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“I would have had to drag her.”
“Wow. Are the picnics that bad?”
“No.” He chuckled. “She hasn’t left the house in years. Even her doctor comes to her.”
That caught her attention, and she turned back to face him. “So when you said stealing her might be the only way to get her out…”
“Yeah, I meant it. She’s terrified of the outside world. Ever since Dad…”
Wow. What would it feel like to be afraid of the outside world? Her mother had reacted to losing Gabe by chasing life. What if she’d chosen to hide instead? Sofia had a hard time picturing her mother hiding from anything, but wasn’t that exactly what she’d done herself? She could tell herself that she’d stepped into the office to help out and gotten stuck, but she hadn’t done anything to get unstuck either, before this whole TV thing. She’d spent three years hiding from life. It had been safe, but safe wasn’t enough anymore.
“I get that. The world seemed like a pretty scary place after Gabe died, too.”
She turned away again, afraid of sharing too much, opening too many dark closets. Instead she opened the door in front of her. His bedroom. Seeing his large bed covered by a smooth expanse of navy blue comforter, just begging to be messed up, took her mind down a much more pleasurable path. She slammed the door shut before she got herself lost in the forest. Didn’t the story with the wolf warn of straying from the path? But oh how she longed to step into temptation and let herself be taken…
His voice in her ear startled her.
“You seemed to handle it pretty well.”
Handle what well? What had they been talking about?Gabe. Right.That pulled her back into harsh reality fast enough. She moved back toward the safety of the living room.
“Did I? I’m glad it looked that way from the outside. Inside, it’s been a bit of a dumpster fire for the last three years.”
“Hey, didn’t you want to shower?” He stood poised on the threshold of the bathroom she’d skipped.
She froze. Should she? Shouldn’t she? She absolutely wanted to wash off the layers of product she was covered in. She peeked inside the doorway and saw the most tempting shower she’d ever seen, but the idea of getting naked anywhere near Adrian made her gut clench. “Um, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Your choice. I need to take one quick, because I’m filthy. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable on the couch, and I’ll be right out.”
Sofia took her beer and sat on the couch, which conveniently left her with a view of the bathroom door. She would like to say that she didn’t picture Adrian naked in the shower, hot water sluicing over his fine body. She would love to claim that she didn’t think of all the ways she’d like to get him filthy, before she helped him get clean. But she wouldn’t lie, especially not to herself. She might not know how she felt about his interest in her, but her own interests were shockingly clear. When he emerged from the shower with a skimpy white towel wrapped around his waist, she nearly swallowed her tongue. Drops of water still clung to his bare arms and shoulders, and she was dying of thirst.
Needing a minute to pull herself together, she ducked into the bathroom he’d just left. His scent in the steam filled her head and made her dizzy. Her reaction to him was potent, but it wasn’t her reaction she was worried about. She borrowed his shower soap and scrubbed her face clean. It took some effort to get the thick makeup off.
When she’d succeeded and her own pink face stared back at her in the mirror she almost wished she hadn’t. The woman staring back at her looked far too vulnerable, but she didn’t want to hide behind a pretty mask anymore. If she was going to take a chance on him, he needed to see the real her. No makeup was a good first step. If he backed away now, it would hurt but she’d be able to recover.
When she came back out, she found him in the kitchen. He was wearing those damn gray sweatpants that made her mouth water, and a white T-shirt. He was bent over, pulling a foil-wrapped package out of the freezer, and she tried and failed to not stare at his ass. He unwrapped the foil and tossed the contents on a plate and into the microwave.
“Tamales.”
“Huh?” She looked up to meet his smiling eyes.
“I’ve got tamales for dinner, if that’s okay.”
“Sounds great.”
“So besides the show making things crazy, how are things at work?”
Sofia sat down on the couch, and Adrian took the opposite end. It seemed he really was looking to get to know her better. She didn’t know what it said that she was a little disappointed by that. “It leaves much to be desired.”
“How so? You’ve done a great job taking over for your mom as office manager when she needed to step back. I think most days you are the glue holding that place together.”
“Yeah, but Gabe was supposed to be the glue. I took responsibility because there was no one else who could. I’m the oldest now…” Her voice thickened and cracked, but she bit back the tears. “I never wanted this. Three years of all work and no play. Between work and being sad, I haven’t managed to have much of a life.”
“No play?”
“Nothing beyond a few lackluster first dates. But that isn’t the worst part. I was doing all this so I’d have a chance to chase my dream. I miss design so much. It’s all been a dead-end. Finally, with this show I have a chance to get back to that. So even if I have to keep working crazy hours to hold it all together, I will.” She peeled the yellow paper label off her bottle, worrying it into little balls.
“I had no idea you hated the office side so much.”
