The soft kiss he was greeted with dispelled all sorts of doubts.  But he gave the ongoing cleanup project a glance and developed a guilty look on his face.  “I didn’t even think about the idea of you having to pack.  Still he smiled at that too.  If she had already started, then she was serious about taking him up on his offer.  He never joked about that sort of thing

He looked around.  “Don’t worry about the mess.  It’s not really that bad.  Compared to the last time I had to pack up a lot of stuff, this is nothing.  I had to pack up the things of a family of 7 - and most of them were collectors.  Then I had to separate things out to send to each person.  And I collected rocks and fossils back then.  And they had shut the power off.  They place had a pair of floor freezers filled with meat and garden veggies and preserves.”  He stopped before he got started on talking about the white outlines of the crime scene still etched in his mind.

“As much as you like to read I am going to get you a new laptop - one of those reversible touchscreens, soup it up with memory, and get you hooked up to eBooks.  Something to pass the time when we drive.”

He took the offered seat.  NOW he fet a little nervous.  But then he was always that way in someone else’s home at first.  “Not a bad day.  Took care of a little business.  Started the process of hiring an estate manager and butler.  That’s going to be a little weird with all the traveling I plan.  Started looking into some pet projects.  Had a video conference with attorney about taxes.  There’s more, but some ought to be a surprise.”

Duncan’s speech was a little stilted.  Aliyah could probably tell he was making small talk, not getting to more personal stuff.  He was still a little stuck on the previous night - and the possibility he might be a daddy - or maybe how badly he might have done.  He hadn’t really done badly.  He decided to stick to the evening’s plans.  “So what is tonight’s entertainment?”  He turned a little reddish and laughed a little.  “And I mean the movie.  Your tables don’t look heavy enough to support me dancing on them.  

“Oh that reminds me.  I was thinking about two different places for dates.  One was a mystery theater.  You mentioned you like reading mysteries.  There’s a place that includes the guests in a murder mystery.  Not sure if we’d need reservations or not.  The other is a 1920’s club.  That is more of a formal dress place with dancing on the list of things to do.”  He actually smiled at this one.  The mystery was more for her.  The 1920’s was more for him, though he was hoping she might enjoy the genre.

He had to fight the urge to take over ordering food, but he did offer the fact that they weren’t limited to Delivery.  He could always get Gary to go an pick up the food.  He had a guilty look on his face as he said that.  He mused aloud wondering if that was a good idea.

But Duncan’s face kept screwing up as if he wasn’t talking about what he wanted to talk about.  He finally sighed and let his shoulders sag in resignation.  “You know, I am still stuck on yesterday.  I am going to be lousy company until I get past that.  Only way to do that is talk about it.  That … that was a first for me.  It was great!”  He said that to make sure Aliyah didn’t get the idea it wasn’t  “It was just … unexpected … and a first.  But I think you figured that out early on.  I guess part of what is bugging me is … uhm … that I wasn’t … you know … taking precautions.”  He almost swallowed his words.