Page 42 of Tangled

“July sixteenth. Kane,” I begin to stop him, but he cuts me off.

“Sweet. Mine’s the tenth of April. Any siblings?”

I scrunch my face at him, irritation clouding my mind as I realize he’s sitting here and drilling me and I have no idea why.

“I’m sorry, but are we playing twenty questions here?” I ask, sarcasm lacing my words.

Kane retreats, scooting back along the swing, increasing the distance between us.

“What’s going on, Kane? Forgive me for being curious, but the last time we spoke you made it clear you didn’t know what you wanted from me. Before that, I thought we had agreed to stay away from each other. And now, you’re acting like we're best buds and interviewing me like I’m in the running for your new best friend. I’m… I’m just confused,” I confess, my inquiry causing a shift in the conversation between us.

Kane’s head lifts now, but he’s staring out into the yard, not at me. After what feels like the longest silence of my life, he finally speaks just loud enough for me to hear.

"I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you feel uncomfortable. Shit…” He turns away, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “I… I don’t know how to do this, Olivia…”

“Do what, Kane?”

Turning to face me now, I can see the fear in his eyes. This dominant and headstrong man I met just a few weeks ago looks like he’s on the verge of tears, or at least some sort of revelation.

“I don’t know how to date…”

“Date?” I ask in shock, completely flabbergasted that Kane’s thoughts regarding us were about dating.

He lets out a long breath before reaching for me, pulling my icy fingers into his warm palm, rubbing his thumb over the top of my hand. The warmth is not only counterbalancing the coldness of the air but also the frigid air between us.

“Yes, date. Christ, Olivia. You and I were supposed to just be a one-time thing, right? But when I saw you again, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Hell, I couldn’t stop thinking about you when I left that night. It’s been a long time since I’ve been interested in a woman… and I guess I’m just trying to get to know you. Hence the questions… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uneasy.”

The intensity of my pulse right now only makes my head spin that much faster. He wants to date me? Or get to know me? So all of these hot and cold signals he’s been giving me is because he doesn’t know how to handle what he’s feeling?

“Wow. Okay… I guess I understand. I mean, Kane… I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t thinking about you too after our night together. But when we ran into each other again—literally,” he chuckles as I continue, “You seemed so upset to see me again. I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”

Kane’s thumb continues to stroke my hand as he watches our connection. Looking back up to me, he continues. “I didn’t know how to process seeing you again. I know I didn’t handle it appropriately, but the more we ran into each other, the more I realized that getting to know you better is something I definitely want.”

Who would have known that this man could actually confess his desire to me without acting like a child?

“You continue to surprise me, Kane.”

He cracks a smile. “Oh yeah, how’s that?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just had you pegged for this guy that wasn’t very in-tune with his feelings and wanted to just be left alone.”

He huffs. “Yeah, well, if you’d met me three years ago, that’s exactly the man you would have encountered. I’ve come a long way since then.”

“Is that how long it’s been since you’ve been interested in someone?” I ask, hopeful he’ll continue to be honest with me.

I see his jaw clench and then his eyes retreat from mine as he drops my hand, his face turned back to looking out over the yard. “Yeah, something like that.”

Okay, not the most detailed answer, but hopefully he’ll open up to me, eventually.

“Well, I don’t know who taught you how to date, or woo a woman, but drilling her with random questions is not the best approach,” I joke, hoping to lighten the mood.

The slightest smile tips up on the sides of his mouth, his eyes bouncing back and forth between mine when he focuses back on me. “I was told to try to establish a friendship with you, and I thought asking you a bunch of questions would help me do that. You gotta admit, I did learn some interesting facts about you.”

“Okay, yes, that’s one way, I suppose. So is just having a natural conversation. Getting to know someone doesn’t have to just consist of facts about the other person. Getting a glimpse into your mind and how you think about the world tells me way more about you than your favorite color.”

“Which is red, by the way,” he answers back, making me smirk.

“Good to know,” I say, immersing myself in this euphoric feeling of how ecstatic I am that the night turned out this way. I came into this party not knowing what the repercussions would be when I ran into him, because I knew we would cross paths. Naturally, this conversation is surpassing my assumptions immensely.

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