I stabbed eggs with my fork, gave him a weak smile.“Nothing.”
He reached for me, placing his hand on my wrist.I met his gaze and my heart turned over.
“Do you regret last night?”he asked, low, serious.
“God, no,” I said on a breath.Then, “Do you?”
A corner of his mouth lifted.“No.Never.”
We stared at each other in silence.
“Is it what Tani said?”he asked.
Everything inside me froze.
“Because we don’t have to name anything, Piper,” he said, steady and clear.His fingers tightened a little on my wrist.“I want to be with you.”
Oh.
Well, that did terrible things to my insides.
“And,” he added as an afterthought, “I want you to come to dinner tomorrow.Mom wants to see you.”
Rylyn’s voice boomed in my head.Mr.Perfect ask you out?Because he was.Perfect.In every way.With a charming smile.
“Okay,” I said finally.
His response was to kiss my fingers.
And then I knew—something was happening between us.
And I was going to let it.
***
After breakfast, I grabbed the grimoire and we left.Owen wanted his truck, so I drove us back to Neon Cowboy.
In the car, he said, “I need a shower and a change of clothes.”
“At your parents’?”I asked.
He grinned.“No.I have a place.A cottage.”
I gripped the steering wheel.“A cottage?”Like the words were foreign.
“The old caretaker place.It’s been in the family a few generations,” he said.“Near the woods.”
“I didn’t know you had a place.”
“It didn’t seem relevant until now.”
I glanced at him as he reached for my hand, his fingers wrapping around mine.
“Follow me there?We can drive together to see Mrs.Rollins.”
He had a place.A cottage near the woods.I don’t know why but it settled somewhere deep and quiet inside me.
“Okay.”
