Page 10 of The Stargazers of Copper County
I held up a hand and grinned at him. “I can’t let you apologize. You see… I guessed what you were doing before I saw anything. And since I… er…wantedto see something… I stuck around. Until I did.”
My cheeks could have set water on fire. But I needed him to know he wasn’t the one who’d acted inappropriately that day.He’d been doing something private in the privacy of his own home.Iwas the one who hadn’t been able to tear my eyes away.
He blinked. “You… watched me on purpose?”
I heaved a sigh. “Unforgivably creepy?”
Bennett let out a bark of laughter, his eyes crinkling in a way that wasnotconducive to me handling a giant spinning blade or gardening shears. “Hell no. I was just thinkingIwas the creep for watchingyou.”
“So…” I smiled. “What you’re saying is we’re a matched pair?”
He blushed—God, how was he able to get sexier with every passing minute?—and blurted, “You’rereallytalented.”
Now, it was my turn to be surprised. “At… creeping on people through windows?”
“No! God, no.” Bennett ran a hand through his blond waves and shook his head. When he spoke again, it was with a measured calm, like he’d forced his nerves away. “I meant your drawings. Your illustrations. They’re incredible.”
“Really?” A warm flush of exhilaration came over me. “Thank you.”
He stepped closer. The afternoon sun adored this man and lit him up like a gift, gilding his hair and making his light eyes glow. “I mean it. I want to see more. I was hoping…” He paused and pressed his lips together. “I was hoping to get to know you better. If… if you don’t thinkthat’stoo creepy.”
“I think we’ve established that creepy is kind of my jam.” I bit my lip. “I was really hoping the clue on the puzzle was an actual invitation.”
“It was…” Bennett’s generous mouth widened into a tentative smile. “If you want it to be.”
I nodded. “I very much do.”
“Good. That’s… good.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “What I didn’t say is that I was hoping you might stay fordinner first? And maybe a swim? It won’t be dark enough to see anything for hours yet. But don’t feel obligated. You could come back, or…”
I caught his eyes and tried to reassure him with my expression. “I do like to swim.”
He smiled again. “I know.”
“And I like to eat.” I shrugged. “Enough for three normal humans, people continually tell me.”
He tilted his head to the side and gazed at me like I was special. “Noted.”
My heart hammered in my chest. “And it’ll take me some time to do the yard work first anyway. So I think… I think I should probably just stay. Maybe we can kill time by you telling me how you got into making logic puzzles.”
“And you can tell me more about your art,” he said.
“I’d like that,” I said softly.
I didn’t want to walk away, but if I didn’t start on the yard work right now, I’d never be able to start our date. And Ivery muchwanted to start our date.
Because it was obvious to me after this one brief conversation that I was at least getting part of what I wanted: a get-to-know-you first date, with dinner, and stargazing, and everything.
I closed my eyes and sent a brief wish into the universe as I left Bennett and went back to my work that “everything” would include kissing at the very least, because this beautiful man with the nerves and apologies and compliments was the most tempting thing I’d ever come close to wanting.
And as it happened, later that night, the universe delivered…
And then some.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BENNETT
I forcedmyself to exit gracefully and allow Theo to do his job. Even though I wanted to offer to share the load, I knew instinctively not to cross the lines between his work—in which I was technically his client—and our personal relationship.
