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“Do you want to come in?”
“I do.” A few steps carried him inside. She shut the door, and he spun to face her. “Ally, I, uh, I need to know what’s going on.”
A little furrow formed between her brows. “With what?”
“Technically, he’s old enough for you, but you know he’s still in high school, right? Gareth, my cousin?”
Her lips parted with a little gasp of surprise. It made a nice change, Tag thought, seeing that display of emotion, as brief as it was. In a millisecond, confusion morphed to her go-to unreadable expression. How could he have ever believed it indicated indifference? Because as he studied her carefully, he realized that while her face was stoic, her eyes were flashing. And just that fast he knew he’d screwed up.
When she spoke, her voice held a calm, edge-of-cheerful tone. “Surely, you’re not implying that I would throw myself at you and then make a play for your teenaged cousin?”
Wow. That sounded bad, even though that’s pretty much what he’d been doing. It was painful to admit it. “Uh, not…really.” What in the world had gotten into him? He should be encouraging her to see someone else. Not Gareth. But…someone. He swallowed the bitter, metallic taste on his tongue.
She stared at him. “You sure about that?”
Cringing under her doubt-filled scrutiny, he confessed, “Okay, yes.” He muttered an expletive and raked a hand across his jaw. “I’m sorry. I…don’t know what came over me. I didn’t know it was Gareth, at first. I just saw this guy standing on your porch, and I lost my mind for a minute…” How was this honesty helping matters?
“Wait. You’re jealous?”
“Apparently.”
One corner of her mouth ticked up. “That’s a relief, I think. I didn’t hear from you yesterday, and I didn’t call or text because I was trying to give you time to process what happened, maybe miss me a little.”
Mission accomplished. And in a manner that was making him look and feel worse by the second.
“Today, when I still didn’t hear from you, I started to worry. Then I saw you outside just now, and my heart did this nice little somersault because I thought you were coming to see me. But when you got closer, looking all broody and serious, I was afraid you were coming over to let me down easy. I didn’t see a jealousy thing happening, but I think that bodes well, as far as feelings go.”
“Yeah, I’ll admit this isn’t how this was supposed to happen. I’m sorry. I was totally out of line. You can date whoever you want. Although his mom, my cousin Janie, might not be thrilled.”
Cocking her head slowly to one side, she said, “Or—wait… Did you stop by to let me down?”
“I, uh, I was hoping to do it with a lot more finesse.”
She froze.
So did he. Then he sighed because what he wanted to do was pull her close and wrap his arms around her.
“Look, Ally, I’m the one who is let down. I like you, obviously. I’ve already told you that. And I’m beyond flattered that you would even entertain the thought of being interested in me.”
She stepped toward him, right into his comfort zone, and his pulse took off like a helicopter rotor at full speed.
“How could any woman not be interested in you?” Her voice was all soft, like she was about to tell him a secret, and his blood went hot as he remembered what happened last time she’d gotten this close. He stared at her full, beyond-tempting lips, now curling up at the corners, and told himself he should take a step back. This perfectly rational message sent from his brain was refused delivery by the rest of his body. Wrenching his gaze upward, he found her brown eyes full of teasing humor.
“I know for a fact that they all are, Mr. Most Eligible Bachelor. And you can count me right there among them.”
He made a growling sound, part desire, part frustration. “You shouldn’t be. I am too old for you and…” The rest of his words were lost, lodged in his throat like dry oatmeal, because she’d brought her hands up to touch his chest. They were toe to toe, and with her palms flat she slid her hands slowly up while he watched, fascinated, until they disappeared from his line of sight to wind around his neck.
