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“Who do you talk to on the phone when you sit on the back porch?”
“How often did you watch me?”
Silas’s gaze darkens as if I’m judging him. “Whenever I could.”
“I don’t know what that means. Once a week?”
“Every day, if I could. A few times, I sat out there in the rain, even though I knew you wouldn’t be outside.”
“Why?”
Silas holds my gaze as he admits, “I liked knowing you existed in the same world as me.”
His words break my heart a little. In less than twenty-four hours, Silas Bennings changed my life. He’s revealed his fearsome side, along with the softer man under his hard shell.
Though I’m fascinated by Silas, I can’t wrap my head around why he’s doing this all for me.How can I be anyone’s fantasy woman?It’s insanity!
And that’s why my heart breaks. Even at my best, I’ll come up short for Silas. He’s bound to be disappointed by the truth, and I’ll lose out on all the promises he now makes.
When I don’t speak, he returns to the calls he eavesdropped on. “I thought it was your mom.”
“No, it’s my aunt Darlie. When I ran away from home, I stayed with her for a while. She had me work and give her the money. She’s a bitch, but I have no friends. I was lonely enough to reach out, but she doesn’t care about me.”
“Why are you crying?” he asks, removing his hand.
Wiping away my tears, I look into his eyes and nearly lie. Any uplifting bullshit would be so much easier than explaining how he’s a broken, lonely man wasting his time with a loser. I’m not a great cook. I have no talents. I’m not funny. I was barely sexy five kids ago. Now, I’m just a thirty-year-old mom pretending everything will be okay as long as I don’t focus too hard on my problems.
Rather than lie, I rub my belly. “Do you like the name Brigitte?”
“No.”
I chuckle at his honesty. “What would you like better?”
“I don’t know.”
“I didn’t like the name Brooklyn when Neal brought her home. It made me think of that soccer player’s son. But I grew to love the name once I associated it with her little face.”
“I want to make them legally mine. Then, they’ll have double B names. I can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing.”
“Why don’t you wait until we’ve slept together before you go making anything legal?”
“Why?” he growls, doing his sexy snarly move again.
“You don’t know me, Silas,” I say softly. “You think I’m cold yet you want me to be warm.”
“You are warm. You just hide in your head.”
“But you only know that because I told you. We’re still strangers. You might feel like you know me, on account of the very generous stalking you’ve accomplished.”
At first, Silas grunts with disapproval at my wording. Suddenly, he smirks before startling me by chuckling.
“Ididstalk you.”
“For months, apparently.”
Silas offers me an unguarded smile. “I liked seeing you every day.”
“I worry you won’t like seeing me up close as much as you did from afar.”
