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“Sure. Now I can take the chicken with me as payment for the dishes.” We took our seats, this time having no choice but to face one another without Ma serving as a perfect distraction. I dug into the food like the starving man I was when it came to Ma’s home cooking.
“You know, Mags is right about one thing. I would love it if we could get things back to normal between us.”
“I know you would, and so would I. And we will. Eventually.”
Sophie’s face twisted into a disappointed frown and shook her head. “I’m really starting to hate that word.”
I shrugged. “It’s just a word Sophie.”
“It’s a word that leaves our friendship up in the air for an indefinite period of time. How am I supposed to deal with that?”
“You just do. The same way I’m dealing with being in love with you and your absolute refusal to even consider me as a romantic option. When I don’t love you anymore Soph, things can go back to normal.”
“Why does that sound so fatal? So final?” She sighed even as her lips twisted into a pout.
I stared at my best friend for a long time, studying her objectively, or trying to anyway. She was objectively pretty, with full rosy lips and pale skin, her big brown eyes were sharp and intelligent. But they were also scared, more like terrified. “It won’t be. I promise.”
“You can’t promise that, Stone.”
“No,” I sighed. “I can’t. But I want to fall in love and get married. Have a few kids running around a big backyard, and since you don’t want any of that, at least not with me, I need to find that on my own.” I didn’t even know how to look at a woman other than Sophie as an option, so I had a long road to go, which meant her fears were justified.
“Stone…,” she sighed, almost pleading in that one word.
“This is why we need space, Soph, so you’ll stop pushing the issue. I didn’t push you for more, and I need you to do the same.” Appetite gone, I stood and turned to the sink. “You can go, I’ll clean up.”
“Fine,” she practically growled and yanked on the back door with more force than was necessary. “It won’t open.”
My phone chose that moment to vibrate in my pocket with a message from Ma that pulled a groan from me. “If you get a chance, please fix the back door, I accidentally broke off a key in the deadbolt. Thanks.”
Sophie let out a sharp bark of laughter. “I guess we’re not going anywhere. At least until Mags gets back.”
Just my dumb luck, stuck in an empty house with the woman of my dreams, who only sees me as a friend.Sophie“You’re just not going to talk to me until Maggie gets back?” This was unbelievable. “Who are you right now?”
Stone kept his back to me while he washed the dinner dishes in silence, giving me plenty of time to admire the bunching and flexing of his muscles under that thin blue t-shirt that should be illegal. The wide expanse of his back was its own landscape filled with plains and valleys. As beautiful a sight as the Texas countryside found on either side of Pilgrim.
“What would you like to talk about Soph? Work? Tell me about your latest client.”
I smiled even though Stone couldn’t see me, because it was either that or toss the mashed potato bowl at his big fat head. “You don’t want to hear about my work.”
He dropped whatever he’d been washing with a loud clatter and turned to me, fury blazing in his deep brown eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what you want to talk about and how I should respond, because that’s really what you want, isn’t it?”
“What? No!” Where was this coming from? “I just want to have a normal conversation with you.”
“Okay. About what?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, we usually talk so easily about anything. About everything. Now every word out of our mouths is an argument.” It brought up painful memories of growing up in the Worthington household where something as little as a fired housekeeper could start a fight that rivaled World War II. “I feel like everything I say is wrong.”
“Maybe you should stop worrying so much about wrong and right and just say what you feel.” Deep, coffee brown eyes stared at me for a long moment, so long that I nearly started to squirm in my seat before Stone gave up and turned his attention back to the dishes.
“Fine. I feel like you’re punishing me for not returning your feelings.” There were plenty of guys out in the world who couldn’t handle rejection, who didn’t take it well, but Stone wasn’t one of those guys. He was a good guy. A sweet guy. A real gentleman in a time where that was a dirty word.
