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“I don’t know, really. I guess I just like the way it wraps itself around me.”
“Like a shield?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It seems to…”
“What?”
“It…soothes me. Takes the weight away.”
“I see. That makes a lot of sense. What else do you do while you’re alone?”
Well, I jacked off a lot. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her that. It had been way too long since I’d had a woman. Even though I’d had girlfriends in the past, I’d never had what I thought was a serious relationship. Only one of us had—before Talon and Jade, that was. Ryan had been with a woman named Anna for several years, but they’d ended up calling it off.
“Sometimes I read up on ranching, agriculture.”
She laughed softly. “That’s part of your work. I’m talking about your free time. Your alone time. What do you do besides swim?”
I honestly didn’t know how to answer her. If I wasn’t swimming or sleeping, I was doing something involving the ranch, whether it was reading up on new techniques, attending a conference, or talking to my brothers or my foreman. God, had I really become so involved in my work?
“I…hang out with my brothers and sister.”
“What about friends? What about a girlfriend?”
“Talon has a group of guys he plays poker with. Ryan joins them sometimes.”
“But you don’t?”
“No. I don’t really believe in gambling.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t.”
“Why do you think that is?”
I had no idea what she was driving at with this line of questioning. “Isn’t it better not to gamble, Melanie? I mean, it can lead to addiction, right?”
“Do you think you have an addictive personality?”
This was getting way off track. “Of course not.”
“All right. I’ll move on, then. What about dating?”
Was it my imagination, or did her cheeks turn pink just a little bit at the mention of dating? “I don’t have time. Plus, I haven’t met anyone I’m interested in.” Until now, that was.
“Friendships?”
“Again, I grab a drink with some of the guys on the ranch sometimes, sometimes my brothers.”
“No one else?”
“Well, my best buddy from my childhood just came for a visit. He’s actually the cousin of one of the kids who was kill
ed back when Talon was abducted.”
“I see. So you’ve spent some time with him, then?”
“Yeah. He’s still here. He has a ten-month-old little boy who’s really cute.”
