Page 12 of Sweet Cinnamon and the Mountain Man
“You calling me fat?” His lips twist wryly.
“Not in a million years. You have to know what you look like.”
“I like how you look too.”
My heart skips a beat and a breathless feeling creeps over me. When he says things like that, I can’t think.
“You wait right here. I’m gonna be back in a minute.” He steps out of the room and I pace around, my eyes darting out, then turning up to the sky. The stars twinkle and the night sky looks endless.
I close my eyes and murmur, “I don’t know what I’m doing but please don’t let me make a fool of myself.”
After a couple of minutes, Reginald comes back and smiles at me as he squats on the floor and drops a huge red and white plaid blanket down and spreads it out. Then he puts a lantern on the edge and sets it very low. So low that it barely lights the room. Just enough to eat by. He gives me his hand and helps me down and I sigh.
“You’re really pulling out all the stops. I never realized that any man could be this romantic without being on some cheesy reality tv show.”
He snorts and then coughs into his fist. “Uh. Yeah. I don’t watch stuff like that. I mainly sit out here or on the front porch or I go in and read a little.”
I take a bite out of the piece of pizza and groan under my breath. “That is some good pizza.”
“The sign says they’re the best in the tri-state area. They couldn’t claim that if it wasn’t true.”
I snort and cough, choking a bit and then taking a huge sip of my milk shake which isn’t quite as thick as it started out. It’s melting just like I am with every word he says.
He settles back after he scarfs his food down and watches me, his hooded gaze slightly predatory and adorable at the same time.
After I finish my food, I groan and lean back onto the cushion from the couch that Reginald put behind me. I stare up at the night sky swirling and teeming with twinkling stars. “If you saw a falling star what would you wish for?”
He lies beside me and his head is so close to mine I could turn my head and kiss him.
But I don’t. Neither does he.
He stares up at the sky but his arm slips around me and I curl up next to him. “I would wish that tonight would never end.”
“Smooth talker,”I giggle.
“Never. You just bring something out in me.”
Giggling, I turn to him. “You mean like a plague or something.”
“No,” he snorts. “You make me feel like things will be alright.”
I settle into his chest and sigh. His heart beats under my ear and a feeling of contentment rolls over me. I don’t want to move. I just want to lie here a little bit longer.
“They will be,” I murmur, my eyes closing and darkness closing in on me. I feel so warm and safe and content. For the first time in my life I feel like I can trust somebody.
BamBamBam!!!
I jerk awake, my body stiff and sore, opening my eyes and staring at the unfamiliar room around me.
“Where the heck am I?” I mutter.
And then I hear voices and jump to my feet, patting at my clothes. I’m still dressed and I’m still at Reginald’s.
We must have fallen asleep. Now we’re going to be late. I shovel a hand through my hair and step out of the porch and into the house only to feel like Alice falling through the looking glass.
“What are you doing here?”
“I know why you’re making up to Cinnamon. You think if you do she can sweet-talk me out of that property next door. Not gonna happen by the way. that property is worth a helluva lot more than she is.”
