Romance novels had not prepared me for a situation where one-half of the fated mates decides the other isn’t a suitable match. This seemed a regrettable oversight.
“Boo, that’s not possible,” Crys said firmly. “Tell me everythingyousaid, and everythinghesaid about what you said, and everythingyousaid about what he said about what you said.”
“I did exactly as you suggested. I asked him flat out. No chance for misunderstandings. And he…” I looked around to make sure no one was listening, but naturally, everyone and their brother was listening, especially mine. “He wasnotamenable,” I admitted in a pained whisper. “Barely even considered it. Can we stop talking about this now?”
Crys shook her head. “No, because I’m still not buying it. The way he looks at you… He’s very,veryamenable, Hawk.”
Luke leaned over and whispered. “What are we talking about?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” I lied. “Go back to petting my brother.” I turned to Crys again. “Explain what you mean.”
As far as I could tell, Jack looked at me the way Jack had looked at me since the day we’d met—fondly, but apparently not the kind of fond that made him want to rip my clothes off and worship my naked flesh with his tongue. Not even fond enough to override his concerns about my family.
She leaned even closer, cupping her hand around her mouth and whispering in my ear unapologetically. “His eyes follow you constantly. If you’re in the room, you’re the center of his attention.”
“Well, sure, but it’s been that way forever. Because we’re friends,” I whispered glumly. “Which is part of the problem for him. He says he doesn’t want to lose what we have. And he’s my boss. And he’s my ‘honorary brother.’ And he knows certain people wouldn’t be okay with it.” I tilted my head in Webb’s direction.
To my shock, Crys’s face broke out in a smile. “That’s what he said, huh? Is thateverythinghe said?”
“Isn’t that enough? It’s hopeless.” He’d shut me down so entirely I had no recourse. I wasn’t a fighter by nature, but I would have fought for this… if Jack had let me.
“But he didn’t say he wasn’t attracted to you.”
I blinked. “Well… no,” I said slowly, my battered heart thumping a little faster. “Not technically. But I felt like that was covered in the ‘brothers’ part.”
“Is it, though? If he didn’t find you attractive, he’d have said, ‘You’re not my type, Hawkins,’ and been done with it. Wouldn’t he?”
“I… I don’t know.” Maybe he’d been trying to save my feelings by not admitting that short, thin guys with muddy-brown eyes and cowlicks weren’t his jam.
“I do.” Crys’s smile went sly, and she tapped her lip thoughtfully with one long nail. “And I’m thinking you need tomake sure he’s looking at you in a way that drivesbrothersout of his mind altogether.”
I stared at her, open-mouthed. “But, like… how?”
“Easy. You just have to—” Crys’s gaze moved over my shoulder, and she coughed lightly before sitting back in her seat. “Erm. Why don’t we discuss specifics later?”
“Later? No way!” Couldn’t she see I was dying here? I cut my hand through the air to make my point. “Tell me n—ow-ow-ow!” I wailed as I accidentally whacked my funny bone on the back of the chair.
“Bird?” The voice from my dreams made me spin around to find Jack Wyatt leaning over the seat next to Mrs. Cleeward, watching me with a troubled expression that suggested he’d witnessed the whole thing. “You okay?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and ignored the spot of dampness in my eye caused by the pain.
Ugh.The only thing worse than confronting the person you love after they’ve rejected your affections is confronting him while surrounded by your busybody family after demonstrating that you are, indeed, the foolish child he believes you to be.
Elizabeth Bennet wouldnever.
Jack’s large palm cupped the back of my head, and it was harder than it should have been not to lean into his touch like Webb had earlier with Luke. “Look at me, Hawk. Are you alright?”
Closing my eyes didn’t help when I could perfectly picture Jack’s laser-beam-of-concern eyeballs boring a hole into my brain. And that was the problem, really, with fantasizing about someone for as long as I had. Two thousand days analyzing the precise meaning of each smile-crinkle beside his deep blue eyes and two thousand nights dreaming of him touching me like a lover had conspired to make me imagine things in his gaze that weren’t there.
For example, that he might be open to the idea of some recreational sex with an inexperienced (butveryeager to learn) younger man…
And that today, of all days, would be an auspicious time to approach him about it.
I sighed and opened my eyes.
“Thanks for your concern, but I’m fine, Jack. Now, sit down, okay? The meeting’s starting.”
But Jack didn’t let go. His eyes searched mine for a beat, his hand still warmly clasped in my hair. “Your scrapes from earlier… are those?—?”
