9781618853158SpecialKindofWomanBergman (4 page)

Regina just shook it
off as they walked toward the produce. She could understand why most women
would swoon over Collin, after all she did.

“So will you be having
lunch with me tomorrow? I found this cute café near the square.”

“Um, no, I’m actually
having lunch with Collin again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that
and so on.” Regina smirked as Maxine started laughing.

When she got home to
her apartment with her groceries, she was shocked to see a note on her door.
After putting her things inside, she read the note.

Please
come to the leasing office, you have something here
.

Locking the door once
more, she headed straight to the office and met up with Mrs. Townsend, who was as
old as she was nosy.

“Hello there Regina, I
see you got my note. A very fine looking gentleman came in here with this right
here and asked where your apartment was.” Mrs. Townsend pointed over toward a
table where she would normally have new tenants fill out paperwork and sitting
there was a beautiful bouquet of red roses and baby’s breath in a crystal vase.
Regina had never seen anything so beautiful before in her life. “So anyways, I
told him that I don’t normally tell people off the street where my residents
live because you never know what they could be up to. But after looking into
those eyes of his, I swear I literally was speechless they were so beautiful. So
he smiled and asked me if could he leave them here with me and I said well sure
sweetie. He put them right over there and gave me a smile and said thank you
and left. You’re a very lucky girl Regina, that man was a handsome fella.”

Taking in the wonderful
aroma of the flowers, Regina was almost in tears. Seeing a card, she took it
out of its holder and opened up the little envelope.

See
you for lunch!

Regina smiled and
giggled with happiness, something she hadn’t done in a long time. She honestly
couldn’t believe her luck today—she had met a handsome man, had her first lunch
date, and gotten a bouquet of roses. What more could happen, she wondered as
she walked out of the office after thanking Mrs. Townsend.

Chapter Two

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, I’ll meet you in
the garage.”

Collin hadn’t been to
the park in years. Most of his time was spent in the office and during the
weekend, if he wasn’t working, he was too tired to do anything else but sleep.
But he decided to humor her today and go along for a walk in the park. The day
was an in-between day as he liked to call it, it wasn’t too hot nor was it too
cold, it was right in between, which made it a perfect day to be just about
anywhere in town.

“Don’t you just love
days like this?” she asked him as a soft breeze blew thru the trees, lifting
her hair, which in the sunlight was a beautiful shade of dark brown.

“Yes, I don’t get out
much during the day though, I mean I can see everything from my window, but as
far as being out in this nice air and all, I don’t get the chance much. It’s
always a meeting here or a conference there, but it is nice being out here,
especially with you.” Collin smiled over at her as she laughed a bit. “So where
are we going?”

“To the farmers’
market, I go there when some of the vendors make food for everybody to sample.
There is someone I want you to meet; she makes some of the best food around.” As
they continued walking they saw some of the local farmers with their fruits and
vegetable out for viewing and buying. A delicious aroma hit Collin’s nose as
they came across a lady who was stirring something in a big pot.

“Regina, oh Gina, it’s
so good to see you girl!” the woman said as she came from around the pot and
gave Regina a big hug. She looked at Collin with a smile and in a distinctive
Caribbean accent asked, “Who this you got with you now?”

“This is Collin Noonan,
he works in my building. Collin, I want you to meet Mrs. Ramona, probably the
best cook I’ve met around here since my mom. She cooks some of the best food
from the island ever.”

“Nice to meet you Mrs.
Ramona, whatever you’re cooking is making my mouth water and my stomach growl,”
he told her as he took her hand and kissed it lightly causing her smile to grow
into a grin.

“Girl, handsome and a
gentleman and he works with you. You best snatch him up, woman, before someone
else does. So what can I get for you both today?”

Walking over to the
pot, Collin deeply inhaled the aroma that was steaming from it. The food
smelled so good, he had to ask, “What do you have in the pot Mrs. Ramona?”

“It’s some of my famous
stew; it has a little bit of everything in it. All home grown vegetables from
my garden as well as some of the spices too. Everything is done up just right. Would
you like a taste of it?” she asked him while she got a cup and ladled some into
it. She added a spoon and handed it to him. After Collin took a sip of the
broth and a bite of the chicken and vegetables, he knew he was in love with
this stew.

“This is amazing; I’ve
never tasted anything so good. Here have a taste,” he told Regina as he took a
spoonful and let her taste as well.

“I told you it was
good, we’ll take two of the stew and some bread as well Ramona,” Regina said as
she helped herself to the iced tea.

Once they paid, Ramona
said, “I hope you enjoy it and do please come back for me food now!”

“Thanks!” Collin
followed Regina toward a tree that stood by itself near a small field. Setting
the cups on the ground, she opened her bag and pulled out a blanket and laid it
out before him. As he sat, he handed her the soup and she gave him tea. At
first they ate in silence, well Regina was silent; Collin’s groans of pleasure filled
the air as he enjoyed the stew.

“I guess you like it
huh?” She giggled.

He stopped eating for a
moment, realizing how he had been acting and laughed a bit himself.

“I’m sorry but I
haven’t had anything like this in a while. I used to go visit my mom every
couple of weeks or so and she would always make my favorite thing in the world,
colcannon. You see, being the eighth of ten brothers, you don’t get the chance
to eat much.”

“Ten, did you say ten
brothers? That must have been a hectic life dealing with all of that.”

He chuckled a bit and
wiped his mouth.

“Yeah, but we did have
fun though, even when we didn’t have much, which was basically every other day.
Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, I was an only
child and as far as my parents, they both passed away years ago.”

He felt bad for even
asking her because the question brought about sadness in her eyes.

“I’m sorry. You can
have one of my brothers or a couple of them actually. Since I have too many of
them in the first place.” Collin laughed and when she started laughing too he
felt good.

“Do you know all of
their names?”

“There is the oldest
whose name is Randy, then there is Jordan, Timothy, Kenny, Randall, Mackenzie,
Kendrick, me of course, Bobby and the youngest, Gerard. The whole Noonan clan
all redheads and all tough as steel. Everyone knew not to mess with any of us
because if you messed with one, you messed with all of us,” Collin said with a
wink, which made Regina’s heart skip a beat.

“What about your
parents?”

Going into his pants
pocket, he tugged out his phone and pulled up a picture that he had taken of
his parents the last time he saw them, which was about six months ago. “This is
my mom Alannah and my dad Randy.”

Regina had to smile as
she saw a very big strapping older gentleman with graying hair, a hint of red remaining,
standing beside a short rosy cheeked, brown haired woman, both wearing big
smiles. They seemed so happy it made her smile even more. When she looked over
at Collin, she found he was studying her face with those beautiful green eyes
of his. She blushed as his gaze twinkled at her. “They are too adorable and now
I see where you get your good looks from.”

Chuckling a bit, he
took the phone from her, his fingertips softly touching hers during their
exchange. Even though their fingers touched, it was that touch that made Regina
feel like every part of her was on fire. She hoped he didn’t realize what he
was doing to her at that moment. “By the way, what is colcannon anyways?”

“My mom makes it for me
every time I come to visit her. It’s just mashed potatoes and cabbage, but my
God it’s the best thing ever in the world, especially when my mom makes it for
me.” Collin smiled as she started putting everything in a bag for the garbage.
“Let me get that for you, we still have sometime before it’s time to go back to
work. Why don’t we walk some more around the park and work off this yummy stew
in our stomachs, huh?” he said as he held out a hand to help her up.

Taking his hand, Regina
lifted herself up. After getting his jacket, Collin threw it over one shoulder
and dumped the trash into a nearby trashcan. She shook out the blanket, folded it
up quickly and put it in her bag as he walked back toward her. They continued
walking down the walkway.

“I do want to thank you
for the flowers. How did you get my address anyways?”

His smile became
broader as he started chuckling. “I made some calls and I got it. I thought a
lovely lady such like you would love something nice like flowers. Did you like
them?” Collin asked with a wink.

“You know you are the
first man to ever give me flowers, I’ve never had a man give me roses before in
my life. When I saw those flowers on that table, I was like, I couldn’t believe
it and then when I saw that they were from you, I just melted,” Regina said,
watching him blush, which was rather cute seeing his skin get almost as red as
his hair.

While they were riding
back to the office, all Regina could do was smile and Collin must have noticed.

“What are you smiling
over there for?”

Regina didn’t say a
word. Her arm up against the door, she bit down on her finger trying not to
smile too much, but she honestly couldn’t help it. “Just thinking?”

“What are you thinking
about, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Just how wonderful
this has been is all,” Regina said, looking toward him when they stopped at the
light.

In that small moment in
time, Regina noticed his eyes seemed to dance a bit when she smiled back at him.
Any other time she would have turned away from his gaze but for some reason,
she liked how he looked at her. The honking of the car behind them quickly
brought them back to reality.

When Collin got back
after lunch, he ran into John. “So how are things going between you and the
silent one? Have you kissed her yet or felt her up?”

Grabbing some notes
Nancy held up for him while he was heading into his office, Collin walked
inside and John closed the door them. “Everything is going fine. I like to work
things slow, you know, and no I haven’t kissed her, at least not yet. I’ve been
taking her to lunch and we’ve done some talking and stuff. Yesterday I sent her
flowers; I’ll probably do it tomorrow as well. I think around Monday, I’ll ask
her out on a real date and then probably around Thursday, I’ll ask her about
going with me to the party on Saturday. How are things going with you?”

“I already asked her to
the party and she accepted it right away, all I can say is that she sure can
suck a mean dick. We go into my office sometimes and I’ll lock the door or
sometimes we’ll go up to the top of the parking garage and park and man, whew,
she is amazing as hell with that tongue.”

Collin snickered at his
friend. “I’m shocked you haven’t fucked her yet.”

“No, I’m satisfied with
her just going down on me. She’s a big girl and even though I don’t deal with
big girls, I would be afraid of what is between those legs of hers,” John said
as he threw back a hearty laugh while Collin just shook his head. “I’ll check
you later man, I’ve got to go and make my rounds.”

Alone, Collin started
to think, something he knew was dangerous because his thoughts tended to go out
of control. He wondered what it would be like to kiss those luscious lips of Regina’s.
Collin bet they were soft and juicy, he never failed to notice how lovely they
looked while she talked. He knew he would have to ask her out earlier than he thought;
this weekend would do just fine.

* * * *

When Friday came, they
decided to go back to the park and have some more of Mrs. Ramona’s good food.
After eating, they went for a walk again. “Regina, what are you doing tonight?”

Regina looked at him
and shook her head. “Nothing much, I’ll probably just have something to eat and
watch something on television. Why do you ask?”