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His lips twitched, and I wondered if it was because he was thinking of whatever happened between him and Tarryn that would result in her giving him doughnuts.
“Tarryn’s married to Royce, the owner of Harper Security Ops,” he revealed. “He usually stops in here before he heads into work, but I guess he didn’t this morning, so she’s sending the goodies with me.”
My eyes widened. “Oh. Oh, Tarryn’s not your ex-girlfriend?”
Yep. That was what I said.
At that point, I was seriously considering if I should have reached out to Patrick, told him where I was, and let him come and shoot me on the spot. I was mortified.
Kane tipped his head to the side and something strange washed over his face. I couldn’t read it, and since I was far too humiliated, I needed to do something to make sure he didn’t share whatever he was thinking.
“I’m sorry,” I lamented. “That was rude of me. I just… well, I saw you walk in, and you seemed very friendly with her. I just assumed you knew her in a more… intimate way.”
Kane continued to stare at me, his expression befuddled and slightly amused.
“I’m not making this any better,” I mumbled. “What I meant to say is—”
That was all I got out before I felt Kane’s hand curl around mine. Until his hand was there, I hadn’t realized how much I was trembling.
This man had such a profound effect on me, and judging by the look on his face, I was starting to think that he was noticing.
“It’s alright, Ellery,” he said softly. “I understand what you meant, and I’m not offended. You’re actually very observant.”
I wanted to focus on the intimate and sweet gesture. He’d touched me before during training, but this was different. This was something he was doing to help settle and calm me down.
As much as I wanted to concentrate on his gentle touch and the way it made me feel, I put all of my effort into his words. “I’m observant?”
He nodded. “Yes. I know Tarryn well, not simply because she’s married to Royce. In fact, I knew her before she and Royce even started seeing one another, because she was coming in to Harper Security Ops for self-defense training. So, you’re right. We do have a bit of a friendship as opposed to just being acquaintances. The fact that you noticed that is just an indication that you’ll do well in situations where you need to be diligent about understanding your surroundings and the people around you.”
That was wonderful to hear, and I was glad that Kane was finding a way to make this not feel so awkward for me.
“Thanks,” I said.
He allowed his hand to rub back and forth over my hand two or three times before he gave it another squeeze and pulled it away. If things had been different for me, I might have begged him to give it back. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
“So, what are your plans today?” he asked. “Doing anything fun?”
“I’m having a game night with my friend, Hanna, tonight, but that’s about it,” I told him. “What about you?”
“Teaching class,” he replied.
“Do you work a lot of evenings?” I asked.
Kane shrugged. “A fair amount. Doing what I do, it’s kind of a necessity to work a few evenings a week. A lot of our clients aren’t able to come for training in the morning or afternoon, so the evening and weekend classes give them an opportunity to take advantage of the services we offer at a time that’s convenient for them.”
“That makes sense,” I replied. “Do you find that you get bored of it?”
“Nope. I love what I do, and I like knowing that it’s helping people. Plus, with all the guys that work there, we manage to switch things up enough to keep it interesting and fresh all the time,” he returned.
“How many guys do you work with?” I questioned him.
He grinned at me, and it was at that moment that I realized just how nosy I was being. The thing was, I’d never had this. I’d never really had the opportunity to talk to a guy like this. Yes, I talked to Patrick, but that was mostly out of necessity. I rarely ever wanted to talk to him.
It was different with Kane. I found that I wanted to know more about him, the work he did, and the people in his life. And being able to have just a small taste of it now was really, really nice.
“How much time do you have?” he countered.
I smiled back at him and surprised myself when I answered, “I’m in no rush.”
