Page 65 of Hit the Ground
“I have too.” I nodded to myself, rubbing my hand along my thigh. “And I’d like to maybe start them again, if you want.”
“You know I do,” he cooed roughly, sending goose bumps flooding down my arms.
“Okay. Then we should. There are a few things you should know—to know what you’re getting into with me.”
“I’m all ears. Eager to know as much of you as you’d like to share.”
There was a loose thread on my cutoffs, longer than the others. I curled it around my finger and gathered my thoughts. They stacked and stacked on the tip of my tongue until spilling out all at once.
“You were right, Caleb. I think I’m a lover girl at heart, and I do want something serious. I’m not in a rush, but I would like to be married and have at least one child. If that isn’t something you could see yourself having with me, we should—”
“It is,” he rushed out, cutting me off. “If I couldn’t see myself possibly going there with you, I wouldn’t have approached you.”
Relief settled me, but only slightly. I had a lot more to get through.
“Good. You should also know I don’t have any family to speak of. I was estranged from my parents when they died. My sister too. And that night I kissed you, I had received a letter from her lawyer telling me she’d passed.”
I braced for his reaction, but all he said was: “Christ, Allie, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. We had a very complicated relationship and were never close. It’s a strange feeling, knowing I’m alone in the world. She also left me all her money, which was a lot.”
He released a long, heavy breath. “Complicated or not, I’m still sorry. But you’re not alone in the world. You’ve got Joy, and my mom is not giving you up, and me—you’ve got me, no matter how this phone call goes.”
That was true. I did have Joy. She’d become more of a mother to me than my own had been, and she’d only known me four years. She’d probably cringe and shoo me away if she heard me thinking of her as a mother figure, but deep beneath her hard, rough exterior, I knew she loved me.
I wasn’t ready to consider Elena and Caleb yet. It was much too soon for that.
“Thank you. There’s more, though.”
“Hit me with it. I’m ready.”
“Okay. Here goes.” I took a deep breath and let the rest of it spill. “I only have one kidney. I donated the other to my sister, then she never spoke to me again. I have all this money, and the only thing I can think to spend it on is more books—for me and the library. I don’t really want to go on an exotic vacation or buy a fancy car. I might become the old woman who lives in a shoe, only I’d live in a book.”
When I paused, he asked, “Is there more?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s hear it,” he gruffed.
“You should also know I’m a virgin—not for any religious reasons or personal convictions. It just hasn’t happened, then I moved here and seemed to have developed a thing for you I couldn’t shake…and…well, that was probably more information than you signed up for.”
I clamped down on my bottom lip to keep myself from saying anything else. If I hadn’t ruined things yet, that stream of consciousness surely would have done it.
Then Caleb asked, “You can’t shake it, huh?” and he didn’t sound the least bit turned off. In fact, I was pretty certain he was teasing me.
“I can’t. It’s the damnedest thing,” I teased back. “Try as I might, I’m hooked on you.”
“Good, because I’m hooked on you too, Alice.”
My heart tumbled off a cliff and flew right back up. “You are? Even after I dumped all that baggage on you?”
“More,” he rumbled. “I like you telling me about yourself. I want to know it all.”
“Are you sure that wasn’t too much information? I’m cringing over here.”
“I wish I could see you. I bet you’re cute when you cringe.”
That made me laugh. “I doubt it. I wish I could see you too.”
