She shrugged.“I guess.”
“I want to date you.And at the risk of you clobbering me again, see where it goes.”
Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she looked anything but amenable.“You’re ready to settle down so it follows that I must be too?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Absolutely not.”
He stared at her.“Not?”
She shook her head.“Which you would know if you knew me at all.But you don’t.You assumed I’d be like ‘other’ women and want a long-term relationship and that’s not for me.”
“Is there a reason you’re so against a long-term or permanent relationship?”
“Does there have to be?”
“Seems like there would be.”
She gazed at him for a long moment.“We don’t know each other well enough to get into that.”
“We’ve known each other forever.”
“Superficially.”
Damn, maybe she was right.For all he’d thought he knew her, he clearly didn’t.“So this is a no to dating?”
“Not necessarily.But you can’t be thinking about anything serious between us.If you’re good with that then, yeah, maybe we can date.For a short time.Go home and think about it and then, if you want, we can talk about it some more.”
He stewed about their conversation all the way to the ranch.The more roadblocks Letty threw up the more he wanted her.Was that because he couldn’t have her like he wanted to or because he honestly wanted her?She wasn’t playing hard to get.She was dead serious.She didn’t want long term.But she’d indicated she might be willing to have short-term fun.Would that be enough for him?
He didn’t think so.But maybe, if he took what she offered, he could change her mind.When Riley wanted something, he persevered until he got it.His sister was known to say he was pig-headed and stubborn as a mule.He preferred to think of it as persistent.
