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The silence stretched between us for quite some time. In fact, she remained quiet for so long that I thought she either fell asleep or didn’t intend to respond. But then I looked down, saw that she was not only awake but was also looking up at me.
As soon as she had my eyes on hers, she confessed, “Tom is a bad guy, and a really big mistake.”
He had to be her ex-boyfriend.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. I wasted years on a man who wouldn’t ever take care of me like this when I was sick, and who left me alone on the holidays, so he could spend it with his family. If I had known it would be like that, I never would have married him.”
My body tensed beneath hers.
She was married to Tom. The only issue was that I didn’t know if she was still married and just separated, or if she’d gotten divorced.
“Is that why you moved here?” I asked her, hoping I wasn’t going to make her clam up and stop talking.
She nodded. “My best friend, Waverly, urged me to get divorced and insisted I move here to find a man who would know my worth and always have my back. I don’t understand how she knew.”
“Knew what?”
Dakota tipped her chin a little higher, focused her eyes on mine, and said, “That you existed.”
I couldn’t help myself. I lifted my hand to the side of her face, brushed the hair back, and allowed my hand to settle at the back of her skull. “I’m sorry for how he treated you.”
She offered a small smile, looked away, and pressed her cheek back into my chest.
It didn’t even take a full two minutes for her to drift off.
And as she slept, wrapped up in my arms again, I made myself a promise. I wasn’t going to let this woman think that I wasn’t the man her friend believed she’d find here.
No matter what it took, I was going to get Dakota to trust me, and I was going to show her how a real man treated a good woman.
Because if there was one thing I knew, it was that if I wanted this with Dakota, I could have it. I just needed her to realize that I was a guy she could take a chance on.
TEN
Dakota
The moment my eyes opened, I knew I’d made it to the other side.
For the first time in days, I felt like a human again. And I had a feeling that once I managed to take a shower, I was going to feel even better.
I was in my bed, a place I couldn’t remember walking myself to last night. Then, I remembered shivering on the couch and Jack holding me in his arms to warm me up. Beyond that, I remembered nothing, but I was certain he’d carried me into my room and put me in my bed.
I knew that was the truth without even having to ask, because I was in a bed that he’d changed the sheets on. I was there after he’d held me in his arms while I shivered, doing that after he’d made me something to eat.
He was a dream of a man.
Considering I was looking around my empty room now, I had to wonder if I’d been sleeping for so long that I’d dreamt him up.
That would be my luck.
Or, maybe the opposite would be my luck.
Maybe it all really did happen, and I’d have to live knowing that someone so unbelievably wonderful existed that I couldn’t have.
I took in a deep breath and sighed.
After giving myself another minute to recall just how sweet Jack had been, I decided it was time to get up. Just as I sat up in the bed, there was a gentle knock on the bedroom door before it opened.
