Page 41 of Cold Moon

He chewed on his lip and started to look away, but no, that wasn’t what I wanted either.

“No, no, not like you didn’t do it. Like, um, more like I wasn’t being weird. Like, maybe, if I said yes instead.”

His eyes shot back up to meet mine, full of surprise. “Like if you said yes?”

“Yes. Yes, like... would you have dinner with me sometime? Tonight? Tomorrow? Anytime, really. I don’t have any plans. Not, like, ever.” Yeah, okay that was probably over the top and more than a little sad, but he knew me. He’d seen how full my social schedule wasn’t. He just didn’t know how willing I was to fill it completely with him.

The sweet smile that bloomed on his face was even better than the flowers. “I’d like that. I’d like it a lot.” Then he paused, biting his lip. “You’re sure? You don’t have to. I know I’m... a Reid.”

“That’s not a choice you made, Dante.” I stepped forward, almost into his space, and was only reminded of Mrs. Hill’s existence when she took a step back, bowing out of the room with a huge smile on her face. I ignored it. She wasn’t that gossipy, and even if she was, I didn’t care who knew. “You’re a good person, and that’s a choice you make every day. That’s what defines us. Not the things we’re stuck with.”

Hmmm, my brain said in Linden’s voice, popping into my head at the most inopportune time ever.Is that anything like you having the Condition?

And darn it, he was right too.

23

Dante

Like it cost him nothing, Skye let me off the hook for being a Reid. Weird, how I’d thought that was why he hadn’t wanted to date in the first place.

But I had my own preconceptions about my worthiness, and I was beginning to realize that Skye might have some of his own. Maybe it didn’t matter who I was when I’d asked him out, he’d have hedged and said no anyway.

It was hard to believe that with those big blue eyes, he might not have dated much. But he’d said that he didn’t get out a lot, and Alpha Grove said everyone was protective of Skye. That could be sexy, maybe, but it didn’t sound to me like the sexy kind of protective. More like the mollycoddling kind that built up boundaries instead of tearing them down.

In any case, there Skye was, standing in Barbara Hill’s kitchen, asking me out, and I was grinning like a kid on Christmas.

“So, tonight then?” I asked. “I’m free tonight.”

I was free always. Nobody in Grovetown much wanted to have me around. Well, outside of the Hills’ farm. They didn’t seem to mind me much. Barbara and Ridge were always there to talk, and they never let me leave without a full stomach and a pat on the back.

Even Alexis’s family was plenty pleasant—so pleasant I didn’t get why Ridge was a little extra quiet around them, but what did I know about in-laws?

All of a sudden, I was thinking of Skye’s mom and the sharp glare she’d thrown around the clinic the other day. Okay, so maybe I got why Ridge was nervy.

Already, Skye was nodding. “Tonight’s great.”

“Or you could go now,” Barbara said in a sing-song voice from the living room. I frowned, but she kept right on going. “Not like you’re going to solve all the world’s problems in one afternoon in a barn, and you don’t want to make Henrik give Skye a ride back to town, then have to turn right back around and take you in a couple hours, do you?”

I met Skye’s eye, raising a brow at him. She had a point. I didn’t want to inconvenience Henrik, and, well—

“I’m off the rest of the day,” Skye confirmed with the quick flash of a smile.

“Okay, yeah. That’d be great. I mean, I need to swing by my place first. Maybe shower. Do you mind waiting for me?”

Skye shook his head. “Not at all.”

In the other room, we heard the huff of Henrik pushing out of his seat, so that settled it. I was leaving work early to spend the rest of the day with Skye.

He rode with Henrik in the cab of the truck, but I insisted on riding in the back. In the barn, I had hand sanitizer, and there was a spigot in the yard outside, but if I’d gotten anything from the Sterling produce on me, I didn’t want to risk getting too close to Skye.

Henrik dropped us off at my place, and once I told Skye to make himself at home, I went straight back to the bathroom to shower.

Knowing Skye was sitting out there waiting for me, I stripped quickly and took a perfunctory, thorough shower. When I got out, I wrapped a towel around my waist and picked up my bundle of clothes to put in the hamper.

But my apartment was small—the front living space and kitchen, a short hallway with a bathroom, and the bedroom across from that. The bathroom shared a wall with the other side of the duplex.

I walked out into the hallway and heard the soft sound of a caught breath.

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