“I enjoy it, too,” he said in a voice so low it travelled all the way through me and pooled in the pit of my stomach.
“Okay,” I breathed as I turned on the machine to make him a cup of coffee. “Then we have a deal.”
Ross picked me up from home again the next morning. I could have cried when his black van pulled up and it sank in that I didn’t have to walk twenty-five minutes through the darkness to get to work.
The air had a bite to it that made me shiver even on the short walk to his vehicle.
“Good morning.” I slid into the seat, shut the door behind me, and rubbed my icy fingers together. “Gosh, it gets colder every morning.”
Without speaking, Ross reached for a button on the dashboard and turned my seat heater on.
Okay, that’s cute.
“Cheers.”
He mumbled something I didn’t catch over the music, waited for me to close my seatbelt, and we were off.
A cheerful voice from the radio announced a new single by Scotland’s favourite singer Conall White.
“It’s the first song from his upcoming double album ‘Salt Snake.’ Conall was gone from the public eye for months after his messy divorce and returned with treats.”
“That first song sounds like he wasn’t alone in hiding, though. What do you think, Lou?”
“Oh yeah,” the woman called Lou laughed. “It sounds like he found someone to heal his heart.”
“Folks, get ready for ‘Finding My Way Home’ by everybody’s favourite man, Conall White.”
“You’d think there were no other Scottish musicians than that bloke,” Ross grumbled.
“They seem awfully stuck on him. I mean his music is good, but come on. Stop being so nosy about his private life.”
“Right? I don’t understand people,” he snorted as if he’d cracked a joke.
“Which is where I come in. But I can’t help you with celebrity gossip. That is beyond me.”
“Like a light in the dark/ You guide me home,” Conall’s smoky voice cut into our conversation. We listened in silence as Ross manoeuvred his van through the early morning traffic.
It was a beautiful tune. My favourite of his so far.
Chapter Six
Ross
Iparked behind the cafe and turned off the engine so Autumn wouldn’t rush out of the car.
Just say something, Ross.
No words came out of me.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
“Okay, I, uh, I guess I’ll…”
“Yes, uh.”
Painful. This is painful.
Then she paused with a hand on the door handle.
