“We’re close,” he said adding a wink at the end.
“We’re close?” she asked arching an eyebrow.
“Are you not close? I mean, you are sitting right next to me,” he commented trying to keep the devilish smirk off of his face.
She smiled brightly, happy that she was still capable of flirtatious banter with someone other than Jack. “Oh yes…in the sense,” she said looking at him from under her eyelashes.
He burst out laughing in a loud, boisterous, uninhibited manner that she had witnessed at the Country Club before brunch. It had annoyed her the day before even confused her a little, but maybe that was just part of his personality. Perhaps, there was more to him than what met the eye, but she wasn’t going to keep her hopes up. She would be polite and let him take her out to dinner this one night.
“So how close are we?”
He jerked his head to the side at her husky tone. He had liked her when they had first met, because she had been completely forthright with him. She cared very little for his status, and showed it. He liked her the night before when she had been drunk, unrestrained, and outgoing. Her endearing personality only intensified with the alcohol. But this woman he was with tonight, he seemed to think he liked the best of all. He saw her possess the same strong-willed determination and unblemished character she revealed in the morning and the natural engaging playfulness that resulted from a combination of liquors. He could certainly get used to her surprising personality.
His eyes roamed her face resting where her bottom lip was caught between her teeth in a thoughtful expression. God, she had tasted so good the night before. He wasn’t sure how he had been able to restrain himself. He hadn’t told her that she had propositioned him in her drunken stupor. He was almost certain that a woman of her caliber would be mortified that she had been so willing to give herself away. Possibly even more mortified that he had turned her down flat. That he had had to peel her arms off of him and practically wrestle her under the covers, he had also left out of the story. Still, when she had managed to weasel her arms back around him pressing her tiny form against him, he had still found the strength to extract her eager body from him. He remembered how readily his body had reacted to her. He gulped and attempted to force those thoughts out of his head.
“Probably only about ten, maybe fifteen, minutes,” he answered her.
She rested back into his comfortable champagne colored seat and felt her phone buzz in her purse. She extracted the old thing and checked the text message.
“You busy?”
Lexi sighed as she stared at the words on her screen. She hadn’t exactly been expecting a text message from Jack, and she didn’t want to dampen her mood with thoughts of him. She closed the phone and placed it back in its position.
“What’s up?” Ramsey asked curiosity getting the better of him.
“Um…oh…nothing,” she answered not wanting to address the situation with him. So far it seemed that he knew little of what had happened with her and Jack, and why she was in Atlanta in the first place. If at all possible, she would really like to keep it that way. Jack had a funny way of ruining every relationship she had ever been in. Even though she had no thoughts of that for Ramsey, she wasn’t going to risk anything just yet.
Lexi heard her phone buzz again. Annoyed, she stared down at the message. “Lex?”
She really did not want to deal with him right now. She quickly shoved the phone deeper in her purse. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be able to know if he messaged her again.
As they neared their destination, they listened to whatever was playing on the radio. Neither of them minding what was coming through the top 40 station at that moment. Realization began to dawn on her as stared out at the horizon, but she shook her head in disbelief.
No, he couldn’t be taking her there. She hadn’t been there since she was a kid. Beyond that fact, it wasn’t exactly a place to take your date. She had always gone there with family or church groups. More a place for group entertainment than dating. Not that she was looking for a normal sort of date from Ramsey. She had only been thinking a while ago that she was relieved he hadn’t taken her to some special five star dinner, but this was really about as far from that as a person could get.
Ramsey reached the gate and handed over a wad of cash to the eighty-something year old attendant and breezed his Mercedes into the establishment. They took the winding road past rows and rows of pine trees until they reached a valet parking lot at the front entrance.
Lexi glanced around in awe and wonder at Stone Mountain. Her eyes focused in on the giant mural that had been hand-carved into the rock during the Civil War as a testament to their faith in the Confederacy. She felt like a speck next to the giant mountain that tourists from all over came to climb and enjoy the surrounding park which consisted of camping grounds, a water park, train station, and over the summer an amazing laser show. This was the last place she had expected Ramsey to take her. For some reason, that made it all the better. Surprisingly enough, he didn’t think that he needed all of his wealth to impress her, and he was right. At this moment, she was impressed.
She flattened out her green spaghetti strap dress she had worn for the occasion and silently thanked God that she had decided on brown thong sandals instead of her heels. Ramsey jogged around the car and directed her towards the stone pathway leading to the lawn reserved for the laser show. She let her eyes leave her surroundings long enough to glance at her date for the evening. He wore a nicely cut polo that matched the green shade of his eyes and fitted khaki pants paired with brown flipflops. She liked his casual attire, and wished she had paid more attention before. She might have realized that they wouldn’t be going to some extravagant place had she recognized his flip-flops before this moment.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he said as they walked around the corner and down another path that opened up to the main lawn.
“Starving, actually,” she admitted cringing at how that sounded.
He smiled at her bluntness. Yet another feature that he was starting to like about her. “Good. We have a banquet.”
When they reached the grass, they trekked forward through a line of people. Apparently, everyone was setting up for the laser show. It was the last week before school officially started for the public schools in the area, which generally brought out more spectators than any week except Memorial Day Weekend and Fourth of July. Lexi had no idea how they were going to find a quiet place to sit and eat after arriving so late for the show.
She should have suspected something was up when a large opening in the crowd appeared before her. Her mouth dropped open at the display before her. Ramsey had called ahead and had the area cleared specifically for them. A large quilted blanket, much like the ones she slept with back in Manhattan, covered a ten by ten space on the lawn. A giant wicker picnic basket sat at the center of the roped off expanse and a cooler directly next to it. It was the most ideal location for watching the show. He must have done all this hours earlier. A grin broke out across her face.
“Is this the kind of treatment you reserve for all your dates?” she asked sitting down on the massive blanket.
Ramsey smiled brightly at her, still standing. “Not exactly,” he admitted.
Lexi had been joking, not expecting an answer in the first place. Though, she wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth anyway. It could just be a line. She couldn’t picture the type of women she had seen at his party the night before being happy with an outdoor picnic and laser show as their first date. She shook her head realizing that she was overanalyzing. Who cares if he didn’t normally take girls on dates here?
Luckily, he had learned his lesson and sat on the opposite side of the blanket from her giving her a wide berth. He was always so up in her face and it really just brought out the worst in her.