That information lights me up and breaks me down at the same time. “No?”
She shakes her head, her dark braid swaying across her back. “As much as I want someone to care for me, I don’t think I’ve really let the guys I’ve dated see me. I was trying too hard to be someone else.”
Rose gazes back at me, the vulnerability in her eyes riveting me in place. “I never really had someone I could just be myself with before.”
This woman who pours her heart into everything she does deserves to get that back a hundred fold. Not from a man who’s hiding away in darkness, growling over a heart that stopped hurting a long time ago. But from someone who’ll meet her out in the sunlight, see her love for the treasure it is, and make sure she never forgets she doesn’t have to do a thing to earn love in return.
I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that man is me.
I stand, an urge to say who knows what leaping inside me, when her bobber dips. Her attention snaps to it, and I close the distance to stand beside her.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Her eyes are wide, but her lips pull back like she’s imagining a sturgeon at the other end of the line.
“It does. Reel it in slowly.”
The bobber dips and sways as the fish tries to get away. Rose winds the reel, drawing it closer. I ready the small net I brought, crouching at the edge of the water so I can snag it as soon as it comes into view.
“I’m kind of nervous,” she says, her hand spinning slow circles on the reel.
I glance up at her. “You’ve handled partying raccoons. You can handle this.”
She stands straighter, grinning at me. In another minute, the rainbow trout is in my net, lashing around while I free the hook from its mouth as quickly as I can. I let it dip in the water so it can breathe, but I’m careful not to lose it.
“First fish,” I tell her. “Want to hold it?”
“I don’t want it to suffer. Let me just touch it.” She crouches next to me, resting one hand on my knee to keep her balance as she reaches her other out to caress the fish. Her shriek when she makes contact has my ears ringing, but I can’t fault her enthusiasm. “It’s so slippery!”
“It’s covered in mucus.”
She darts her hand back. “Seems like an important thing to mention when you offered to let me hold it.”
I chuckle, tilting the net so the fish can swim free, disappearing into the murky water. As disgusting as she might think a trout’s slime coat is, she sure looks like she’s enjoying herself.
I thought I didn’t need anyone out here, but I do. More than I’ve ever needed someone. I need Rose.
“Since we just set our meal free, can I take you to dinner?” I ask.
“Sure. Whatever you?—”
I lift one eyebrow, waiting. She nibbles her bottom lip, the pink skin there indented by a glimpse of white tooth.
“How about Delish?” she finally says.
“That’s my girl.”
27
rose
It’simpossible to focus on Delish’s menu with “That’s my girl” running through my head on a loop. The first time Reed said it to me, I was wild with fever and thought I only imagined the soft possession in his voice. But out on the river, I couldn’t mistake the heat in his gaze as he called mehis.
Giddiness bubbles through me until I’m drunk on it, sitting in a booth across from him. It’s only compounded by the smile playing over his mouth as he watches me. His menu’s sitting on the table untouched, but I like to see all my options before deciding what I want.
“What?” he says after a minute. Probably because I keep glancing at him like I’m a researcher taking notes on a gorgeous but wily subject. Because: facts.
I hitch a shoulder. “People are going to stare if you keep doing that.”
Most of the tables are full tonight, but I don’t really care what people think. Let them stare.
