Page 32 of Lonely Heart

I smiled at him and shrugged. “I owe you, so please don’t worry about it.”

The look of contentment that had been on his face was gone in an instant. “You owe me?”

Nodding, I reminded him. “For what you did for me that night here in the hotel.”

His voice dipped low as he leaned close. “I thought I already made it clear that you don’t owe me a thing for that night.”

I was suddenly very aware of the counter between us, some small part of me wishing I could move it just to see if he’d lean even closer or even reach his fingers out to touch me.

I reached for the stack of papers on the counter, busying myself for a moment, so I wouldn’t do or say anything foolish. It barely helped, that desire to have him come closer to me becoming somewhat of an ache.

“You did. I’m aware you’re not expecting anything in return. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to know how much it meant to me,” I reasoned, my voice strained.

He held my stare in silence for a few beats, his eyes roaming over every inch of my face. I wondered if he knew what he was doing to me, the effect he was having on me. “I know what it meant to you, Ivy. Trust me, I understand. I don’t need you to do things, to agree to do this, just to try to prove it to me.”

Judging by the sound of his voice, this bothered him tremendously. I inclined my head just a touch and murmured,“For what it’s worth, feeling like I owe you isn’t the only reason I agreed to helping you out with the tiles selection.”

His brows shot up. “You’ve got another reason?”

“Yes.”

Something darkened in his stare. “Care to enlighten me?” Marco had never looked at me like that, and the intensity sent another shiver running along my spine.

“You seem to be the only one who knows what happened to me that hasn’t completely lost his mind,” I informed him. When he sent a questioning look my way, I added, “My family keeps treating me like I’m some delicate flower. Me! Can you believe it?”

He smiled and shrugged. “They love you, and they’re worried. I don’t think they mean anything by it.”

Obviously, I understood they loved me and worried about me, but it was still frustrating. Of course, hearing Marco say that made me wonder if he was saying that it was their love that made them so concerned, and him not having any love for me made it easier for him to act like nothing had happened.

Refusing to believe the worst, I said, “I know, but it doesn’t make it easy to move on when I feel like they’re walking on eggshells.”

“I understand. And I promise you don’t have to be anybody but yourself when I come over tonight.”

“That sounds delightful.”

“Alright. I need to head back to work and get something accomplished today, but I’ll see you later.”

“See you tonight, Marco.”

With a bright smile on his face, he dipped his chin. “Later, Ivy.”

A moment later, he was gone.

And for the first time, I felt a tingling sensation in my belly at the prospect of a fun night with a handsome guy. Even if he was a guy I’d known nearly all my life.

“I can’t tellyou how relieved I am.”

Marco might have been feeling relief, but I was feeling something else entirely, something I wasn’t quite sure I was prepared to put a name to.

He’d arrived at my place roughly thirty minutes ago, doing so with everything we’d need to select new tiles for the villa bathrooms as well as dinner. Marco had caught me off guard—he hadn’t mentioned anything about bringing dinner for us—and the feeling it gave me was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.

The moment I’d opened the door to him and saw him there with dinner, I almost forgot the real reason he’d come to my place to begin with. My heart rate had picked up a bit, and my legs wobbled. The sweet gesture was so much more than I had anticipated.

And I realized that Marco had been feeling uneasy about having to select the new tiles on his own, but this gesture seemed to go above and beyond for something that would take me almost no time to figure out for him.

I found myself needing to look away from him frequently as we ate, because if I didn’t, I wasn’t convinced I wouldn’t wind up staring at him with such awe.

“I think you would have done an okay job with this.” I pointed to the booklet he’d brought along containing the optionsfor tiles. “You had my selection in your top three choices anyway.”

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