The Christian Bachelorette

Week 4: Dallas' date

The next morning I am thankful that I feel better than yesterday. After doing my usual morning routine, I call Two-Mama and tell her about my plans for the day. She said that if I had time to call her this evening, she would look forward, but understood if I was busy. I reassured her that I would before we ended the call. I make and eat a chocolate breakfast smoothie and two pieces of toast before getting dressed. Dallas told me that we would be outside most of the day on our date. I changed into a modest black tank top, boyfriend jeans, and converse.

The only thing that I have left to do is put my hair up when the doorbell rings. I open it and am not surprised to see Dallas, but I am surprised to see Reece. "Hello," I greet.

"Don't worry, I'm just dog sitting." Reece says and I let him come in. "I'll lock the house up for you."

"Okay, thank you," I say before turning back to Dallas.

"Are you ready?" He questions.

I nod. "I was going to put my hair up, but I can do it on the way."

I glance at him and smile. "You are full of adventure."

He grins and his eyes sparkle. "Come on!" He exclaims before rushing out of the car and jumping the fence surrounding the playground. I laugh as I follow him, but go through the entrance instead of hopping the fence. "What do you want to do first?"

"The slide," I say and point to the tallest slide which isn't very tall, but it looks to be the best one out of the three.

"Good choice."

We take off and race to the top from different ways. I beat him because I found a short cut and he chases me as I head to the next slide. He cheats and climbs up through a hole that is for the firefighter pole. He slides down and we burst out laughing when I get to the end of the slide. It was covered which caused a lot of static to take place. Dallas' hair looked spiky and I'm sure mine wasn't any better. We decide to skip the last slide because it is a metal one and Dallas didn't want to get burnt since he was wearing shorts. He wanted to swing on the monkey bars, but he was too tall. Children were starting to show up and we decided to see if they wanted to play tag or hide and go seek. Several of them agreed and Dallas and I each had a team. I explained to the parents that there may be cameramen, but they didn't seem to mind their children on TV as long as it was just them playing. I agreed and relayed the message to the cameramen. My team had a base on the left side of the playground, and Dallas' team had one on the right side.

We played hide and go seek first and then tag. I kept getting distracted in tag because of the way Dallas was playing with the kids. One of the younger kids fell and I took him to his mom. He was sniffling, but he had stopped crying until his mom touched it to get the dirt off with a wet paper towel. He wrapped his arms around me and hid his head against me. My heart melted as I rubbed his back comfortingly and whispered little encouragements to him. Once his knee was clean and bandaged, he wanted to go back and play. His mom said he could and he took off.

"Thank you," she said as she was putting away the first aid kit.

"For what?"

"You made his day. It's refreshing to see a young couple playing on the playground and with children."

I smiled before heading to find where Dallas was. I found him saying goodbye to a little girl that was on his team. He turned around after waving by to her as her car drove away. We smiled at each other. He walked up to me and pushed away some hair that had escaped my ponytail. He gazed at me for a few moments and then wrapped his arms around me and sighed. I wrapped my arms around him and let myself enjoy this private moment with him.

"Will you spend the day with me? I don't want this to be over."

"Yes, I don't want this to be over either."

When we left the playground, Dallas drove us to Chickfila to eat lunch. He ordered our food in the drive-thru and we got it quickly after that. He parked at a nearby parking lot that was less crowded than Chickfila. We ate in comfortable silence while we ate with a soft breeze drifting through the open windows.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to go?" He asked after we had finished our meal.

I shook my head and smiled. "You could just drive around. You know take the long way back."

He agreed and did as I suggested. I watched the scenery go by, but I couldn't say my attention was completely on things outside of the car. A part of me wished that I would have chosen him to go on a date sooner, but I'm not one for regretting my decisions: the good and bad ones. God has lead me here to this moment.

Dallas caught me sneaking glances at him, and he grinned. "What?"

"I was admiring; actually, I have been all day."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Are you happy?" He questions.

Mymind replays all the times we have been together. On the group date, he showedme that he was fun, open, respectful, and charming in all the right ways. Heagreed to watch a movie with Zeke and me even though he hadn't been on a datewith me yet. He guided me through the spa night. Yesterday, he was so caring.Today, I kept catching myself smiling and laughing. "Dallas, anytime we aretogether, I'm happy."

THOUGHTS ON DALLAS? 

NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE ANOTHER DATE... WHO WILL IT BE?