience.
There were a lot of people arriving, and they’d all seen the kiss. That was a reason she couldn’t argue. She’d resist any intimation that they were kissing because they enjoyed it.
He wasn’t fond of the idea, either, but surely, they’d get used to it after some time passed.
She pulled away, her lips pleasantly pink, her breath puffing in the cold. “Yes, just what we wanted.”
Mariah was a lot of things, but she wasn’t ready to admit she liked him, for real.
“Come on, we don’t want to be late.”
She stopped, ignoring the tug of his glove on her mittens. Her brows lowered as she considered what he’d said.
“Late for what?”
“Trivia night.”
“What?”
He grinned at her. “Yeah, on Thursdays no one plays darts. It’s trivia night.”
He pulled again on her hand, and this time she let him tug her forward. He could almost hear the gears in her head spinning. This was another case where having local knowledge was going to play in his favor.
MARIAH LIKED PLANNING. She liked lists. She liked the feeling of control. She knew that it was a result of the way she’d been raised, when so often it felt like she’d had none.
She’d carefully planned this first “date” with Nelson. By coming to the Goat and Barley, they wouldn’t be in Carter’s Crossing. It wouldn’t be a blatant declaration that they were dating. It would look like they were trying to be discreet, but from what she’d heard, news would trickle back to Carter’s Crossing. Then they could make a couple of dating appearances in town. People already knew they were spending time with Nelson’s horses and at his place... It was a narrative that would work.
So how had she missed trivia night? She didn’t miss things. She researched and double-checked. She made backup plans. Then she made backup plans for her backup plans.
Well, she wouldn’t be caught out again. This was her job. It was important to her. Nelson couldn’t mess her up.
Nelson had insisted on taking care of the second date, taking place in Carter’s Crossing. With some reluctance she’d agreed. She hadn’t realized he was going to derail her first date, as well.
There were a lot more people from Carter’s Crossing in the bar than she’d expected on a weeknight. But she hadn’t known about trivia night.
She had to absolve Nelson of sabotage. It’s not like he could have asked the pub to set this up for the same evening she’d picked for their date. From the surprised looks being tossed his way, he obviously wasn’t a regular for trivia night. He knew the routine well enough, though, that the two of them ended up at a table together with drinks and the paper lists that all registered teams received. He’d even given their team a name: Carter’s Crew.
She mentally rolled her eyes at that.
Most of the other tables had more than two people. She resigned herself to making an embarrassing showing in this competition.
That was another miscalculation.
Nelson was smart. She should have known that. He hadn’t completed his veterinary studies at the top school in the country because he was stupid.
She was surprised, though, that some of the time she was the one to carry the team.
Her education had been completed on the boat until she’d come on land to go to college. She’d done okay academically, but she’d been out of sync with her classmates when it came to pop culture and lifestyle.
It turned out that she had a good grasp of history, and her geography was totally on. She knew she was lucky such a big section of that night’s quiz was based on bodies of water. It was almost as if whoever arranged the quiz had picked her brain for that section.
Sports? She was at a loss. Nelson aced that.
They both struggled with television and music. They didn’t win, but they came in third. Since there were twelve teams, it was a respectable showing.
They high-fived each other and got a round of applause from the crowd as they went forward to receive their prize: a gift certificate for Moonstone.
It wasn’t exactly the date Mariah had planned, but they certainly made a public splash, so she’d call it a win.
Mariah carefully tucked the Moonstone certificate in her purse. “We could use that for our next date.”
Nelson leaned over the table. “You sound confident that I’m going to ask you out again.”
Mariah leaned toward him. “I’m a big girl. I can ask you out.”
Nelson’s mouth quirked up in that grin that she was getting too familiar with, but someone stopped by the table to congratulate them before he could respond.
When they were left alone again, he ran his fingers over their quiz sheets.
“You know a lot.”
The compliment warmed her.
“You were homeschooled, right? Since you were always traveling on your boat.”
Mariah nodded. “Till I moved to land. My dad taught us.”
Nelson leaned back in his chair. “What was that like? I always had boring regular school, like everyone else I know.”
Mariah traced a pattern on the table with her finger. “I don’t know if I can describe it very well. I have no idea what school is like for other people, only what I’ve seen in movies and read in books.”
“Fewer pretty people, less drama and lots of boring lectures.”
Mariah looked up with a smile. “Well, we had only the three of us, my two brothers and me, so the drama was limited to sibling fights.”
“And the boring lectures?”
“There’s not much point in lecturing your three kids. We already got that for chores around the boat and making sure we wore our life jackets. Dad was a good teacher. He made things interesting. And once we finished our assignments, our school day was over. It wasn’t too boring.
“I always felt like I was the stupid kid, because I was the youngest, and as much as possible Dad would have us all study the same things at the same time.”
“Now, that, I find hard to believe.”
Mariah narrowed her eyes. “Which part?”
“I can’t believe you let yourself think you were stupid. If you were keeping up with older kids, you couldn’t have been.”
She shrugged. “I did eventually figure that out.” Maybe too late?
“Where did you have classes? Was there a special place on your boat?”
He sounded interested. Like this was something he’d been curious about.
“It varied, depending on what we were doing. There wasn’t enough room on the boat for a separate classroom space. We usually sat either in the cockpit or the salon.”
“That sounds cool. Did you run laps around the boat for gym? Climb the mast for recess?” Nelson had a teasing light in his eyes.
Mariah felt her expression go carefully blank. Their life on the boat wasn’t cool, not at all. “We didn’t really do gym. Dad always said we got enough exercise helping on the boat and swimming. And no, we didn’t do recess, either.”
“Was it weird to only have three students?”
“It’s not weird when it’s all you know. And sometimes, when we were with boats with other kids, we’d do classes together.”
Mariah was ready to move on to another topic, but Nelson still had questions.
“Did you have friends on those other boats?”
Mariah looked away. “When they were around, we would play or hang out together.”
“And when they weren’t?”
“It was just us.”
Mariah thought back over her words. She thought she’d sounded all right. Not too pathetic.
“That must have been rough sometimes. I mean, growing up, there were a lot of times I didn’t want to be with my family, so it’s hard to imagine not having Dave around.”
Mariah squished down that envious pang she felt. She would have loved a Dave around. Or a Rachel, or a Jaycee.
She shrugged again, since it was her turn to respond. It was what it was.
“Is that why you’re not navigating around the world with your sextant now?”
She glanced up at Nelson. The words were teasing, but there was too much sympathy in his eyes. He’d figured out that having only her family around hadn’t always been enough. But he was also letting her off the hook.
She gave him a grateful smile. She’d rather he hadn’t seen through her, but at least he wasn’t picking into her psyche, either to figure her out or try to fix her.
She’d gained a lot, growing up on the boat, traveling the world. Her brothers appeared to have picked up that wanderlust. But for her, it had made her want something different.
She wasn’t looking for pity. Her childhood had been unconventional, but it had its advantages, as well. She was an adult now. She was making the life she wanted for herself. A job she enjoyed. Her own community, one that could be constant. A home that stayed still.
This job in Carter’s Crossing was a stepping-stone to all of that. It was showing her the things she wanted.
Her glance caught Nelson’s, and for some reason she felt her cheeks heat up. He hadn’t read her mind, and he wouldn’t think of himself as one of those things she wanted.
At least, she hoped so.