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She brought her knees up and hugged them to her chest.
Great.
She was a teacher and her brother was a teacher. It became more and more obvious that she was way too smart for a guy like him.
Maybe that should have been a turn-off, but he was never one for being predictable. Instead, he found himself battling his intense attraction.
Funny, smart, kind, beautiful.
Never had he been so aware of a woman’spresence. She filled the room, the entire loft.
Is this what celibacy did? Heightened his other senses?
Because it was intense.
He liked it.
“What about you?” She asked. “Tell me one of your scandals.”
“Ah, I have so many, you see.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Did your last girlfriend really burn down your house?” she asked.
“She really did,” Dave confirmed. “But that wasn’t her fault.”
Sabine stared at him. “How?”
“Some people have a hard time with what my life entails.”
Sabine narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
“Nora…” He stopped and thought how best to tell the story. He didn’t like how Nora kept getting blamed like she was crazy. She wasn’t crazy. She made a terrible decision and now she was paying for it.
He sighed. “What you need to know about Nora is that we met at a party. I was already very drunk, so was she.” Heat spread up his neck because this was not going to make him look good. But for whatever reason, he trusted Sabine to not hate him for it. “She was super hot and I wanted to kiss her. So I did. We were both very intense and it all moved very fast. She lives her life on social media. It’s literally her job. So when she saw pictures of me hugging someone in New York, she assumed the worst. It didn’t help that it was the first time I’d taken a trip without her. She saw the photos and called me.” He grimaced. “I didn’t handle the call well. I got very defensive and definitely said some things I shouldn’t have. She hung up on me. And it made me mad, so I didn’t call her back.” He licked his lips. “I probably should have called her back.”
“Did you cheat on her?” Sabine asked softly.
“No.” Dave worried his bottom lip. “But truth is boring. It doesn’t sell. And some people can’t distinguish between something that is sensationalized and reality. It wasn’t her fault. She got caught up in an industry she couldn’t begin to handle. Those photos were everywhere. Everyone was saying that I was cheating. Everyone.”
“Are you seriously blaming yourself for a woman burning your house down?” she asked, incredulous.
“I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Nora was a sweetheart. She didn’t ask to have her heart dragged through the court of public opinion. If it had been true—which it wasn’t—she’d have every right to burn my shit to the ground.”
Sabine listened, inhaled slowly, and folded her hands on top of her knees.
“As noble as it is of you to defend her, she made her own choices too.”
His lips twitched. “Now you sound like Leslie.”
She arched a single eyebrow.
“Hey, not to change the subject but I have a question.” He took a breath. He hadn’t realized he was going to do this until the moment was upon him.
Oh shit. His hands were shaking.
“Have you ever tutored an adult?”
Her eyes softened and heknewshe had figured it out.
