AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ve got thirty to forty minutes until they’re here,” he answered, taking the water I held out to him.
With Wyatt on one end of the couch, I moved to the opposite end. I was a strong woman, and I didn’t believe I’d experience some form of body betrayal, but I didn’t think it was worth the risk. If I intended to remain firm in my resolve to turn down any offers he might make with regard to my family’s farm, it wasn’t going to help to have his scent invading my senses.
I could give the man credit—he was handsome, successful, and smelled incredible. It was entirely understandable how a woman—one who didn’t have my experiences or mindset—could easily be convinced to do something she normally wouldn’t simply because Wyatt was the one urging her to do it.
“That’s great. Thank you for ordering,” I told him.
He smiled at me. “It was my pleasure.”
The next thing I knew, we were sitting there, staring at one another, in complete silence. It seemed our morning runs together had taught us how to do this well. But where our runs made it easier to ignore the silence, especially since my focus was supposed to be on where I was running and not on Wyatt, this was the opposite.
I felt myself beginning to squirm as the tension mounted between us. Wyatt looked as though he had quite a few thoughts racing through his mind and wasn’t entirely sure where to begin.
Then a thought popped into my head.
Wyatt had shown up here tonight, prepared to take me out to dinner. Though I felt like I’d just had this sort of sprung on me at the last minute, the reality was that Wyatt didn’t exactly have much time to prepare.
Because if he’d spent any time between last night and the minute he showed up at my door, attempting to prepare for our date, he’d likely done it based on whatever conversations we’d had last night.
For that reason, I believed it was my responsibility to figure out what those conversations were about.
“It terrifies me to think about what you might reveal, but I think we should probably start at the beginning,” I said, breaking the silence. “Would you mind sharing what we talked about last night?”
“Of course, but I don’t think you have any reason to feel terrified,” he returned. “It wasn’t anything that serious.”
That was a relief. “Okay. That’s good to know. So, how did we wind up agreeing to have a date?”
Wyatt smiled at me, which made me feel even more relaxed. Then he shared, “Well, at first, you accused me of following you again, which I’ll just say now, was not what happened. I’d met my brother out for a bit last night, and I guess I was just lucky to see you there as I was getting ready to leave.”
Lucky.
He thought he was lucky to see me there.
I wondered if that was because we’d managed to have some kind of friendly conversation, or if it was because he believed he was one step closer to getting what he wanted.
“Fair enough. What happened next?”
“After I asked, you told me you were there celebrating your birthday, and you made me promise not to tell anyone that you’re now twenty-six,” he informed me, his lips twitching with amusement. “Since I’d asked that question and you answered, you then wanted to ask a question of your own.”
My brows knit together. “What did I ask?”
Wyatt hesitated, his eyes roaming over my face in a way I believed he was attempting to discern how I might react to learning what I’d asked him. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he said, “You asked me why I was no longer interested in having dinner with you.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Obviously, I was honest and told you that you’d already turned dinner down. Then you went on to tell me about how your friends who were with you last night attempted to urge you to have dinner with me, so I could plead my case, even if they didn’t think you should genuinely consider accepting any offer I might make.”
“I told you all of that?” I questioned him, horrified I’d been so forthcoming.
“Yep. And although you’d assured me you hadn’t changed your mind about having dinner with me or my ability to be able to convince you to accept an offer, I could see you were struggling with something. You told me you were confused by my motives. You wanted to know why I was running with you every day if I didn’t have any intention of asking you to dinner.”
Maybe this was the time to tell him the truth. “I went out to dinner with my friends before we wound up there last night. And I told them how I’d been struggling to understand why you continued to run with me if you didn’t intend to talk to me.”
Wyatt tipped his head to the side. “Does it bother you that we don’t talk while we’re running together?”
“It didn’t bother me at first,” I confessed.
“Now it does?”
