“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
“Why did you leave?” he asked, his voice breaking.
Needing to put more distance between us, I backed up onto the first step.
“This is why Teresa needed to bring me. I knew if you saw us coming, you’d hide.” Now the hurt in his voice came through loud and clear. “It’s what you do, isn’t it? Run when you’re afraid?”
“You don’t know a goddamn thing about me!” I shouted. “You should just go ahead and go back to New York, like you were planning. It’s not like you….” I stopped, knowing what the next words out of my mouth were about to be, knowing they could never be taken back.
“Go on. Not like I what? Don’t hold back. Finish what you were going to say,” he challenged.
To say I withered under his onslaught was an understatement. I glanced nervously at the door behind me.
“Planning to run again? Not like it would be the first time, is it?”
Okay,nowhe’d moved into the angry territory. He rolled a little closer but never stopped staring. “Why do you run, Matt? Just tell me that. Am I that scary? Are you afraid of me? Have I done something to you? What is it? If you want me to leave, at least tell me why. I know something’s wrong. It’s why I asked Teresa to go. I don’t want to see that look on your face, the one where you’re going to bolt.”
The moment of truth had arrived. I fixed my gaze on a point beyond him, looking instead at the tall trees that dotted the landscape.
“I don’t want you to go,” I whispered. “That’s why I came to the hospital. I wanted you to stay. With me, I mean. I wanted to take care of you until you were better because….” I swallowed. “Because I like you, and I knew that if you left, I would never see you again.”
He gave me a sad smile. “Was that so hard? I never wanted to go, but it didn’t seem like there was much here for me. And the thing I wanted most didn’t seem to be all that into me. For the record, I like you too. Why do you think I continue to jog up here? Or why I brought you the books? They were my excuses to come and see you.”
He liked me? My heart danced the Cha-Cha Slide, thumping and jumping. Closing the distance between us, I stood and looked down at him. He reached out with his right hand and wrapped my fingers in his, giving them a light squeeze.
“You’re a hard man to get through to. I thought I dropped enough subtle hints, but when they didn’t work, I went for a few not-so-subtle ones, but you just didn’t seem to get it. So I thought maybe I misread the signs and you weren’t into me at all.”
I peered down at our joined hands.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
To be honest, I hadn’t known I was. “Not sure. Because you’re here? You were supposed to leave.”
“Do you really think I could have left without seeing you?”
I gave a shoulder shrug. “You don’t know me, so why should you stay?”
“I don’t…. Really? Is that what you think? Your name is Matt Bowers. Your brother is the sheriff, though I get the feeling you don’t see much of each other. You like detective novels that were written by a very cool author. Those gray eyes twinkle like gems, and you have the rarest, most beautiful smile I think I’ve ever seen.”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean rarest?”
He grinned at me, and I realized he still hadn’t let go of my hand. “You don’t smile often, so when you do, it’s a rare gift. Whoever gets it is very lucky.”
Butterfly wings tickled my insides, and my cheeks heated.
“Yes, that smile,” he teased. “It’s like the Mona Lisa. Impish, yet sweet.”
“Stop,” I scolded him, as embarrassment caused my cheeks to burn.
“You know you like it. It’s written all over your face.”
He couldn’t know how much I liked it. No one had ever complimented me like this, and without a frame of reference, I had no idea how to handle it.
“So…. Were you serious about me staying with you until I’m healed up?”
He had a hopeful expression, and I couldn’t come up with a reason to say no. Not that I wanted to. “Yes, please.”
“Okay. I’d like that. I know it’s short notice, so is there anything you need?”
