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Sadie’s smile grew.
“Yes!” Hattie cheered. “I knew it! I saw the look.”
Wolf couldn’t deny he had been looking, and dreaming, but he wasn’t about to admit to it.
“It is very nice to meet you, Sadie and Hattie,” he said, wanting to get Sadie alone and flirt a whole lot more, get to know her, see where she lived and if there was any hope of seeing her after today.
No. The nightmare with his dad cheating was too raw and overshadowing every thought right now.
It all made sense, now, why his dad had been happy two years ago when Wolf hadn’t made it back from a harrowing assignment in time to walk down the aisle. Leaving a woman waiting next to a preacher in a chapel in a white dress in front of all of their friends and family was not good form. To make it even worse, his dad had told him he was ‘just like him’ and could never settle down to just one woman. Not knowing at the time his dad was a pathetic excuse of a man, Wolf had assumed his dad was saying Alecia wasn’t the right one. He’d broken things off with her.
Luckily he was tough, well-trained, and his four brothers had his back. When Alecia’s brothers and cousins attacked him they were going for blood and pain. They might’ve killed him. He’d enjoyed that fight a lot, but the reason for it had been tragic. He knew now he and Alecia wouldn’t have been great together and he didn’t love her, but listening to his dad’s advice all his life had messed with his head. He didn’t want to be in that position with a woman, or hurt someone he cared about that deeply, ever again.
Which is why he needed to get his head on straight. Right now.
Thankfully he was leaving and wouldn’t have a chance to get to know the appealing Sadie, breaking her heart in the end. Less than twenty-four hours and he’d be wheels up on his way to Virginia Beach on a Navy transport. Then who knew where his SEAL unit’s next assignment would be? Far from Texas and beautiful, sweet Sadie, that was a guarantee.
“What’s your name?” Sadie rushed out.
“Wolf.” He extended his hand.
She slid her hand against his. He clasped her much smaller palm in his and at that moment he lost all resolve to stay detached and he also lost some needed brain cells.
Was this what heaven felt like? Warmth and sparkle and happiness and connection. His body leaned toward her without him even consciously realizing it. She was a magnet and he was a helpless piece of metal hurtling toward her. He’d never known he could feel so ecstatic, so dazed by a pure, shining woman, simply holding her hand in his and staring in a trance into her beautiful blue eyes.
He could’ve stood there all day. He forgot about her plus one.
“This is enchanting. I feel like I’m in the middle of the best romcom every produced.” Hattie rubbed her hands together. “Ooh! I’m so happy right now!”
Wolf released Sadie’s hand and stepped back. Severing the connection helped him regain his sanity, but it didn’t eradicate her magnetism. His body was drawn to her and he was filled with an unearthly desire to be close to her. A draw like this had never happened, not even with Alecia who he’d once believed he wanted to marry.
He hated the disappointment that flickered in Sadie’s eyes, hated it as much as every time he hugged his mama goodbye. Disappointment was better than the pain that would be there if he allowed this insane connection to continue to grow. He didn’t think this desire was from heaven and feared it was born of being ‘just like his dad’.
“Wolf is really your name?” Hattie planted her hands on her hips and gave him a challenging look. She would not tolerate him breaking her cousin’s heart. That made two of them.
“Yes, ma’am it is.” He didn’t need them to know his real name. It was personal enough at this point. If he shared the name that only his mama called him, the name he now despised as he shared it with his unfaithful father, that would be a level of trust he couldn’t afford.
“Did your mama not like you?” Hattie demanded to know.
Wolf laughed at that. “The blame for that one does not lie at my mama’s feet.” He studied Sadie, wishing he could tell her his real name. “I have to go,” he admitted. “Nice to meet you both.”
It was harder than not ringing the bell during Hell Week to pull his eyes from Sadie and pivot the other direction.
“Meet us at Coco Beach Restaurant at seven, and bring a friend,” Hattie demanded.
Wolf glanced back. The sun rose at that moment, lighting Sadie’s face like a vision from heaven.
How could he not agree to meet her? More time with her was all he wanted. He couldn’t say that he’d ever craved more time with a woman. Alecia had been a lot of fun, until the relationship became a huge burden. He’d never craved her.
What an intense word, craved. It fit so perfectly as he stared into Sadie’s blue eyes. This woman, the longing to be with her was a physical and emotional wrench. Dang the magnetic pull. He wasn’t sure how to fight against it.
But Wolf knew … momentary pleasures were there and gone, then somebody had to pay the piper. His mama with tears streaming down her face as he held her and told her what he’d seen. He shuddered.
Sadie would be hurt in the long run if he let himself fall for her. Until he figured out how to not be like his dad, he had to stay away from all women. Even this seemingly-perfect one.
“I’ll try,” he managed to get out.
Would he? He stupidly might, if he couldn’t forget the way she looked right now, an angelic, irresistible sweetheart.
