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Chapter Thirteen
Ted could literally not remember the last woman he’d kissed. And it didn’t matter who she was, because as he kissed Emma, he never wanted to kiss anyone else. He seemed to know what he was doing, because she broke the kiss for a moment, took a breath, and kissed him again.
He threaded his fingers through her hair, and then cradled her face in his hands. He simply couldn’t get enough of her, and he knew it wasn’t because he craved the human touch. He’d spent the day with his family, and he’d hugged his mother at least a dozen times. He’d strolled around the ranch hand-in-hand with his nieces. His sister had linked arms with him while he took them out to the river in the trees.
He’d gotten his fill of the human touch he’d been deprived of for so long.
This was something else. Ted wasn’t sure what, but it felt like something good.
He finally had the good sense to pull away, and he struggled to breathe as his pulse bounced in his chest. Emma sighed and fell back a step, finally opening her eyes. He looked at her, unsure of what to say to a woman after he’d kissed her.
“Is she still here?” Ginger asked, and not a moment later, she entered the front room. “Oh, good, Emma. I need to talk to you for just a second.”
Emma held Ted’s gaze for another moment and then she turned back to Ginger. “Yeah?”
Ginger glanced over her shoulder to Ted. “Sorry, Ted, it’ll just be a moment, I swear.”
“Take your time,” he said, moving over to the couch he’d sat on before. It was comfortable enough, but this whole room smelled like dust. The women obviously didn’t use it much, and a vein of stupidity moved through him for coming to the front door to pick up Emma as if their relationship was traditional.
It wasn’t, and he knew that.
He’d wanted to ask her about her time in college, and if that was when she’d met Robert Knight, but he’d been enjoying their morning and evening strolls so much, and he didn’t want to put tension between them or add to her stress level.
So he hadn’t brought it up.You can tonight, he told himself as the moment stretched into a minute.
Emma returned a couple of minutes later, an apology on her lips.
“No problem,” he said, taking her hand and leading her out the front door. She’d drive them to town, because Ted didn’t actually have a driver’s license or a vehicle.
“So,” he said as he buckled his seat belt. “Where did you go to college?”
She whipped her head toward him, and Ted saw the nerves in her expression. “Oh, uh, Texas A&M.”
The warmth in him turned icy. “Emma,” he said as she started to back up. “Maybe we shouldn’t go to dinner.”
“What?” She pressed on the brake and stopped the car. “Why not?”
“Because you just lied to me,” he said, swinging his attention out his window. “Five minutes after I kissed you.”
A few seconds passed, and she asked, “If I tell you the truth, can we go to dinner?”
“I didn’t realize we needed to negotiate to tell the truth.” He looked at her, lifting his eyebrows. “I’m not going to judge you.”
“Oh, yes, you will.” She put the car in drive and started down the lane toward the bridge.
“I just don’t want to be lied to.”
“Fine,” she said, as if he’d asked her to do something really hard. “I won’t lie to you.”
Ted wasn’t sure why she wanted to go to dinner if he upset her so much. He told himself that he hadn’t upset her—she was upset with herself.
“I went to UT Austin,” he said. “I studied economics and business before I went to law school.” And it all felt like it had happened to someone else. Someone Ted no longer was and who he no longer knew.
Emma gripped the wheel and looked both ways before turning onto the highway. Ted couldn’t help sweeping his gaze left and right, right and left, trying to take everything in. The trees, the curves in the road, just all of it.
“Could we go to the beach sometime?” he asked. “You know what? Never mind. I want to go to the beach on the first day I’m really free.”
“You’re free.”
