Page 46 of I'm Yours

“I’m single.”

He nods.

“And I still live in Lakeside.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” So blunt. He doesn’t have time for bullshitting, obviously.

“I made a list to help.”

To that he chuckles. “Still love the list making, huh? Do you still add things to it just to cross it off?”

“You think you know me so well.”

“I do. But… something tells me you’re about to shock me.”

That’s one way to put it.

“Okay, how about this. You look at the list and write a number by each item and I’ll go in order of what you want to know about first. Or maybe I’ll go backward.”

I pull out my notepad and hand it over to him along with a pen. “You’re serious?”

“I’m serious. Not to freak you out, but I’m a little nervous. This helps me.”

“Okay.”

I blow out a breath and finish the last of my coffee, motioning to the waitress for a refill. He has his head bent over the paper as she comes back and fills both our cups and lets us know our breakfast should be out in just a few minutes.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Can I get you anything else while you wait?”

“Maybe a couple glasses of water?”

“Sure thing. Be right back with that.”

It doesn’t take her but thirty seconds to return with our water just as Reed finishes numbering the list.

“There’s something you need to explain first.”

“What’s that?”

He turns the notepad around so it’s facing me and I look at where he’s pointing, a hard look on his face.

How I became a stripper

Oh, shit. I forgot that was the first thing on the list.

“Explain.” His voice is stern and expression hard, borderline angry.

My first instinct is to get pissed as his bossiness. Who the hell does he think he is to demand an explanation? He wasn’t here. He has no idea what I was going through.

“What about it?” I ask innocently, trying to keep my face neutral.

“Cut the shit, Sadie. You’re the one who put it on the list. If you didn’t want to explain how that happened, you wouldn’t have listed it.”

He’s right. Dammit. But still… he doesn’t have to be a rude dick about it.

“You’re right. I do want to tell you about that time of my life. But next time how about you ask a little nicer?”