Page 26 of Trust

She cleared her throat, tore her eyes away, and nodded. “Of course.”

“There’s a bunch of kids waiting to get their faces painted,” Sam announced. “Are you two done kissing, or what?”

Zane gave the kid a stern look. “Don’t mess with another man’s game, and show a little respect.”

Sam stood up straight and gave a salute. “Yes, sir.”

“I want all you rugrats to go back to the tent and tell the kids that are waiting that we’ll be back in fifteen minutes,” Zane said with a firm tone. “Any questions?”

Kelsey raised her hand. “I have one?”

“Go ahead,” Olivia said.

“Can I be the flower girl at your wedding?”

Stunned, she blinked twice and leaned into Zane. “Well…”

“Go back to the tent as I asked, and we’ll think about it,” Zane confirmed.

The pack of kids ran off with Kelsey leading them, and Olivia decided that asking what he meant by we’ll think about it wasn’t wise. Did she want him to be a little serious? Yes, she sure did. But she recognized how crazy that was since they’d only had a couple of promising conversations. “I’m ready for my funnel cake.”

“I bet you are,” Zane replied with a laugh as he lifted her off his lap.

She smoothed out her T-shirt and was about to let her eyes drop when she heard a growl. “What?”

“Eyes up, babe. We’ve got a long afternoon ahead of us.”

“For your information…”

“Yeah?”

“Oh, never mind.” She spun around, marched toward the row of booths offering food, and told herself she had everything under control.

EIGHT

Zane drove along Main Street and noted that the charming storefronts and friendly townspeople didn’t grate against his nerves like when he’d first arrived.

Was his original plan about to be revised? It seemed plausible now that circumstances appeared to be changing.

And by circumstances, he, of course, meant Olivia.

And her extremely dangerous mouth.

After finishing the fair, they’d barely made it to her front porch before acting like they had an hour left on earth and needed to make the most of it.

Did hours of kissing and groping change a person irrevocably?

Was it possible to become besotted in seven days?

An involuntary snort escaped, and he knew asking himself such ludicrous questions was a waste of time if the way his heart was acting indicated anything. Not that he’d let that particular organ have a say in anything.

Flexing his fingers, he told himself that what he and Olivia had was just a physical thing. Plain and simple. They were two healthy adults enjoying what the good Lord had put them on the earth to do. Nothing less and nothing more.

Mentally patting himself on the back for the fine explanation, he hunkered down behind his well-constructed emotional walls. Perhaps if he stayed long enough, he could pretend that the small connection he was beginning to experience was nothing more than an inconvenience.

No need to make more of it than there was. Tapping his finger against the steering wheel, he pulled into the hardware store's parking lot and shifted his focus to the never-ending to-do list the family manse produced.

He slid into a parking space and was immediately assaulted with the smell of wet asphalt. The distinctive scent that lingered after rain fell on dry soil shot him back to the moment he’d boarded the plane without the three men he’d been responsible for. The all too familiar slide show of the horrific events that led to the loss of his brothers-in-arms slid across his mind, making a full breath impossible.

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