Fated to be Mine (25 page)

“Well, I’m glad you did.”

Andrew grabs my coat and purse from the closet, holding them out like a perfect gentleman. He slides it over my arms and smooths his hands over my shoulders. When I turn to face him, he’s smiling at me. Instinctively my hand cups his cheek, wanting to feel his smile.

“What are your plans for the weekend?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “I’m not sure yet. Perhaps taking a beautiful lady out on a date?”

My smile widens and I nod. “I think that could be arranged. But I do have work that I need to get done around my house, so maybe tomorrow or Sunday?”

“I think that can be arranged. Anything I can help you with?”

“No, it’s just the regular stuff. I tend to deep clean my apartment once a month and trust me, you don’t want to be around for that.”

“I wouldn’t mind. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care what we do.”

I trail my fingers across his cheek. “You’re too good to be true.”

Andrew turns his head, kissing the center of my palm. “I can say the same about you, love.”

He leans down and presses his lips to mine. We take it slow this time, careful not to ignite any embers that may still be smoldering inside us. Although, if I know us, they’re always burning with a white hot passion we can’t ignore.

“Let me walk you to your car,” Andrew says when he pulls back. I nod and lace my fingers into his as we venture out of my office toward the elevator.

We get a surprise when we walk into the elevator and find Michael already inside. He smiles brightly at us and gives a small wave.

“Hey stranger,” he says to me.

“Hey,” I reply. I turn to Andrew and smile. “Andrew, this is my friend, Michael. Michael, this is Andrew.”

The two men shake hands and I can’t help but smile. I know what Andrew initially thought of him so I was always kind of nervous about them meeting. Even though we’re just friends, it’s still a little strange to see the two of them together.

“Nice to meet you,” Andrew says. He shoves his hands into his pockets and rocks back onto his heels.

“Likewise. So you’re the guy from London I take it?” Michael asks.

Andrew quirks an eyebrow to me and smiles. “Yes, that would be me.”

Michael laughs. “I’ve heard a lot about you. All good, of course. Tessa and I meet for coffee every morning and your name has come up in conversation a few times.”

“Has it now?” Andrew’s laughing at me because my face is turning an ungodly shade of pink.

“Your name may have been mentioned once or twice,” I say.

There’s a brief pause and we all shuffle back and forth.

“What do you do, Michael?” Andrew finally asks.

The doors to the elevator open and I step out first, letting the guys follow behind me.

“I’m a lawyer. I work in the law firm a few floors above Tessa’s office.”

“My dad is friends with one of the partners at his firm. He and Michael really hit it off at the party a couple weeks ago.”

“Yes, your dad has been a tremendous help to me. He’s given me the names of quite a few different contacts, some of them even want me to join their firm with the promise of making partner sooner than I would here.”

We stop outside of the building and I give Michael a hug. “That’s amazing. I’m so glad you were able to further your career. Good thing you suggested accompanying me to that party.”

He laughs and runs a hand through his hair. “Yeah, it was a good thing all right. But I was happy to help you. This is just a side benefit of the night.”

Andrew tightens his grip on my hand and I smile up at him. “It sounds like things are working out for you.”

Michael nods. “In the business world, yes. Things are going well. Everywhere else in my life, not so much.”

“Haven’t you found someone to date yet? What happened to that girl down the block from you? The one from your gym?”

We cross the street to head to our cars. “Tammy was okay. We went out for drinks after our workouts, but it just wasn’t happening.”

“After one date you could tell? I mean, that’s hardly enough time to judge something like that,” I say.

Michael stops by his car and shakes his head. “I disagree. I don’t pay much attention to the amount of time I’m with someone. There should be an instant attraction when you see someone, followed by a need to keep seeing the person. That’s how you know things will work out in the long run. The more you want to spend time with them, the more you will, regardless of everything else. Time is irrelevant. Knowing when it’s the right person is all that counts and Tammy wasn’t it.”

“Are you sure?” I chew on my bottom lip because he could have been speaking about my own life instead of his.

“I’m positive. Sure, I was attracted to Tammy, but I didn’t have the desire to see her again. Not on a permanent basis. I’m getting to the point in my life where I want to settle down and come home to one person and know they’ll always be there. You know what I mean?”

Andrew nods. “In fact, I do. More than you know.”

He smiles down at me and I flush again. Michael unlocks his car and opens the door.

“Well, I hope you both have a great weekend. Maybe Andrew could join us for coffee some morning?”

“I’d love to join you two for coffee. I’ll have Tessa give me the details and see when I can come.”

Michael nods and smiles to me. “See you Monday, Tess.”

“See you then,” I reply.

Andrew and I continue walking to my car as Michael pulls out of his spot

“He’s a very nice gentleman,” Andrew finally says.

I nod. “He is. It was sheer luck that I ran into him. He’s super funny and very sweet. He’s like a big brother to me almost. And I can forgive him for being a lawyer. Not everyone is perfect,” I laugh.

Andrew holds my gaze for a second before bringing my hand to his lips. “You’re perfect.”

I turn my head away slightly, trying to hide my nonstop flush. “You’re biased.”

He laughs and turns my chin to face him again. “Yes, I am. Only because I’ve found the perfect girl for me. Go out with me tomorrow?”

My smile broadens and I kiss his lips softly. “Yes.”

He opens my car door and I slide into the seat. “I’ll call you to let you know the time.”

“Okay.”

He shuts my door and waves goodbye to me as I pull out of my spot and head home, wanting to get a jump start on my chores so I can dedicate all my free time to Andrew.

I
’M ON MY HANDS AND
knees, scrubbing a stubborn stain from my kitchen floor when a knock sounds at my door. I brush a loose tendril of hair off my face and wipe my dirty hands on my cleaning shirt. Luckily it’s an older one that I don’t care if it gets dirty.

I open the door and am surprised to see Andrew standing before me, dressed in jeans, hiking boots, and a sweatshirt.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, holding the door open for him to come in.

“I came to take you on our date.”

I look down at myself and cringe. “I thought it would be later tonight. I’m sort of a mess right now and haven’t showered yet.”

He kisses me quickly and chuckles to himself. “You look beautiful.”

“You need glasses then because I look horrible. Do you mind waiting until I’m done showering?”

“Not at all,” he says, walking around to the barstool to sit. “I can join you if you’d like. Help scrub your back, perhaps?” He wiggles his brows and I smile.

“Tempting, but no. It won’t take me long. How should I dress?”

His eyes roam over my body and I pull on the hem of my ratty old shirt. “However you’d like, but just so you know, we’ll be doing quite a bit of walking so you may want to be prepared for that.”

“Where are you taking me?” My mind is curious as to what he has planned because I don’t think he knows the city all that well and I’m interested to see where we’d be doing a lot of walking.

“You’ll see when we get there. But we can’t get there until you get cleaned up. So get moving or I’ll take you in there myself.”

His eyes darken with his threat and I quickly move to take the world’s fastest shower.

Once I’m finally dressed in my favorite jeans and hoodie, I’m surprised to find Andrew kneeling on a towel in my kitchen, finishing up with my floor.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I say.

He finishes wiping up the spot before sitting upright and smiling at me. “I know, but I wanted to do it. Anything to help you out. And now your floor is nice and clean so we can go out and have our date.”

“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you,” I say, kissing his lips as he approaches me.

“Not everything, but close enough.”

“So where are we going?” I ask as we drive down the road.

We pass a few familiar landmarks before I see it come into view. Minnehaha Park, one of the most beautiful parks in all the metro area. I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never taken the time to go there. And it’s just down the road from my apartment.

“Andrew, how did you find out about this place?” I ask with wide eyes.

We park in one of the lots and he exits quickly to open my door. “I was looking for ideas online of things to do in the area and this was one of the suggestions. Apparently the scenery is incredibly beautiful. And it has waterfalls.”

After taking a backpack out of the trunk, he takes my hand and leads me into the park with a childlike grin. He’s so adorable when he’s giddy about showing me something I haven’t seen before. Our hands swing between us as we walk along the path with the rest of the tourists, taking in the beautiful trees and all the changing colors around us. Andrew stops every once in a while and asks to take a picture of me by some trees or a bench we pass. I oblige because I simply can’t say no to him. I, in turn, grab him and take a bunch of selfies of us, some of which Andrew sneaks a kiss in. It reminds me of our tour of London and the fun we had that day.

Many people are taking advantage of the warm weather, having picnics by the river or taking family photos with nature’s beautiful backdrop. It really is the perfect day for this. These unusually warm days are rare this time of the year so you must take advantage of them while you can.

The further down the path we get, the louder the sound of rushing water gets.

“We must be getting close,” Andrew croons in my ear. His closeness sends bumps across my skin. When I turn my head, he’s still smiling at me, but kisses the end of my nose and pulls me close to his side.

I gasp when I see it. Right here, in the middle of the urban jungle, is this beautiful piece of nature, flowing freely over the rocks and surrounded by golden leaves and still green grass. It’s almost like a grotto with the rock walls and the pool of water beneath. It’s not quite flowing as hard as I would have thought, but considering winter is just around the corner, it’s still very impressive. But I make a mental note to return here in the spring after the snow melts because I can only imagine what it will look like then.

“This is amazing,” I whisper, gripping Andrew’s waist tighter.

“Do you want to go behind it?” he asks, pointing to a dirt trail that winds around the trees and goes to the rocks supporting the fall.

“Can we?”

He laughs and kisses the top of my head. “Of course, love. Look, there are others doing it too. It’d be fun to see what it looks like from behind.”

Several people are walking the trail and going behind the falls. I watch them one by one disappear behind the wall of water and I chew my bottom lip.

“Let’s do it.”

We walk the trail and Andrew stays behind me, making sure that I don’t trip or fall over any exposed tree roots. I can hear the shutter of his camera working, but I don’t know what he’s taking pictures of. Hopefully, it’s not of the back of my head.

We join several people who are behind the falls, all taking pictures or excitedly talking and touching the water. The rock wall is beautiful, with its different colors and lines showing every crack and change that has happened over many, many years. We take several photos with the Falls as the backdrop before walking back to the main path.

The sheer beauty of the area is just breathtaking and it leaves me speechless. I would never have expected to find anything like this in the middle of Minneapolis.