Page 34 of Kissing Her Rescuer

“He's out of town this week.”

“Oh, that makes sense then.”

Eliza nodded. “Yup. When he's in town, she is M.I.A. all the way. Let's go ahead and go to dinner. I'm starving. And I want to know your secret.”

“Eliza…” His eyes tightened at the corners. It wasn’t like him to be so nervous.

“Relax. I know what you said. I won't hold it against you that you wait to tell me.”

“No matter how big it is? Like life-altering big?”

“I want this date with you, so no, I won't blame you. I promise.”

He kissed her again, a little deeper but still not enough. “I meant it. You are just as beautiful in this as you are in your jeans.”

“Thanks.” She reached for her purse and, at the last minute, grabbed the bridal magazine.

His eyes locked onto that. “And you need that because...”

She laughed and shut the door behind her. “I'm going to look at it in the car. It's for Ms. Iris's wedding. She marked a few pages.”

“How many magazines has she given you?”

“Twenty-seven.”

Dewey grimaced. “That's a lot of ideas to put together.” He opened the door to Nash's nice truck and helped her in. He circled around to the driver’s side, his expression stoic. Was it only the secret he kept that bothered him or something more?

She tried to keep the conversation light. “You didn't have to borrow Nash's truck.”

“I wasn't taking you in my old, beat-up thing.” He pointed at the wedding magazine. “I think you need to organize all the ideas. Make a list of all the things she likes and see what might overlap.”

Did that mean he’d help her? She'd meant it as a joke when they were fishing, but if he needed something to talk about to keep his mind off his big announcement, she’d take the help. And the distraction. She retrieved her phone from her purse. “I guess I have something to do on the way to the restaurant.”

Dewey linkedhis fingers with Eliza’s, guiding her along the trail behind his house he cleared yesterday. After finding out about Carrie, exhausting himself with manual labor proved to be the only thing to keep the questions in his mind from driving him crazy.

And to keep him from rushing over and scooping Carrie into his arms.

The clearing near the small pond along the edge of his property looked prettier with the sun setting behind the tall pine trees. He’d worked for hours, clearing away the brush, imagining bringing Carrie to the spot. He didn’t know much about little girls, but he assumed, if she was his daughter, she might like to explore and take walks through the woods at some point.

The spot might be a place to propose if he was crazy enough to risk his heart again. He needed every advantage possible when telling Eliza about Carrie being his daughter.

He set the large lantern on a tree limb, giving enough light to guide Eliza to a small outcropping of rocks he'd covered earlier with a blanket.

“Oh, this view is so pretty.” She sat down on a large rock. “I thought we gave up walking around in the dark after our last adventure?” She glanced over her shoulder.

Dewey rubbed the back of his neck. Now or never. “Eliza.”

“Uh, oh. Serious talk time.” She swung her legs around to face him. “What is it? You said it was big.”

“It is, but I think it's good news.”

“But I won't?”

“I don't know.” He squatted down, holding onto her knees. She brushed her hand through his short hair, resting on his shoulder. “I need to start with a question.” He’d thought of a million ways to flat-out ask her if she knew Carrie was his. Trying to put the pieces together one at a time seemed most logical.

“Okay.”

“When I visited you in Alabama—”

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