Made For Us by Samantha Chase Page A

salad. What’s wrong with that? I mean, I know it’s not as original as pizza or spaghetti, but…” She trailed off teasingly.
    “Nothing. It’s fine,” he said with mock nonchalance. He continued to peruse the menu, trying to come up with something, anything, besides pizza or spaghetti. Maybe Italian hadn’t been such a great idea.
    “Out with it, Shaughnessy,” she said with exasperation.
    “It seems to me I had to sit here and get razzed for my lack of originality and then you go and expect to get away with just ordering a salad? How is that fair?” he said, stalling. If Zoe weren’t so distracting, maybe he’d be able to make a simple decision about what to order for dinner.
    “Maybe a caprese salad is out of the ordinary for me,” she teased and was relieved to see a hint of a smile on Aidan’s face.
    “Or maybe you’re one of those women who don’t eat when she’s out on a date.” As soon as the word “date” was out of his mouth, Aidan realized what he had said. Zoe’s eyes went wide for a second before she recovered.
    Two can play at the change-of-subject game , she thought. “Okay then, what are you ordering?”
    “I am going to go with the lasagna with meat sauce.” And he was quite proud of himself too.
    “Way to be different,” she mumbled.
    “Now what?” Seriously, he was ready to order a strong alcoholic drink because this woman was killing him. And it wasn’t even a Friday.
    “So basically you’re skipping the spaghetti and meatballs to order a differently shaped pasta with chopped-up meatballs.”
    Well, when she said it, it did sound ridiculous. “Okay, how about this? I’ll let you order for me…”
    “Really?” she asked, her voice almost giddy.
    “But…”
    “Damn it, you’re going to ruin this, aren’t you?”
    “But I get to order for you.”
    Interesting . Zoe considered it and knew she was safe. Carbs and pasta were her weaknesses, and she pretty much wanted one of everything on the menu, so she couldn’t go wrong. “Okay, fine. Deal.” Reaching across the table, she held out her hand to shake on it. As soon as Aidan’s hand touched hers, she felt it. That zing or zap or whatever it was that people said happened when you were attracted to someone. How did that happen? she thought. She quickly pulled her hand back and rubbed her palm on her leg. “Just…just no pasta with meat sauce.”
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t want you trying to steal a taste.”
    So many things raced through Aidan’s mind at that moment, he thought his head might actually explode. If he was going to steal a taste of anything, it wasn’t going to be of her dinner.
    “Deal.”
    * * *
    “So what did you do?” Aidan asked with a hearty laugh.
    “What do you think? I said ‘no thank you’ and got the hell out of there!” They both sat back in their seats and laughed some more. “I mean, when he asked during our initial phone interview how open-minded I was, I thought he was talking about colors and design and that sort of thing. I didn’t think that he’d…”
    “Want you to work naked?”
    Zoe shook her head and blushed furiously. “Okay, that was my worst client experience. Now it’s your turn.”
    “I don’t think I can top that,” he said as he reached for his soda and took a drink.
    “I didn’t say top it. I just said worst. Come on. Spill it.”
    Aidan looked at Zoe and for a moment was simply in awe of her beauty. She was laughing and smiling and teasing and…everything. Clearing his throat, he did his best to get back to the conversation. “Okay, it was one of my first big renovation jobs. I had been doing some minor carpentry work for about a year and was ready to branch out. So this guy calls me and I go out to the house and meet with him and his wife. He takes me outside, to where they have a detached two-story, two-car garage, and he wants me to convert the upstairs to a man cave.”
    Zoe quirked a brow at him. “A man cave? That’s what you’re