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Matthew used the pad of his thumb to wipe the dollop of mustard away from the corner of her mouth. Bringing the thumb to his mouth, he licked it off. “A man who wants to live forever would be lonely without a fishing buddy by his side.”
Alanna blinked at him. Matthew could see she wasn’t ready to believe what he ached to tell her.
“But I hate fishing.”
“We could do other things than fishing,” he suggested.
Matthew saw her throat move under her fair skin.
“Like what?”
“I can teach you how to play with fire.”
Chapter Sixteen
God, help me.She had never wanted to fan her heated face more in her life. Sitting next to Matthew after seeing him shirtless at his shop was a trial in endurance. Wanting to take the towel and wipe the sweat away from his chest …
When she had walked inside and saw both shirtless men, she had no difficulty keeping her eyes off Isaac while Matthew’s bare chest had drawn her gaze like a magnet.
Both men were handsome, had almost similar hair color. Matthew wore his closely cropped, while Isaac’s dark-brown was much longer and tied back. Matthew was taller than Isaac, while Isaac was stockier.
Women in her real estate office would be using their manicured nails to scratch each other’s eyes out if they came in to buy a house. Hell, they would probably hand their own home over.
The main difference between them was the way Matthew made her feel. She had never been attracted to a man the way she was to him. That was the main problem with her—she had never been truly attracted to a man before. When she had dateda single father after moving to Ohio, she hadn’t moved past a few dates when it became plain she could not reciprocate his burgeoning feelings for her, and couldn’t give him the smallest intimacy, such as a small kiss, without recoiling.
Far from recoiling, she wanted to wind herself around Matthew’s body until he would need pliers to peel her off him.
Realizing she had been staring at him like a lovesick teenager, she raised her bandaged hand. “I tried playing with fire and got burned.”
“You can’t live your life afraid of pain. I hear childbirth involves a lot of pain. Women still have children. I burned myself numerous times when I started working with fire. The shop I have now is the third one. The other two burnt down. You learn to minimize the pain and move on. That’s why women have more than one kid, and I built my last shop of out of metal.”
“I love how you compare losing your shop to childbirth. If men gave birth, humankind would cease to exist.”
“I can’t argue about that. Dad made us boys watch a video of a woman giving birth.” Matthew hung his head. “I think it emotionally scarred Jody,” he whispered, as if sharing a family secret.
Alanna tore another bite off her sandwich then handed the rest to him. “I must have seen the same film.” She laughed “Made me feel better about not having any.”
Matthew’s smile vanished.
She laid her bandaged hand down on his. “It’s okay. I learned to deal with the knowledge since I was thirteen.”
“That’s a young age to find out something like that.”
Alanna looked over at the small pond that Matthew had told her was created by run-off from a mountain stream.
“Could have been worse.” She shrugged. “I could have not known then been blindsided when I was ready to start a family.” Turning her eyes back to face him, Alanna caught the tormentedexpression on his face. “Hey, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have told you. I don’t know why I did. I’ve never told anyone, not even my foster mother.”
Matthew rewrapped what was left of his sandwich. “Alanna …”
“I made you lose your appetite.” She couldn’t explain why she suddenly felt teary-eyed, as if she had stolen something precious from him. Alanna shook her head to clear her thoughts. “We were having fun. I didn’t mean to spoil the good time we were enjoying.”
“You couldn’t spoil a second of time I get to spend with you.”
Flushing, she removed her hand from covering his. “Did Silas tell you that Ginny won’t get to her shopping tomorrow?” Alanna didn’t give him time to answer. “I won’t be needing you to go to my home to get my things. What Mrs. Bates gave me is more than enough to get me through. I asked one of the women I work with at the real estate company to pack up my personal belongings and put them in storage, and sell the rest, including my house.”
“Silas told me. So, you’re selling your house?”
“Yes, I only moved to Ohio because I was getting away from a bad situation. When my court case is over, I’ll either be in prison or I can go wherever I want to live.”
