Page 62 of Forever Mine

I started to speak, but he put up both hands and then laid them on the tabletop. “Maybe I was working too hard, but if we were meant to be together, I should have been paying more attention to her. And none of that would have happened.”

“You think it’s that’s simple, huh?”

“Yeah, though I know you don’t want to hear it.” He drank from his water glass, then asked, “D’you know that old O’Jays song, Forever Mine?”

I racked my brain, then nodded. “I know it. What’s the point?”

“That’s how I feel about you.”

My heart thumped so loudly, I swore he could hear it. When I opened my mouth to protest, Scott’s eyes swept the room before he continued, “I know that’s not where we started, but that’s how things are now.”

When I said nothing, he smiled wider. “And I intend to keep them this way.”

“I'll admit this feels right, but truthfully, I've been there and done the whole love and permanence thing and you see how that turned out.”

“I don't need to remind you that I'm not Nolan.”

His tone wasn't snarky, so I wasn't offended, but there were other things. “We don't know enough about each other.”

Scott wore a patient expression when he said, “We've been working on changing that, haven't we?”

“You don't know my whole family.” I shrugged and ran a hand around the inside of my collar. “Not that there are many of us, beyond Mom and a few cousins.”

Now, he chuckled. “You know mine.”

I cocked my head. “What about your parents?”

Scott stabbed another fry and bit into it. “They love me and when they know you, they will love you too.”

I didn’t know any such thing, and couldn’t help my protest. “You're changing the rules of the game.”

“Honey, this isn't a game.” His tone carried a tinge of rebuke.

While I watched him chew another fry, my thoughts drifted. I couldn’t see the future, but nobody could predict what theirs would look like. Sighing, I said, “You have an answer for everything, don't you?”

“Yeah, when the woman you're interested in is trying to beat a hasty retreat after the sweetest … ” he dipped his head before adding, “er … interlude this side of heaven.”

The flame of my resistance fizzled. “So, it's like that, huh?”

He was serious when he said, “You know better than anybody else.”

I squeezed his hand and met his eyes. “Let's keep things at this level for a while.”

Scott pulled away and sat back, stroking his jaw. When he spoke, his face was a blank mask but his eyes blazed. “And what level is that?”

“Let's just see where things go, with no pressure for us to be anywhere else.”

“At thirty-six, I'm old enough to know what I want and who I want to be with.” His face relaxed and the frown that was forming disappeared. “But if drifting is what you want right now, it's fine with me.”

His eyes were clear, but I thought he was being passive-aggressive with his resistance.

I leaned in and touched his arm. “By the way, Angel named the rabbit Reggie, you know, like—”

“Yeah, the one from the ad we're creating.” He pushed the rest of his meal to one side of his plate, signaling that he’d finished. “That's sweet.”

His response felt like a brush off, but I deserved it. Instead of dealing with the awkwardness I’d just created, I’d found a way to deflect his attention as if what he wanted didn’t matter.

Scott’s phone pinged, and he picked it up. “Sorry, gimme a minute.”

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