If Jessica wanted him back, chasing away the woman Gregory really wanted was pretty much the opposite of what she should be doing. And Gregory didn’t want to be chased by her.
The drive back to Cascade was in silence, Gregory constantly looking over at Diane. But she didn’t do anything or look over at him. She just clutched at her bag, staring out of the window.
He wanted to reach over and touch her hand, but he had a feeling that she would completely pull away. Gregory felt at a loss over what to do. They arrived back in Cascade and Gregory pulled up behind a little woodland near the church.
Where they were, nobody would be able to see them, and Diane could get to her friend’s house without anyone noticing. After the disaster of that date, if Diane was seen in distress by anyone, word would get around.
Gregory wanted to get things better between them before that happened. He didn’t want to hide things, but he didn’t want Diane humiliated.
She was out of the car almost before he had turned off the engine, fumbling with the door handle and stumbling out.
“I have to go. Maggie’s parents will be back soon, and I don’t want anyone asking questions.”
“Diane…”
Gregory almost garroted himself with his seat belt as he tried to get out. Unbuckling it was a growl, he jumped out and hurried after her. He grabbed her hand, and Diane snatched it away.
“Don’t you touch me!”
“Diane, just hear me out….”
“Why should I?” Diane swung around on him. “You think I’m going to listen to you after that? How do I know you’re not playing me like you play everyone else?”
“You really think that?”
“I don’t know what goes on with non-religious people and their lives. Maybe this is something you do regularly, and you play around with people. It’s not something anyone I know takes part in.”
Gregory frowned.
“You think this is something non-religious people do? Have multiple people on the go? One, that’s not me, and two, it’s the religious people who are most likely to do that. Don’t you know the history of the Mormons?”
Diane’s eyes flashed.
“You don’t know a thing about me or my faith.”
“But I want to know. What’s wrong with that? I don’t normally do this, and usually, you wouldn’t be getting the time of day from me. Especially with the haughty way you are towards me for not having any faith.”
“Haughty?” Diane looked outraged. “Did you just call me haughty?”
“Yes, I did. But I saw something in you that I wanted to know more about. Plus, I wanted to find out what makes you tick, what you’re actually like as a person when you’re not wrapped up in the beliefs you’ve been taught all your life.”
Gregory reached out and cupped her head in her hands. “I wanted to know you, even if you’re the complete opposite of me. Call me crazy, if you want, but what’s wrong with getting to know you as a person?”
Diane’s mouth opened and closed. She didn’t speak, and Gregory could see the distrust still in her eyes. She was unsure what to do, and Gregory couldn’t blame her.
“I’ll give you time to think, Diane. It’s up to you what you want. If you want to see me more, then I’ll be delighted. But if you don’t…,” he swallowed, “I guess I’m going to have no choice but to let you go.”
“You…you would do that?”
“If you’re that resistant, I can’t really change your mind, can I?” Gregory eased closer. “But hopefully I can get you swayed with this.”
Diane made a little gasp as Gregory kissed her, but she didn’t pull away. He was expecting her to push him back and slap him. He wouldn’t blame her. But her lips moved under his, and Gregory realized that she was kissing him back. She didn’t reach for him, but she was kissing him.
It would have been heaven to pull her into his arms and taste more of her, but Gregory didn’t want to push it. Diane was teetering on the precipice of uncertainty, as it was. Slowly, he eased back, watching as Diane opened her eyes, her expression dazed. Swallowing, he lowered his hands and stepped back.
“I’ll leave it up to you, Diane. And I’m sorry it had to end like this,” he hesitated, “bye.”
Not wanting to see the look on her face any longer in case she pulled him back in again, Gregory went to his car. He needed to get back to his place and take a cold shower.
A very long cold shower.
*****
“She really did that?” Clint asked as they slowed for the bend in the road. “She really sabotaged the date?”
“Yes, she did,” Gregory said grimly, “as you can imagine, Diane was not happy about that. She pretty much ran away from me. I’m surprised she didn’t sprint all the way home.”
Clint snorted.
“Jessica said she was going to do anything she could to get you back. Sounds like she’s following through on her promise.”
“Wait, you knew she was going to do that?” Gregory slowed to a stop and stared at him. “And you never thought to call me and warn me about it?”
“I didn’t know she was going to butt in that evening! I just heard what she was planning on doing if she ever saw you out with another woman.” Clint held up his hands at Gregory’s angry look. “Look, that’s the tamest thing she was planning on doing. You don’t want to know what she had in her bag of tricks after that if it didn’t work.”
“Maybe I should. I don’t want to be blindsided again.”
Especially if he got an opportunity to have a second date with Diane. Although from the way they had parted three days ago, he doubted that was going to happen now. Diane had his number, and she hadn’t contacted him.
It was pretty much radio silence, even though Gregory had seen glimpses of her around town. One time she had noticed him, and Diane had pretty much hightailed it out of the store. That was enough to lower his mood.
His mother was beginning to think that there was something wrong with him. Gregory couldn’t exactly tell her that he had tried to date a Baptist girl and it went horribly wrong; there would be a lot of ‘I told you so’ comments coming from her, and Gregory didn’t want that.
He just wanted Diane to look at him without running away. He wanted to kiss her again, and hold her properly. Anything, really.
Whatever she wanted if he could get her guard lowered again.