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Chance and I went through more of Harry's files. We had yet to find anything as interesting as the BFFam observations, but we were both convinced there was probably more interesting stuff hidden somewhere.
As the afternoon turned toward evening, I could feel the fear creeping in. "Chance, we don't have to go out tonight. You owe me a date, but with everything that's happened, I'd be willing to trade a fancy night out for a night snuggled up on your sofa."
"Not going to happen, City Girl. I promised you a real date, and that's what you're going to have. Never let it be said that Chance Munroe skimps on the romance."
We both recognized what was going on under the surface, but neither of us were going to talk about it.
Chance walked into the bedroom, just as I stepped into my gray heels. He stopped just inside the door. "I like this look," he said. "Of course, I like all your looks."
He kissed me softly. "You're looking pretty good yourself, Mr. Munroe." He was wearing chocolate brown slacks with a camel's hair sport coat, and a rust button-front shirt open at the neck. He looked great, but I preferred him in t-shirts or thermals so I could see his muscles. I would never admit that to him though.
We walked downstairs, and Chance helped me into my coat. I have to admit I was curious about where we were going. There really wasn't a fancy restaurant within two hours of Wilkins' Gap. I wondered what Chance had planned, but it was clear he intended it to be a surprise.
He walked me to the car and opened my door. "Stand right there for a minute," he said.
I felt something being tied over my eyes, and I freaked out. I screamed and pushed his hands away, before turning and running back to the house. Fudge, the door was locked.
"Everly, wait. I'm sorry," Chance said. He swore as he bounded up onto the porch without using the steps. "God, I'm so sorry. I'm an idiot. This is why guys should never plan anything. I didn't think about how that might affect you. I'm so sorry."
He approached me cautiously and wrapped his arms around me. He rubbed by back until my breathing calmed. "Can you forgive me? I'm so so sorry, Babe. I never meant to upset you."
"Can we go without the blindfold? I'll close my eyes if you want me to," I said
"It'll be fine," he said. "You sure you're OK?"
I nodded. He picked me up in his arms and carried me back to the truck. He reached around me and buckled my seatbelt for me. Once he pulled out onto the main road, he pulled my hand over and rested it on his thigh, with his hand on top. I spent the drive getting myself calm and back to a happy place. Fudge, I thought I wasn't letting things bother me. Clearly, I was mistaken.
He parked in front of one of the empty storefronts on Main Street and came around to open my door. The front windows were covered in paper, so I couldn't see what was inside. He led me up to the door and opened it. Strings of miniature lights had been strung from the ceiling. There was a table for two in the center, with a white linen table cloth.
"What's all this?" I asked.
"Dating in Wilkins' Gap is not what you're used to. There isn't any place nicer than Hairy's to eat without driving for hours. Dates here are usually at home, but I wanted you to have the kind of date you were used to in the city."
Rita appeared from the back with a bottle of red wine. "Welcome. Would you both like wine?"
"Sure, Rita. Thanks."
"I'll be right back with your appetizers," she said and hustled away.
"Care to explain what my waitress is doing here."
"Picking up some extra work. Gus cooked. I hope you don't mind, but they offered to help."
"This is nice, Chance, but you really didn't have to go to all this trouble. I would have been happy to spend the night at home with you."
"I thought you needed a special night after everything that's happened. Laurie helped organize it. She's nice, but she giggles all the time."
"Only around you," I said. "Have you ever notice that women do that a lot around you?"
"I hadn't, but now that you mention it, it does seem to happen a lot. You don't do that though."
"They're all smitten with you. You're like the local rock star."
"But you like me, and you don't giggle."
"I'm giggling on the inside, I promise. So how did you get permission to use this place. Did you call in a favor from the owner?"
"Sort of."
"Elaborate, please," I said, taking a sip of my wine.
"This is the future home of the Wilkins’ Gap Cryptid Museum. I signed a lease."
"This is going to be our museum? Did you think maybe we should discuss it before you committed us to a lease?"
"I probably should have thought of that, but I didn't."
The food was all great and nothing that was on Hairy's menu.
"You look gorgeous tonight," Chance said, pulling me up into a hug. "Those heels make it a little easier to kiss you."
My three-inch heels still left me a foot shorter than Chance. I looked down at my shoes. "These shoes are OK, but I liked my teal ones better. Do you know if Roy has them in evidence?"
Chance looked at me like he didn't follow. "I was wearing my teal pumps when I was kidnapped. I took them off, because I was going to use them as a weapon before I found the shovel."
"How are high heels a weapon? We're you going to seduce him and push him off a cliff?"
I scowled at him. I sat down in my chair, pulled off one of my shoes, and turned it upside down. "Watch and learn a trick from the Everly Mason school of survival. If you wear heels a lot, this cap wears down. You can replace them. I do it all the time on shoes I really like. Some heels have metal posts screwed in." I popped off the cap and showed him. "I figured it would be pretty effective if I stabbed him in the neck."
Chance pulled my leg across his lap and massaged my foot. "You keep that up and we might have to skip dessert," I said, enjoying the way his large hands worked the muscles in my foot.
Our tiramisu was great, but between the foot massage, the wine, and the adrenaline crash from the blindfold incident, I was getting tired.
"Everly, I was more scared than I've ever been, when you were missing. I know you think we've skipped a bunch of dating protocol steps, but I want to take care of you and protect you. It's going to be a while before I'm comfortable letting you out of my sight unless you’re with someone I trust, like Tom or Jim. I know that might make things awkward, but we'll just have to deal with it."
"I understand. As you experienced firsthand tonight, I'm feeling a little fragile myself, but I do want to follow through with my plan to get more survival training. I want to be comfortable with a weapon. I want to know I can survive in the wilderness even if I'm not with you."
"I think that's great, but I still don't plan on letting you go without me if I can help it."
"While I was packing up stuff at my apartment today, Tom told me what happened here, when I was kidnapped. There was one question he couldn't answer though."
"What's that?" he asked, pulling me into his lap.
"How did you find me? I know there were a lot of people out there searching, and I need to find a way to thank them for that, but how did you even know where to begin looking? From what I know, you had less to go on than I had when I found you after Jerry left you in the woods."
"Bigfoot."
"What about bigfoot?"
"Didn't you hear all the knocking that was going on before I found you. Some of the searchers heard the noises, and I knew what it was. After what happened at the creek and with the gun, I knew they'd lead me to you, and they did."
"Let me be sure I understand. You believe that when you fell off the cliff into the stream, a bigfoot carried you to the clearing."
"You've seen the evidence on my clothes."
"True. And you believe bigfoot disarmed the man who shot Tom, broke the gun, and left it for us to find so we would know we were safe in the woods."
"Yes. We've talked about all of this." He was right we had, but I still didn't believe his interpretation of the facts.
"You believe that bigfoot communicated within their own community to lead you to where I set up camp in the woods."
"Absolutely. They seem to be looking out for us. That's why we have to protect them," he said. "We owe them."