Page 37 of Falling Madly
Looking a little torn, he turned around and headed down the street.
“Wait!” I cringed at how my voice chimed with alarm.
He halted, looking over his shoulder.
“Are we meeting here in the morning? What time?” I asked.
“Does it matter? You don’t even have a watch.”
Dread shot through me. I didn’t have a change of clothing, either, or a toothbrush. What if the office toilets didn’t work? We’d never tested them. It was going to be a long night.
He turned around to fully face me, waiting. I stepped a little closer and filled my lungs, gathering my nerve. “I know it’s awful and I shouldn’t even ask… but could you stay with me? Just long enough to make sure the alarm doesn’t go off.” I suddenly felt like crying, and it took a lot of effort to keep the tears at bay.
He closed the distance between us, grabbing my arms and rubbing them up and down. “It won’t. I already checked with the realtor. There is central heating. The power is connected. The toilet works. I wouldn’t leave ye here for a minute otherwise.”
“Thank you. I should be fine then. You don’t have to?—”
“I want to,” he cut me off, looking at me openly. “I’ve wanted to be with you for a long time, but I couldn’t. Not with Richard the Dick in the picture. Not with you avoiding me at every turn.”
I swallowed a lump. “I was just protecting myself.”
“I get it. And that’s why I never want to force my company on you. I know I practically kidnapped you to bring you here, and I already feel awful about that. But I was never planning to keep ye overnight. So, it’s your call. D’ ye want me here?”
“I do,” I choked out.
“Then I’ll stay.”
A big fat tear let loose, running down the side of my nose. “Why are you so nice? I haven’t been nice… You don’t even know me. There are more secrets. Worse secrets.”
He peered into my eyes like he was looking straight into my soul. “I’m counting on that.” He caught the tear with his thumb before it made it to my lips. “Okay, let’s go inside, crank up the heat, and see if that office is survivable overnight.”
Chapter Twelve
Trevor
The remote for the heat pump hung helpfully on the wall underneath it, and I cranked it up to a higher setting. “It’ll be good to test if this works, in case we want to consider this for an office.”
“It would be an upgrade,” she muttered.
Our current office only had a small space heater with no cooling option and got very hot and stuffy during the summer.
“Everything about this is an upgrade,” I countered with a smile.
Her eyes narrowed. “Everything? Only having a handful of restaurants, a constant stream of tourists and paying three times as much for a gallon of milk?”
“We’d have to stock up in Denver. That general store is for emergencies only,” I said.
“And if you want a hobby, the only options are hiking and skiing.”
“What are you talking about? There’s hunting, fishing, woodworking…”
“Yeah. There’s a lot of stuff foryouto do,” she said, but her mouth curved up.
“There’s a gym!” I countered. I’d seen the sign earlier.
She took a step closer, looking at me with slightly unfocused eyes. A little drunk. Happy. “There’s a gym for dudes, full of iron, that smells like feet.”
“And what you need is…”
