Page 14 of Hard to Love
He slid her a sideways look. “What are you, a hound dog?”
“I just like food, Raylene’s especially.”
“After she stuffed me with girlie salad, she forced me to eat her You Drive Me Bananas pudding.”
“Forced?”
“Fine.” He grinned, the first full-out smile she’d seen on his face, and it hit her like a blast of summer humidity—stunned her and stole her breath. “Maybe I was a willing victim of the food but not the company.”
“Hey, Raylene’s a nice lady—”
“Yes, but she had guests when I got there.”
Oh, his comment made more sense now. “Her Bunco gals?”
“All I know is, I felt like a side of beef at a carnivore’s convention.”
Unable to help herself, Greer laughed. Damn, the guy had a healthy sense of humor, and she’d occasionally been attracted to witty lefties. Was that a valid reason for her ovaries to sit up and take notice?Please stay seated, you two, until this crazy train has come to a complete stop.“So you escaped out here? You could’ve gone to the librarywhere there are tables or even back to the boot shop.”
“I was wandering around looking for a decent place when I spotted these benches. They’re amazing. I looked for a signature but couldn’t find one.”
“Yeah, he’s a modest one.”
“Honestly, it’s wrong to call them benches, because they’re sculptures.”
She snorted. “Tell my brother that.”
“He carved them?” Alex smoothed his hand along the edge of the seat, and the nerves under Greer’s skin tingled. “Is everyone in your family an artist?”
Greer breathed through the little spark of lust, and Delaney’s words from earlier circled her brain like Tweety birds.Maybe you’re supposed to master something besides art.“I’ve dabbled in everything from ceramics to my glassblowing, and Cal is still trying to get his feet under him, but PBC’s always been the cornerstone of Prophecy. No one could hold a candle to my dad.” Or Delaney.
Maybe that was the undefinable problem she’d been wrestling with lately. She’d been trying all her life to make art as meaningful as her dad’s. But it was damn hard to compete with prophetic boots.
Alex leaned his forearms on his knees and studied her, his mesmerizing eyes muted through his dark lashes. His gaze left her face and meandered downward. Greer’s neck, chest, and tummy felt like a physical stroke. Alex stopped his perusal when he reached her knee, currently bobbing up and down as though she’d guzzled three pots of coffee. “That bothers you.”
“No, I’m incredibly proud of the talent in my family.”
“But a girl like you? Measuring up is important. You want to make your family, your community proud.”
“Of course I do,” she said, wondering how they’dmoved from discussing benches to what made her tick. “After all, your family, where you’re from, what you’ve experienced, make you who and what you are.”
Chapter Five
“You really believe that?” Alex ran his thumb along the edge of his sketchpad, flipping the corner with a little shuffling sound, mulling over this woman’s claim that where you come from makes you who you are.
If that were the case, where exactly did he come from—Montana or Texas? Because one meant he was a saint, the other a sinner. Meant he was either redeemable or totally fucked up.
What would she say if he told her his world views weren’t a damn thing like hers? He had nothing in common with a woman who’d grown up in this little Mayberry. She’d never seen the kind of shit that went down in the barrios.
On the streets.
Hell, in front yards.
The west San Antonio neighborhood he’d grown up in was so far from Prophecy, it could be a million miles away rather than a hundred. His papá had tried to give his family a good life and things stayed pretty stable until he died. But three boys had been more than his mamá could handle. Her teacher’s salary had put food on the table, but as a single parent, she’d had a hard time keeping track of who her kids hung with, where they went.
“You don’t want to hear what I think about the world orwhere I come from.”
“That’s your choice,” she said, “but get ready for people to speculate. And possibly make things up. Because let’s be real, the way you look probably scares a lot of folks.” She waved a hand near his face and then let it drop. Unfortunately, it touched his arm on its descent. Every muscle on the right side of his body went tense. Ready.
