Page 38 of Recklessly Yours

“Becca, my ex, liked it.”

This was the first time he’d mentioned his ex to me, and now I was curious. She’d come to Ashley and Jackson’s wedding with Dylan last year. She was beautiful, with long red hair. I had thought they made a cute couple.

“Do you want some?” I asked, extending the bowl across the coffee table toward him.

“No.” He put his hand up. “I’m good.”

“You don’t like popcorn?”

He chuckled, focus cast on his computer again. “Who doesn’t like popcorn?”

“I went out with a guy once—to a movie—and he gave me a solid five-minute lecture before the previews started about howbad the popcorn I was eating was. He went on and on about the butter and salt and sodium. Then he turned on my Cherry Coke and gummy bears.” I obviously didn’t have a second date with him. I live to eat, I don’t eat to live, and I had no interest in being judged for that. “But now that I say that, I understand why you don’t want popcorn.”

His head snapped up. “What does that mean?”

“Look at you. There isn’t an ounce of fat on your body as far as I can see, so it’s safe to assume you have a pretty strict diet.”

He shrugged. “Nah. I try to stick to healthy food, but I prefer salty foods over sweet. So chips and popcorn are my go-to snacks rather than ice cream and candy. I don’t really do fast food, though.”

With that, he turned his attention back to his work, so I pushed play. I tried to focus on the conversation between Kim and Kourtney, but quickly, my curiosity got the better of me. I pressed pause and shifted to look at him again.

“So what happened?”

He peered at me over his computer and cocked his head to the side. “What happened with what?”

“Becca.” What else would I be talking about?

Sighing, he leaned forward and set his laptop on the coffee table.

Guilt flashed through me. “I’m sorry. I know you’re trying to work. I’ll stop talking.”

“It’s fine.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Probably should break for lunch soon anyway.”

“Lunch?” I glanced over at the time displayed on the smart speaker that sat on top of the fireplace mantel. “It’s only eleven o’clock.”

“You don’t eat breakfast, so I guess I assumed that you liked to eat lunch early.”

“I have popcorn.” I held up the bowl. “But yeah, typically, I eat lunch before noon because I’m not a big breakfast person.”

“I’ve noticed.” He smirked.

The way Dylan noticed every detail warmed my stomach. I doubted my siblings even realized that I wasn’t a fan of breakfast, yet Dylan did after five days. It was hard to imagine that someone who paid that much attention to detail struggled with a relationship.

“So what happened with Becca?”

Lips pressed together, he sat back. “She struggled to accept my job.”

From the defeat in his tone, there was more to it than that. What he just said was akin towe parted ways amicably.

“Like the danger? Was she afraid that something might happen to you?”

He tensed, his expression shuttering. “I’m not really sure.”

A niggle of guilt itched at the back of my brain. Crap. I was a jerk for bringing up his ex.

“A lot of it was the unpredictability of my schedule. It was a problem before we moved in together, and I thought living in the same place would help. Instead, it kind of made things worse.”

“How?” I set the bowl of popcorn on the table and leaned forward, my hands clasped in my lap.

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