Page 62 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

What?

Ew, no.

I’ve never settled for scraps in my life, and I won’t start now.

So, she straightened. Turning around in the circle of his arms, she clasped her hands around his neck and tucked her cheek against his chest. He held her lightly, clearly uncomfortable.

She tilted her head back and looked into his eyes and saw the struggle between wanting intimacy and recoiling from it.

She could almost hear a voice whisper between them.

What is happening?

Is this real?

No, she didn’t know this man. But on some level, she understood him.

He’d believed in his friendships. He’d never once doubted the truth of his family.

And both had turned out to be a deception. Like her, he had a hard time trusting.

And so, she let him go. She couldn’t change him. Couldn’t heal him. The only thing she could do was enjoy this time with him. She slipped out of his embrace. “Hungry?”

“Yes.” He reached for a cracker. “What’ve you made?”

“It’s a charcuterie board.” Was it not obvious?

“Looks great.”

In her mind’s eye, she compared what her chef served versus what she’d just thrown together, and she could only shake her head. She’d just dumped things onto a cutting board. It didn’t look appetizing. “You’re very nice.” She wasn’t feeling lighthearted enough to laugh about it.

He grabbed a handful of nuts and tossed them in his mouth. “How about I make us grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it?”

“Is this not enough?”

“It’s a good snack.” He pulled a skillet out of a cabinet. “But after that workout, I need more than crackers.”

“That’s fair. Sure, let’s make grilled cheese.”

As he sliced more of that crunchy loaf of bread, he said, “Grab the butter.”

“Oh, yay. You’re teaching me another life skill.”

“Turn the burner on medium-low. That way, we won’t burn the bread before the cheese melts. It takes patience.”

Seemed silly to get hurt about him not liking to cuddle. Once she left this cabin, she wouldn’t be Hellcat anymore. She’d be an entirely different person, swept into a life he wouldn’t understand. A man like him wouldn’t take a back seat to anyone.

The truth slapped her in the face like a wet fish.

The only reason she and Landon had stayed together for so long was because he had no spine. He was nothing more than an accessory in her life. She had the meetings, the calls, the tours, the buses—it was all hers. She was the star of the show, and he stood in the wings.

She understood it in a way she never had before.

And it eased the hurt just a little. Enough to breathe.

Enough to shake out her limbs and start to feel life in them again.

Slick would never know how much he’d helped her.

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