Page 48 of Chosen

“Giving me trouble, as always,” Tiffany joked. She then nodded over to me. “And who’s this? Another satisfied customer of Wild Woods?”

Damon seemed to hesitate to answer the question, his mouth opening and closing.

And in that moment, my heart started beating so fast I thought it was going to break free of my chest and end up right on the restaurant table.

What is he hesitating about?

Is Damon wondering whether or not to tell her about us?

To tell her that I mean something more to him?

“Yep. Another satisfied customer.” Damon eventually responded.

“Well, in that case, the first round of drinks is on the house.” Tiffany beamed. “Damon, I’ll bring you two of your usual. If this guy’s a Wild Woods convert, I’m sure he’ll want the same thing.”

“Thanks, Tiffany.” Damon offered her a friendly wave goodbye, as she walked away.

I sank into my seat, my mind still racing, still focused on what had made Damon hesitate.

What would that even be like?

Me, permanently here in Roanoke, with Damon by my side. It wasn’t the worst thing to imagine, spending my days and nights surrounded by this perfect wilderness, getting used to trusting myself in nature, relying on my instincts and what I knew. I was sure there’d be more days with Damon in the woods, beautiful days where we watched deer and other critters, scary days where the rain and thunder got the best of us. Even so, I’d be grateful for the time spent with Damon, the time our fingers spent interlocked as we explored the world around us, as we explored each other, too—

No.

Seriously? What was I thinking?

Damon and I barely knew each other, no matter how much time we’d spent wrapped around each other’s bodies. There was no way that Damon was having those kind of thoughts, which meant that I was just projecting what I was feeling onto him, in a truly embarrassing way. I needed to snap back to reality and accept that whatever Damon and I had was never going to be more than a fling.

Even if a part of me wanted it to be so much more.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Damon’s words interrupted my spiraling thoughts.

He was leaning against the table, with a serious look on his face. I leaned away from him, then, terrified that he was about to confirm what I’d already been thinking, that our time spent together was just a way for him to pass the time, something to do while he was bored and stuck in a stormy cabin.

“You already have someone, don’t you?” I guessed, my breath catching in my throat. “Someone you’re on a relationship break with? Someone you actually want to be with down the line—”

“What?” Damon quickly shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. But… it is about a past relationship.”

“Oh.” I let out a sigh of relief. “What about it?”

“It’s just that…” Damon hemmed and hawed, his head slightly tilting back and forth. “I just want to be honest with you. But I don’t want you to think less of me.”

“I would never think less of you, Damon.”

“That’s sweet of you to say.” Damon offered me a small smile before he took in a deep breath. “Anyway… it’s about Lisa.”

“Lisa? The girl Henry mentioned earlier?”

“One and the same. She… we… used to be married.”

“You were married?” I tried and failed to hide the shock in my tone. “Really?”

“Really.” Damon nodded. “But it didn’t last long. We were high school sweethearts who just kind of got caught up in it. I always had a feeling that something was off with our relationship, like maybe we were just putting on a show for other people, trying to make everyone around us happy. Everyone just… liked us together so much. It seemed like it made sense.”

“But?”

“But it didn’t.” He sighed as he went on. “Not once we got away from the crowds of high school. When it was just me and her, we realized there wasn’t any chemistry left. Everything about us had been fueled by being so popular and loved by everyone around us, our parents, our families, our friends. But at the end of the day, Lisa and I never had the kind of spark you need to sustain a long-term commitment. To sustain anything, really.”

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