Page 72 of Wildest Dreams

My eyes flash to his in shock but I bite my tongue, because I think that it’s interesting that both of our families own properties here. I mean, that’s why I’m here right now in thefirst place. I’m not sure how much Tanner remembers about my family’s business or why I’m here but I decide to stow that information away for now.

I stare at his strong jaw. “Where is their summer house?”

He jerks his thumb in the direction of it. “Thata-way.”

I roll my eyes. “No, please. Spare me the details.”

His cheek tics up slightly as a smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth.

I work my way through both of my strawberry muffins, Tanner glancing down to watch me whenever we hit a red light.

Ten minutes later we’re pulling into a discreet parking lot. It doesn’t seem to have any obvious signage. There’s a small inconspicuous building right in front of it and a large expanse of rolling hillside at its rear.

Tanner pulls the car into park and then taps his thumbs agitatedly against the steering wheel, his large back muscles rigid as he stares out of the windshield.

After a moment, he un-straps his seatbelt and glances down at me. His eyes drop to the blueberry muffin sitting untouched in the rolled-down baggie.

He swipes his tongue over his lower lip and lifts his eyes back to mine.

“Don’t freak out,” he starts, unclipping my seatbelt and easing it into its holder.

“Why would you say ‘don’t freak out’if we weren’t about to do something that would make me freak out?” I ask, brow creasing in concern as I fist my fingers into the brown paper.

“Look, we don’t have to do it. But I…” He looks away from me for a second as if to calm himself down. “I just want you safe, okay? I just want you to be as safe as possible, no matter what situation you find yourself in.”

I stare up at him, unsure where he’s going with this.

After a few beats he leans slightly closer so that he can see out of the passenger window and he points to something beside the door.

I have to squint to read the words but when I do–

“Tanner! What the hell?!” I squeal, whipping around to face him and practically whacking my forehead against his big chest. “You brought me to ashooting range?” I ask, completely incredulous.

“Ash, baby, calm down–”

A shiver runs through me and not just because this gorgeous hockey-playing psychopath brought me to ashooting range.

“Okay, first of all, you have to stop calling me that,” I tell him, my breathing unsteady as I try not to freak out. We are literally ingun territoryright now.

“What, calling you ‘baby’?” he asks, one arm hooked around the back of my headrest. He smells so good it’s crazy. “I thought that you liked–”

“I’m talking about when you call meAsh,” I grit out. “And you called me it last night too, for the first time since–”

I shut myself up because we both know what I’m talking about. Last night Tanner called me Ash for the first time since our wild whirlwind hook up four years ago, when all we knew about each other was that we never wanted to not know each other again.

He had given me the nickname so naturally. It was as if we were meant to be.

I shake my head at myself, a little overwhelmed by the memory.

I may as well roll up my sleeve right now and show him that tiny love heart freckle that I’ve always got there.

When it comes to Tanner, why do I always wear my heart on my sleeve?

“Just don’t call me that,” I say breathlessly, swallowing hard as I flick my eyes back over to the shooting range sign.

“Fine,” Tanner relents. He kicks back in his seat with all of that hockey player swag.“Look, if you don’t want to do it, that’s fine, but after the incident last night I’d really like to teach you how to handle a gun. Also, are you gonna eat that muffin? Because if not–”

“Oh. My.God!”I smack my palms against his pecs. “You are literally insane. First of all, no way would a civilian without a registered gun licence be allowed to use a shooting range anyway? Like, you didnotthink this through.”

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