Page 26 of Colton in the Wild
“Because I knew you weren’t. I knew you weren’t just a pretty face.”
“I…played on that. The looks and the flirting, I mean. It was part of it.” Another pause before he said, “That’s what I meant about protection. It was the…façade, I guess. Shelter. The looks were just part of the act, part of the cocky wise-ass routine that kept people from seeing the real me. The stupid me I always thought I was until you showed me another way.”
Hetty felt a fierce, aching tightness in her chest. She’d known he was grateful to her for pointing him in the direction that had enabled him to break free, but she hadn’t known how much of his attitude was based in this. Beyond curious, she had to ask.
“And the flirting now?”
“Habit, I guess. And still a bit of that protection. Because it’s obvious I’m not serious.”
“You might want to rethink that,” Hetty said dryly. “Because I’m pretty sure some of our clients thought you were serious.”
“You saying I’m too good at it?” There was a touch of teasing in his tone.
“Too good for my comfort,” she admitted.
He went utterly still again. “Why?”
She couldn’t tell him the truth. She just couldn’t. So she dodged. “It’s uncomfortable to be around.”
“It’s not easy to do,” he said. “Especially when one of the things it’s covering up is…my real feelings. About somebody else. But I don’t know how to act around a woman when the feelings are…real. I never have. So she has no idea.”
It was her turn to go still. There was somebody else? Someone he had real, genuine feelings for? She couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Who?”
“Somebody I’ve had a crush on for a long time.” She heard his deep intake of breath. Felt his body tense, as if he were steeling himself for a blow. “Like since the eleventh grade.”
Eleventh grade. When she had begun to tutor him. Surely, he wasn’t saying…what she wished he was saying. It had to have been someone else.
“Where is she now?” she asked, trying for a merely curious tone.
Again there was a pause and a renewed tensing. And then he said it. “Right here.”
Her breath slammed to a halt in her throat. She couldn’t speak.
He went on. “In my arms. At last.” And then the old, smart-aleck Spence reappeared. “Of course, she didn’t have much choice.”
She swallowed. Gathered her nerve. Spared a second to think how it figured that they would reach this point here, in this remote place in this backcountry they both loved, trapped in a freaking cave, waiting for rescue. And then, knowing she had to at least match his courage, she said it.
“If she’d had a choice, she would have chosen this.”
It was another silent moment, one in which she could still feel his tension. He raised up on one elbow before he said, tentatively, “Hetty? You…mean that?”
“I think…it’s why I get snarky with you so often.”
He reached out with his free hand, brushed the back of his fingers over her cheek. “I never knew. Never dared to even hope. And I was afraid I’d…ruin our friendship, so I really locked it down.”
She looked up at him, able only to see a profile in the dim light. She thought she would have recognized him anyway, even if she hadn’t known it was him next to her. Hadn’t she memorized his face all those years ago? And he truly hadn’t changed that much on the outside, either. His jaw stronger, more masculine, the line of him lean, having lost any lingering softness of youth.
“And I’m just me, and you were a Colton, the big name in town.”
He let out a wry chuckle. “I love my family, and I’m proud of what they’ve built, who they’ve all become, but sometimes it’s a pain in the backside.”
She couldn’t help smiling, widely. “It’s only me. You can say ass.”
The chuckle became a laugh this time. Then he dropped back down off his elbow and wrapped his arms around her again. “And that’s another reason,” he said, sounding both amused and delighted.
And genuine. More important to her than anything, there was no doubting the utter sincerity in his voice.
Spence Colton may have been a flirt in front of her countless times, but never had he ever given any of those women the authenticity and certainty he’d just given her.
