Chapter Eleven
Dax
When Payton emerged from her building, I was leaning against the back end of the Lincoln suddenly wishing I had worn looser jeans.
“You look amazing,” I said as she crossed the sidewalk smiling. Her blonde hair was loose and wavy across her shoulders and she was wearing a deep-blue halter dress that clung to all the right places and made me wonder if she was wearing anything underneath it.
“Well, thank you, Mr. Connor,” she said, staring up into my eyes in a way that made me feel like she knew what I was thinking. “You clean up pretty nicely yourself!”
I laughed as I opened the door and watched her expose a good deal of tanned thigh as she slid into the car. I took a deep breath as I closed the door behind her and then used the walk around the car to try and get myself under control. If I was going to pursue Payton, I was going to have to keep my primal desires in check this evening — even if she pushed me past to the breaking point.
I was more than familiar with the delicate dance between men and women at this level, and knew that having sex with her before she was convinced that I was in it for real would lead to nothing good. I needed Payton to believe that she was more than just a one-night stand, and sex on the first date would not convey that notion.
“So, where would you like to dine, Ms. Lasky?” I asked as I settled into the car a safe distance from her.
“Well, I was thinking about the options, and I’m going to say that Girl and the Goat is a better choice tonight,” she replied. “I’m not going to pretend that we’re just like everyone else in this town, but I do think that we have a better chance at having a private conversation at Girl than we do at a communal table at The Publican.”
“Good thinking,” I nodded as I picked up my phone and canceled the second reservation. I leaned forward slightly and said, “Geo, to Girl and the Goat.”
“So, how about the Seahawks,” Payton said as she turned to look at me. Her face was even prettier than I remembered, and I smiled as I thought about how the spray of freckles across her nose reminded me of a surfer girl I’d met on the coast of Southern California the summer after I’d left Chicago looking for something meaningful. She’d been a good friend to me, but had never let me get close enough to be more, and while I’d lamented the lost opportunity, I’d always admired her ability to maintain a boundary that I had desperately wanted to cross without rejecting me outright.
“Yeah, they’re going to be tough to beat this season,” I nodded trying to keep my mind on business and off the fact that Payton’s perfume had wound its way into my senses, and was working its sexy magic on me.
“That’s the understatement of the century!” she laughed as she eyed me suspiciously. “What’s wrong with you, Connor? Did you start drinking without me?”
“No!” I shot back a little too defensively and then immediately dialed it back down. I quickly covered by turning the spotlight back on her, saying, “I’m just trying to figure out why a smart, accomplished woman like yourself was at Black Jack getting drunk and feeling up a complete stranger in the bathroom.”
“Oh, yeah, that,” she said reddening a bit as she looked away. She smiled and shrugged, “Bad day; what can I say? We all have them.”
“Nice save, though I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” I said smiling as we pulled up in front of the restaurant. Payton’s laugh echoed on the sidewalk as she exited the car and waited for me to join her. I motioned toward the restaurant and let her walk ahead of me.
“Eyes on up, Connor,” she teased as she swayed her hips in an attempt to catch me off guard. Having been caught, it was my turn to laugh, and I did. There was something about her that was mysteriously familiar, and her teasing humor put me at ease.
Once seated at a private table toward the back of the restaurant, I ordered a bottle of wine and sat back as I scanned the menu. Normally, I’d look for something familiar and quickly choose it so as not to have to ask questions. I wasn’t a foodie by any stretch of the imagination, but I did appreciate a good meal. However, many of the women I dated expected me to order for them, a tradition that I loathed and could not for the life of me understand. Women who defaulted to my choices didn’t get a second chance to assert themselves.
“Do you know what you’re having?” she asked as she stared intently at the menu, looking back and forth between the pages.
“I do, but—” I began hoping to ward off any suggestion that I order for her.
“I’m going to start with the kohlrabi salad, then try the calamari Bruschetta, and for dinner, I’ll have the braised pork shank,” she pronounced with a nod of her head.
“Whoa, eat much?” I laughed, surprised by her willingness to order so much food on a first date. I was much more used to women who ordered salads without dressing and steamed fish and vegetables.
“What? You have a problem with a woman who actually likes to eat?” she asked before lowering her voice and teasing, “If it’s the check your worried about, I’m more than happy to go Dutch, Connor.”
I laughed more loudly than I’d intended at the suggestion that money was the underlying issue when it came to her food choices.
“No, I’ve got my AMEX on me; I’m good,” I teased back as I looked at the menu again and decided to up my dinner game. When the server came to take our orders, Payton rattled off her choices and I followed up with roasted cauliflower, soft-shell crab, and roasted chicken.
“Oooh, those sound good, too,” Payton said as I gave the server my order. “We can share.”
“That’s pretty presumptuous of you, Ms. Lasky,” I said raising an eyebrow as the sommelier poured the Malbec and looked to me for approval. I tasted it and nodded. He poured two glasses and silently slipped away from the table as I raised my glass and toasted, “Here’s to the start of a new friendship that will change things for the better.”
“Indeed,” Payton said, clinking her glass against mine. I watched as she sipped the wine, her eyes shining in the warm light that shone from the hanging lamp. “Oh, that’s delicious. Good choice.”
“I try,” I smiled as I leaned back and tried to focus on taking the conversation in a direction that would give me an opening to talk about why I’d brought her here, but she took charge of the conversation and soon we were off and running, talking about teams and stats and the likelihood that the Storm would make the playoffs this year.
As the meal progressed, I learned more about Payton’s background and her education, and was impressed with her single-minded focus on accumulating the knowledge required for her to be part of a football dynasty. I asked questions here and there, but mostly I listened and answered her questions about how I’d amassed my fortune and why I’d wanted a franchise team badly enough to endure the process of being vetted for the league.
“You know, my Pop used to say that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he treated the people whose names he didn’t know,” I said as we got on the topic of star athletes who might not be as productive as the unknowns. “I’ve always watched players to see how they deal with that, and I’ve rarely been wrong.”
“So you’re saying that the ones who think they’re God’s gift, might be the most talented, but might not be the best addition to the team,” Payton said as she speared a piece of chicken off of my plate and popped it in her mouth.
“Unless they steal my food,” I laughed as I watched her chew.
“Stop stressing, I said I’d split the check with you, Connor,” she grinned as she took another bite of her own dinner and waited for me to reply. Unable to take my eyes off of her full lips, I watched her slowly chew as I recalled how it had felt to kiss those lips. She swallowed, and asked, “You okay, Connor? You look a little lost over there.”
“Huh? Oh, no, I’m fine,” I said as I pivoted and sent the conversation in a new direction. “What do you want to do with your career? I mean, what do you see yourself doing in ten years?”
“Nice recover,” she grinned as she set her fork down and picked up her wine glass. She leaned back and stared at me with an intense look as she considered my question. I said nothing as I watched her gather her thoughts before she spoke again. She laughed lightly, “What do I want to do? Where do I see myself? Man, this sounds like the beginning of an intense interview.”
“I’m serious,” I said picking up the wine bottle and offering her a refill. She held out her glass and as I poured I noticed that her hand was absolutely steady.
“Well, if we’re talking realistically, I could see myself doing recruiting for a college team,” she said frowning slightly as she explained. “That’s if I don’t cave into my mother and wind up married to some man who sees me as nothing more than a socialite from a Chicago legacy.”
“Perish the thought,” I said shaking my head.
“I’m not kidding, Dax,” she said setting her glass down and leaning forward resting her elbows on the table. The intensity of the look on her face made me want to grab a handful of her thick, blonde hair and pull her to me. Instead, I cleared my throat and shifted my gaze to the wine glass in my hand as I listened to her speak. “If you ask me where I want to see myself in ten years, I’d tell you that I want to be the GM for the Bears. I know that if I had the chance to work on bargaining for some of the great talent out there, I could absolutely do the job, but my mother is hellbent on keeping that from happening, so if I’m honest, I’ll tell you that I’ll probably end up in some mid-level administrative support position that requires me to throw fund raisers and generate positive publicity for the team.”
“That sounds like settling to me,” I said.
“No shit, Sherlock,” she snorted as she took another sip of her wine and leaned back again. “I’ll be woefully underutilized, but at least I’ll still have one foot in the game, right?”
“Would you folks care to see our dessert menu this evening?” the server said as she gathered up the empty plates on one arm before brushing the crumbs off of the table with her free hand. I looked over at Payton and raised a questioning eyebrow. She shook her head slightly.
“Just the check, please,” I smiled and then added, “And give it to me.”
Payton burst into laughter as the server walked away looking mildly amused. I grinned back as I drained the last of the wine in my glass and said, “Would you care to see the view of the city from my balcony?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” she smiled.