Cheaper By The Dozen

Chapter Thirteen

They made it to Le Fancy and were escorted to their private room. Daryl pulled out Beth's chair for her then took his seat across from her. She looked even more beautiful tonight and he couldn't wait to find out more about her. The waiter came and got their drink order, they both picked lemonade then the waiter left.

"I wanted to apologize for my kids interrogating you the other day, they had this idea to get me to do something for myself and they thought you could help with that." She said. "That's not why I asked you out though, I actually wanted to get to know you and see where this goes and since I haven't been on a date in over four years I'm a little nervous." She said.

"Beth, breathe" he said. Beth took a deep breath and smiled at him.

"Sorry"

"It's fine, let's just take this one step at a time." He said. He could till that she was happy he said that.

"Okay" she said.

"I kinda knew your kids were planning something but it didn't click until you told me what they were doing." He said.

"They told me that you like to ride motorcycles, you are fourty years old,  and you aren't close to your family." Beth said.

"Yeah, my family wanted me to go into the family business and that wasn't the path I wanted to go so when I graduated high school and got an academic scholarship to Georgia State University, I moved into an apartment and never looked back." He said. The waiter came back and gave them their drinks before he took their orders before leaving.

"Must have been hard for you." She said.

"It was at first since I was close to my sister but it was the right choice." He said. "In your kids presentation they said that you had a life changing event happen to you, may I ask what happened."

"Before my father retired and left Greene Industry to me, I was living a rather shelter life. I had never seen poverty before so when I was walking to go see my mother at a restaurant, I came upon a homeless child being beat by the restaurant owner. The child had asked for a slice of bread and the owner said no and when the kid asked for half a slice of bread the owner hit the little boy. I was so shocked that at first I just stood there, it was only when the guy threw the kid to the ground did I come out of my shock. I ran over and started hitting the owner while asking if he liked to be beat. I was pulled off of the owner by my mother who had just gotten there, the guy had two black eyes, a split lip and a sprained wrist." She said.

"Wow" he said.

"Luckily, the owner felt so bad about hitting the kid that he didn't sue but we all knew that we would beat him in court if he did." She said.

"What happened to the little boy?" He asked.

"Well my family took him in and he is now my brother, he grew up and became the CEO of a children's foundation, he got married to a friend of mine and they moved to California with their son." She said.

"So that's what made you go around the world to help kids?" He asked.

"Yup, that day changed me for the better and now I don't take things for granted and I make sure every day I tell my kids that I love them no matter what."

"You are an amazing woman, you know that right?"

"I try to be" she said.

"Well you succeeded." He said as the waiter came with their dinner.

"What about you?" She asked. "Do you want kids?"

"My students are my kids, of course I might want a kid but the older I get the more that idea slips away." He said then took a bite of his pasta.

"I can understand that" she said. They ate and talked some more before Daryl asked for the check.

"You don't have to pay I can get it."

"No I got it" he said as the waiter handed him the bill. He payed for it then they left and continued to talk about life while he drove her home and by the time they got there neither wanted to leave the other. He walked her to her door and they stood outside her door looking at each other.

"I had a really great time tonight." She said.

"Same here, maybe we can do it again sometime?" He said.

"I'd like that very much." She said then leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"Goodnight Daryl"

"Goodnight Beth" he said then she went into the house. Daryl walked to his car with a giant smile on his face.