Free Baby Girl: Dare to Love by Celya Bowers

La Bella’s Italian Cuisine.”
      “Thank you.”
    Kyle soon joined her.  “Reservation for Cosgrove.”  Kyle grabbed for her hand.
      “Yes sir,” the young man said.  “Felipe will show you to your table.”
    “Thank you,” Kyle said, leading Jemma to the waiting area.  Another young man was waiting for them.
    He showed them to their table and helped Jemma with her chair.  After he distributed the menus, he took their drink orders.  They both ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio.
    Jemma shook her head.  “You just keep surprising me.  I didn’t think men drank wine.”
    “I do occasionally.  At home, I usually have a beer after work.”
    She nodded.  Her father would never have wine.  “Oh, I can’t remember the last time I had a beer.  Probably a baseball game with Jared.”
    “I take he was a big Ranger fan?”
    She nodded.  Why was talking about her dead husband?  “Season tickets for all of our marriage.”   She took a deep breath.  “I don’t mean to keep bringing Jared into the conversation.”
    “It’s okay. Sometimes, it helps to talk about it,” he said, opening his menu.  “I’ve never been here before.  Krista says just about everything tastes good. She and my brother-in-law come here a lot.”
    “That’s nice.” She opened her menu and perused the menu.  She gasped at the prices, but groaned at the delicious meals.  It was going to be too hard to pick one.
    “Is something wrong?”
    “No.  Everything sounds delicious.  It’s going be hard to decide.”
    “I’m having the same problem.  I guess we’ll have to come back,” he said quietly.
    “Seems so.  It’s been a while since I had an adult meal.  I mean something not involving a drive-thru.”
    He lowered his menu and smiled at her.  “Tonight will be very adult, I promise.”
    Yep, he was going to be her downfall. Between that dazzling smiled and the ocean blue eyes, she was going to be putty in this man’s hand.  “I’m going to hold you to that.”  Did she just dare this man? 
    The waiter returned with their drinks and took their food order.   “I’ll have the Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken,” Jemma said.  She loved the Italian styled ham inside a chicken breast.
    “Good choice,” Kyle said.  “I’ll have the Linguine Frutti di Mare.”
    “Yes sir.  I’ll have these right out.”  The young man left the table. 
    Jemma couldn’t hide her curiosity.  “What did you order?”
    “It’s kind of like a seafood sampler.  It has shrimp, baby clams, mussels and calamari, in a screaming hot tomato sauce.  I like spicy food.”
    “Super spicy?  I mean like Habanero hot?”  She took a sip of wine.  Her mouth heated up just thinking about the world’s hottest pepper. 
    “No, not that hot.  A little hot is good.  Every now and then I like to push the envelope.  Normally, I eat at my parents, and Mom doesn’t do spicy, so this is a treat for me.”
    Jemma nodded.  Another piece to the puzzle.  “I don’t each much spicy food.  Especially, with Kassie.  She has such a picky appetite.  Today we had fish tacos for lunch, she didn’t want the coleslaw on hers.”
    “So it was just fish and a tortilla,” Kyle said.  “Sounds like my niece.  The last time they were at the ranch it was my Dad’s birthday and he loves steak.  Well, Cara didn’t want that.  She ended up having a hamburger.”
    Jemma shook her head.  “I’m glad I’m not alone.”  Perhaps they weren’t that different after all.  “Tell me about when you lived in Austin.”
    “Conversation shift, I like it.  To be honest, I barely remember living in Austin.  My marriage was falling apart, I felt like I was drowning.”
    “So what did you do?”
    “I came back home and worked on the ranch.  A few years ago, my dad decided it was time for him to step down from running the ranch.  So I started learning all I could.  I’ve been the ranch manager for about three years.”
    “So do you like