It took her five full seconds to remember what she’d insisted we have for dinner. “Oh, God. Now, don’t go thinking that because Ibought steaks that I in any way care about you because I don’t. I won’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t because I don’t know anything about you. Of course other than that you’re a serial killer in training and you swing a mean hammer. Come to think of it, you could also use that hammer for smashing people’s heads to a pulp.”
“Yes, I could,” I shot back, just for the hell of it.
“Ah, fuck.” As soon as the curse word slipped past her far too voluptuous lips, she placed her hand across her mouth. Good girls didn’t use naughty words in public.
“Ah, fuck is right.”
The woman was also magnificent at throwing shade when she felt challenged, which seemed to be most of the time. However, the heat in her eyes was completely different than the night before. At least she knew I cared about Sailor.
“My point is that I can’t adore you because I don’t know if I even like you.” She put an emphasis on the statement with a hard head nod.
Just one.
“Let me ease your mind. You shouldn’t like me.”
“And why not? Are there dead bodies buried somewhere?”
She had no idea how close to home she was hitting. I polished off my beer with my hand too tightly clenched around the bottle.
“That was absolutely reprehensible. You fought for our country. Of course there are dead bodies. I apologize.” She huffed, once again providing me with an adorable roll of her eyes.
“No need to apologize.” I held the bottle out, unsure if I was unhappy or glad I’d finished the beer. “What happened to your parents? I mean if you don’t mind me asking.”
Her tongue darted out, touching her bottom lip, and she looked away.
“I guess I need to learn how to apologize around you since I keep putting my foot in my mouth. I think it’s about time I took Sailor back to the motel.”
Before I had a chance to stand, she gripped my arm and man, the shot of electricity was off the fucking charts. How was it possible the mouthy woman could get me all hot and bothered? But she had and I’d remained that way all through dinner.
Especially every time I looked through the doors into the kitchen, enjoying the sight of her preparing the side dishes. All while singing to whatever pop music she’d put on some satellite radio.
How fucking normal preparing dinner had seemed. Me outside cooking steaks on a grill with a beer in my hand like some big he-man. My little woman inside dancing just to drive me crazy while making my favorite side dishes. Shit, I could consider myself a lucky man.
Only she wasn’t mine.
Grace bit her bottom lip, but a tiny moan slipped out while she pulled her hand away. She was obviously feeling the connection the way I was.
Not good. Not good at all.
The way she folded her arms around her knees was more telling than she might understand. She was closing herself off,something I knew far too well. “They died. Maybe you didn’t see it, but there’s another barn. They were inside and it was on fire.”
I’d solved enough questions around mystery deaths to know she wasn’t willing to share exactly what had occurred. I sure as shit wasn’t the one to try to drag a story out of her that she wasn’t willing to share. What I could tell was how painful their deaths continued to be.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Thank you. I miss them greatly. We were very close.” A cloud passed across over her face and I thought for a few seconds she was going to burst into tears. “Like peas in a pod or the three musketeers.”
The silence drifting between us was way too awkward.
“I should be going. There’s a lot to do before Monday.”
“Oh, yeah?” She wiped her eyes quickly but not before I noticed. “Your new job?”
“Yeah, at some point I need to figure out where I’m going to live. But I’m not going to bore you. I guess Sailor will sleep through the night?”
“He will. I didn’t mean to rush you off.”
“You didn’t.” My stupid aroused cock did. As soon as I stood, Sailor lifted his sleepy head. “I’ll take this inside to the trash.”
