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The man was muscle from head to toe, and she’d seen him soften before. She really wanted him to back down now too, because then she’d feel powerful and strong. At the same time, her eyes dropped to his mouth, and wow. That was what power and strength looked like.
She yanked her eyes back to his, and even through the lenses on his glasses, they fired at her. “Or stared at,” she added.
“I wasn’t staring,” he said.
“You’ve been here for at least five minutes,” Rosalie said, lifting her chin. “And have said twenty words.”
“You know what?” Lee asked, but he didn’t finish his challenge. He simply growled—yes, growled—and spun around. He stalked the three steps to the door and went out onto the sidewalk. As the glass door swung closed behind him, Rosalie’s heartbeat shook through her veins.
He yelled something as he got in his truck and slammed the door. Rosalie stayed very still, wondering why she wanted him to come back inside. He reminded her of a feral cat—skittish, unsure, but oh-so-wounded. She wanted to help all the strays in her neighborhood, and she couldn’t help wondering if Lee had strayed into this part of Sweet Water Falls specifically so she could see him.
She sure had been thinking about him a lot. She’d almost called him after he’d gotten the second disk to make sure it worked. At the very least, she’d wanted to make sure he’d gotten it from his brother. Deep down, Rosalie knew both of those were covers simply to interact with Handsome again.
Lee didn’t pull out, and Rosalie turned away from the door. Her legs shook as she returned to her desk. She still had some work to do, but it would be there waiting for her tomorrow. It always was.
She bent to get her purse from the bottom drawer, and she dialed Natasha while her eyes darted back to the front windows. Handsome’s old, rusted truck still sat outside, and Rosalie wasn’t sure she wanted to leave all of a sudden.
“Rosie,” Natasha said in her thick tongue. “You’re working?”
“Yes,” Rosalie said. “Always working.” She wiped her hand through her hair, but her fingers always got caught in her curls. She wasn’t one of those women with the perfectly straight hair that shone like sunlight off snowfall. She’d been trying to grow out her curls, but they never made it much further than her shoulders.
“Mom says I can come visit this weekend,” Natasha said, and that made Rosalie smile. “She said I have to ask you first.”
“This weekend is great,” Rosalie said, already feeling tired. But just like she couldn’t say no to Autumn, she wouldn’t deny her autistic sister her first trip to the beach. At least this year. “Maybe you could come stay with me this summer.”
Rosalie had an extra bedroom, and Autumn loved Nat. James was gone, and why not? Rosalie didn’t have anything else going on in her life. Her parents might enjoy the break, and Nat would get to go to the beach every day. Truth be told, Rosalie could use a beach day every week too.
“Don’t tell her things you can’t do.” Mom’s voice came through the line, the Jersey accent still thick though she’d lived in Texas for almost three decades.
“I’m not, Mom,” Rosalie said, smiling as she pictured her mother. They had the same curls, and Rosalie loved her parents with everything she had. “I miss you guys. Will you stay the weekend too?”
“If we can come,” Mom said.
“She said I can come,” Nat said, her argumentative tone strong.
“I know what she said,” Mom shot back. “But she really needs to think about it. So think about it, dear.”
“Okay,” Rosalie said. “I’ll check my calendar when I get home.” A quick glance toward the windows showed her that Handsome still hadn’t left. What was he waiting for? “But I don’t think there’s a conflict.”
As she watched, Handsome opened the door on his truck and got out again. Rosalie’s heartbeat went wild, and she said, “I have to go, Mom. Nat, there’s a customer coming in.”
“Text me back about that picture,” Nat said.
“She has to go,” Mom said, and the call ended just as Handsome yanked open the glass door again.
Rosalie took a moment to stuff her phone into her messy purse, and she tugged on the zipper. It wouldn’t quite slide, because she might have stopped by the store and bought Autumn a couple of packages of new underwear. Princess style, so the girl would remember to stop playing and go to the bathroom when she needed to.
Her face heated as the zipper caught on the plastic, the sound unmistakable. She abandoned the idea of closing her purse and faced Handsome.
His chest lifted and fell in the way it would had he just run a couple of miles. “Rosalie,” he said, and it sounded like a bark. “I don’t care about the game. That was just a stupid thing I said, because I couldn’t figure out how to say what I really wanted to say.”
Rosalie’s pulse fell to the soles of her feet, but she still managed to ask, “What did you want to say?”
Lee took another breath and blew it out. “My brother is gettin’ married next weekend. The fifteenth?”
Rosalie did know the date, so she nodded.
“I was wonderin’… See, the thing is, Rosalie, I’ve been thinking about you since that blasted math night months ago. Then I started thinking maybe you and I could go to the wedding together.”
