Page 13 of Anything for You
My mind stilled, quieted. Something in me gave way, and I breathed in the scent of her shampoo and the summery breeze. I’d stay right here as long as she needed me.
And so we sat. Together.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dove
Athought occurred to me the other day, and I hadn’t been able to shake it.
It bounced around my head during days at work, accompanying me to my visits with Nan and even slipping into bed with me each night. It swirled around in my dreams and pressed against my temples when I woke the next day.
It whispered that my neighbor, Dorian Forrester, might be the sweetest man I’d ever met.
Trick was, once I’d had the thought, I couldn’t shake it. It latched on like a burr into a hank of hair and the only way to get rid of it would be to cut it out.
I didn’t want to cut it out, though. I wanted to obsess over it and gather more evidence. I’d done exactly that thus far, expertly combing through every interaction I’d had with Dorian AKA Stone Forrester and finding proof to reinforce what I knew in my gut. He’d been so gracious that first nightI’d invaded his space. He’d been kind about my oddities and awkwardness, good-natured about my panting after him that day in the sun, and completely amazing when I was breaking down over… everything.
The man was a downright sweetheart, and I was doomed.
Especially when I found a small white box sitting on my welcome mat when I got home from work. I opened it to find a tiny peach pie the size of my palm topped with a dollop of what I suspected was fresh whipped cream sitting inside.
How was my desperate little heart supposed to resist peach pie, people?
Did he know what he was doing to me? He couldn’t. He probably pitied me—that was it. He felt sorry for me after I’d snotted all over his shoulder while sobbing my guts out in front of him, a veritable stranger, and he’d peach-pied me.
Except not a second of our time together that day had felt pitying. The way he’d seemed to deeply understand and genuinely want to sit with me and remind me I wasn’t alone in a life raft in the middle of the ocean had been the very thing that solidified my opinion of him.
He’d offered me a shoulder. Offered me a hand.
He’d been a really, really good friend to me.
And now pie.
Had I vacillated between a wild, delighted cackle upon my first bite of said pie to an ecstatic groan that led right into a horrifying burst of tears?
Indeed. Indeed, I had.
Then I’d scarfed down the rest of the utterly transcendent miniature pie, stared out the kitchen window at the field of summer wildflowers swaying in the breeze while I chewed, and vowed I’d thank him for his gift. And maybeask him where he’d gotten it so I could buy myself a pie every few days. I’d call it a balm for my exhaustion or spinsterhood or whatever, and I’d gobble them down thrice weekly with glee.
By the time I arrived at Romance Readers Book Club, I’d shifted from weepy and amazed to determined and… contemplative? Maybe.
Probably that.
“Earth to Dove. What’s going on in your head?” Jo asked, an amused smile on her face.
“Me? Oh, I’m just reminiscing on how I live next to a burly, reclusive neighbor and how he’s totally different than I thought he’d be.”
I slipped two appetizers onto my plate. Jo still refused to tell us who’d started supplying our book club food once a month, but whoever it was had my undying love.
“Stone? Everything okay?” Jess asked, shifting in her seat with a grimace.
She was eight and a half months pregnant and looked visibly uncomfortable. She was bearing a man named Beast’s child so she’d brought this on herself, though I couldn’t really blame her. Beast he may have been, but the man loved her fiercely and if someone looked at me like he did Jess, I wouldn’t be able to resist. I probably wouldn’t even have to have sex to get pregnant—I’d just start ovulating instantly and the animal magnetism would?—
“He’s a good guy. If he’s a bit gruff, it’s just his way,” Winnie explained.
Her comment brought me back from my very weird sidebar. Hormones were a’ ragin’ in me.
And this is what happens when someone gives us pie.
