“It’s just me.” I hold up my hands. “I worried about you being in the woods by yourself at night.”
All fear vanishes from her face.
“Oh. That’s very considerate of you.” She beams at me. “I’ve never had anyone worry about me.”
I give her a sidelong look. “What about your dad? Didn’t you say you live with him?”
She waves her hand dismissively as we walk, eyes focused on the dark path in the woods. “I’ve looked after him since Mom died when I was eighteen. He wasn’t in the right headspace after her death. It... well, it really rocked him.”
From the look on her face, it had the same effect on her. I don’t comment. Some things feel too intimate to name.
“I had plans to leave. My first-year tuition at an Ivy League school was fully funded. But I...” She looks down at her feet, her voice lowering. “I couldn’t leave him.”
My heart twists inside my chest. “That’s very admirable of you to stay.”
She shrugs. “There was no one else. I don’t have any siblings. Never met my dad’s parents. They disowned him when he married my mom. Said he was too young. And my mom’s parents... they had a lot of health issues and died a year apart when I was a kid. So the three of us were pretty close-knit.”
I stare at her for a moment, not saying anything. Our shoes crunch through the snow.
“Did you ever go to college?”
She smiles up at me. “Yeah. I did my bachelor’s degree online in three years. I’m finishing up my master’s right now. I only have one more year?—”
Her foot slips on a patch of ice. I catch her before she falls.
She stares up at me, two pink blotches on her cheeks. My arms are around her waist. The moment is far more intimate than it should be. Yet I don’t release her.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Her voice is slightly breathless.
I finally let her go, and we continue walking toward her house.
I clear my throat and run my hand through my hair, wondering what the hell just happened. Why do I want to keep holding the woman who is stalking me in my arms? Why have I done any of the things I’ve done with her? Why have I allowed her to infiltrate my life?
“So, you’re working on your master’s, huh?”
A twig snaps beneath my boot. She automatically grabs my arm, fear lining her face.
“It’s okay. I just stepped on a twig.”
“Oh.” Her other hand is over her heart. I can’t help but think how cute she looks bundled in her jacket, wearing the damn little pink jacket beneath it.
A vision of her wearing my sweatshirt hits. Something feral rolls through me. I like that she wears it, too. More than I should.
“Um, yeah. I’m studying behavioral sciences.”
How ironic.
I almost ask her if she learned anything about stalking, but then think better of it.
“Nice.”
“You studied business, right?”
I glance down at her. She’s still holding onto my arm like we’re two lovers taking a stroll. Honestly, the way the moonlight shines through the trees tonight, bathing the forest in its silver glow, is quite romantic.
But I push the thought away. Bringing it up to Ivy would be tantamount to being engaged.
