Page 129 of Tell Me Something True

His eyes, the same bright blue as the sky, searched hers. “What’re you afraid of?”

How dare he ask her something so stupid, so inane, in that husky tone while standing this close to her?

The utter gall!

“Uh… how about everything?” She pursed her lips as if thinking that through. Nodded. “Yep. Everything.”

Surprise flashed in his eyes before he frowned again, but it was different than his usual scowls, glowers, and glares. Less angry and more confused. Then he shook his head and, still using that enticing low tone, gave her a soft and succinct, “Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“That night you put your car in the ditch—”

“I didn’t put it in a ditch. I accidentally went off the road to avoid hitting your dog.”

“—you walked up to my place, alone, in the dark, and then got in my face when I wouldn’t help you.”

With a sniff of disdain, she crossed her arms. “Well, you were very rude.”

“You went around town, asking people for my number—”

“I asked two people,” she grumbled, face heating as she remembered the humiliating lengths she’d gone to just to get his number. She was sure she didn’t look nearly as adorable as he did when he blushed. “Three. Tops.”

“—all so you could text me—”

She tossed her hands into the air. “So I could send you a thank you card!”

Which, technically, she’d never done, but that had been the reason.

And he was back to smirking, this time knowingly, because she was obviously so full of bullshit just like he’d just claimed. “You stand up.”

Frowning, she glanced down at herself. “I am standing up.”

His lips twitched as if her being confused by this long, loopy conversational ride he was taking her on was sooo funny.

“You stand up for other people,” he clarified. “You did it for Tabitha when your cop brother showed up at her apartment. You did it for me when he found us on the road that night and again, when your nephew asked if he was going to arrest me.”

His words sounded a little close to praise for her liking. Had her warming when she needed to remain cool.

“While this trip down memory lane has been fun, I’m afraid I’ve completely lost the thread of whatever conversation we were having. If you have something to say, you’re going to have to actually say it.”

He stood there, mouth a thin line, lips zipped.

“Okay, then,” she said, telling herself she wasn’t the least bit disappointed. “Guess we’re done here.”

This time, when she went to brush past him, he let her.

“You’re brave.”

Whirling around, she wrapped both hands around her phone, pressed it against her chest, her heart beating a little too fast, a lot unsteadily. “What?”

“You’re brave,” he repeated, once again taking the initiative and the steps needed to close the distance between them, his gaze glittering with some emotion she refused to define. “You’re so fucking brave. Brave enough to stand up for people. Brave enough to call people out on their crap. Brave enough to apologize when you’re wrong. Brave enough,” he continued, his voice going gravely, “to say the things you did to me that night at the lake.”

Swallowing, she dropped her gaze to his stubble covered chin. “Don’t.”

But Reed Walsh never did as he was told.

And she was completely messed up, because that was one of the things she liked best about him.

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