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“You’re welcome. I enjoyed the company.”
“You mean, the diversion,” he murmured, remembering what she’d said earlier.
“That, too,” she replied with a slight shrug.
She reached for the door at the same time he did. They collided, and Casey caught her shoulders to steady her. “Okay?”
Smiling a bit sheepishly up at him, she said, “Clumsy. I rarely drink wine. I must have overdone it a little tonight.”
He didn’t release her immediately. Nor did she step away, instead gazing up at him as he searched her face. Her cheeks were a bit flushed, her eyes a little too bright, and it was all he could do not to cover her slightly parted lips with his own. He suspected she knew full well that he wanted to kiss her. Just as he suspected she wouldn’t mind so much. Maybe she even wanted him to kiss her.
But because she’d had too much wine, and because she’d admitted that she wasn’t quite steady tonight, he allowed himself only to touch her face as he brushed back a strand of hair from her cheek.
He wanted to tell her that he was a pretty good listener, if she wanted to talk, but he didn’t think she would respond to that just now. It was obvious that she didn’t want to talk about whatever had brought her here, which he could certainly understand. But he wanted to do something to make her feel better.
“I was serious about wanting to go on a hike with you,” he said, keeping his tone casual. “It sounds like fun. How about tomorrow morning? I can’t put the furniture back on the deck until afternoon at the earliest, so I don’t have a lot to do tomorrow. Unless you have something you would rather do?”
Her mouth twitched a little, as if his somewhat pointed question had hit home. “No, not really,” she admitted after a moment. “A hike could be fun.”
He hoped his smile didn’t look smug, but he was pleased that she had accepted his invitation. “I’ll see you in the morning, then. I’ll pick you up at nine o’clock?”
She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
He brushed her cheek with his hand again, not to tuck back her hair this time, but simply to enjoy the feel of her soft skin. “Let your problems go for a while,” he said lightly. “Have some fun. You’ll know what to do when it’s time.”
Her eyes narrowed and she pulled back. “What do you mean? You haven’t been talking about me behind my back, have you?”
Giving an exaggerated sigh, he shook his head. “I know nothing about you that you haven’t told me yourself, or that I haven’t observed while I’ve been with you. I can just tell that something is causing you stress. I hope you can leave it behind tomorrow and have a little fun.”
She looked at him a moment longer, then gave a rather weary-looking smile and said, “Thanks. I’ll try.”
He caught just a hint of the dimples at the corners of her mouth. Just enough to make him want to see them again.
He cleared his throat and forced himself to move away from her before he forgot that he was trying to be a gentleman. “Okay then, see you in the morning.”
“Good night, Casey.”
“Good night.” Hearing the door close behind him, he moved thoughtfully toward his truck. So maybe the evening had almost ended awkwardly, thanks to his poorly timed advice to her. But he would be seeing Natalie again in the morning.
That prospect made him feel just a little too eager for his own peace of mind.
Natalie yanked on the laces of her left hiking boot with a bit more force than necessary, tying them tightly enough to cut off the circulation in her foot. And then she loosened them a little because her self-recriminations didn’t extend to inflicting actual pain.It wasn’t that she was annoyed with herself for agreeing to go hiking with Casey. Though it had been a while since she’d been, she liked to hike. And she was the first to admit that she needed to get out of the cabin, spend a day doing something else, getting some fresh air, trying to clear her mind. Casey would be an entertaining companion, the pleasant diversion she had acknowledged needing and which he didn’t seem to mind providing.
What really irked her about last night was that she had been so out of control of her emotions that she’d allowed Casey to see that she was wrestling with a problem. She’d let herself drink too much, something she almost never did, and apparently her unguarded expressions had given away much more than she had intended. She must have looked pathetic. Casey hadn’t asked her any personal questions, but he’d made it clear that he’d noticed her behavior and that he was sympathetic, if not outright curious.
She wondered why he hadn’t kissed her when he left, when they both knew he had wanted to.
Shaking her head impatiently, she put thoughts of kissing Casey out of her mind. For now.
She could only hope he wouldn’t start asking questions today. She wouldn’t lie to him, but she didn’t want to talk about what had happened, either. Even though she suspected that he would be a very good listener. And she couldn’t help being curious about him and what he was running from back in Dallas.
For their outing, she wore a long-sleeve white pullover with a high-necked, half-zip front, slim navy hiking pants, a quilted red vest and mid-height hiking boots. Her hair was too short for a ponytail, but she’d topped it with a red baseball cap to keep it out of her face. The weather was predicted to be cool, in the low 60s. It would be even cooler in the higher elevations, so she had tried to dress appropriately.
Ready a little early, she decided to try to call Beecham again. Because of the one-hour time difference, it was quite early in Nashville, but she didn’t care if she woke him. She needed to know that he, at least, was making some progress while she whiled away the morning with Casey.
Expecting his voice mail again, she was pleased when he answered, instead. “Rand Beecham,” he said briskly, as if he’d been up for hours.
Because she had no doubt that he’d checked his caller ID before answering, she wasn’t particularly impressed. “It’s Natalie Lofton,” she said, anyway. “I haven’t heard from you in several days. What have you found out?”
