Page 85 of Stockman's Stormcloud

‘You don’t drink wine?’

‘Nope, beer and bourbon.’

‘But you have all those bottles of gin in your fridge.’

‘Bree said that’s for you.’ He chuckled. ‘It’s so she didn’t owe me any favours.’

She frowned ever so slightly.

‘Hey, stop that.’ He grabbed her hand. ‘You have no reason to be jealous of Bree.’

‘But you’re close.’

‘Sure, like siblings, but that’s it. Ask Bree, she’ll tell you our friendship is purely platonic. And if Bree were a bloke, you wouldn’t be jealous.’

‘I’m sorry.’ And she felt foolish too. ‘I just…’

‘Your ex, huh?’

‘I find it hard to trust, you know.’

‘I do.’ Dex adjusted his hat to glance at the vast sunset. ‘My ex was a drug addict, who got busted for stealing. Shewas given the choice of going to prison or rehab. I bet you can guess which one she took.’ He then tugged on her fingers that he lifted to his lips and tenderly kissed them.

It was the most romantic gesture any man had done for her.

‘I like you, Sophie, and I get why you have trust issues with what you’ve been through. It must have been recent for you?’

‘Almost a year. You?’

He snorted briefly, as he lifted the cardboard lid of the cake box where the aroma of baked cheesecake, fresh air, and Dex tempted her tastebuds. ‘Twelve years ago.’

‘Really?’ Her eyebrows knitted together. He must have been so devastated to be single that long. ‘Are you saying that you’ve never wanted to be with another female? In all that time?’

‘I’ve been with women, sure.’

And she hated every single one of them.

‘But after seeing Bree kissing her husband—which was flipping hot,’ said Dex, tugging on his shirt, ‘it made me realise what I was missing out on.’

‘So Bree’s married?’ She’d seen no wedding ring on Bree’s fingers, and there were no wedding photos in the cottage, except Charlie’s. There was nothing hinting that Bree was married.

‘Apparently so.’

Didn’t that make her feel like such a fool for thinking so badly of Bree. ‘Where’s he been?’

‘No idea. But I do know that Charlie doesn’t like the guy, he’s staying at the pub to avoid the bloke, who he calls the devil.’

‘So you’re in town to see Charlie?’

‘Sure, I could go see Charlie, but...’ He paused, rubbing the back of his neck. ‘I’m here because Bree gave me this lecture that night.’

‘The night you were together until two—'

‘Stop. It’s not what you think.’ He narrowed his eyes ather, so close their noses could touch, where that stare of his was hypnotic. ‘I can’t tell you, because it’s Bree’s secret. In fact, that redhead lectured me that same night, and I hated her for it.’

‘What about?’

‘Wasting all these chances of doing something good for myself. Bree made me realise I was torturing myself, the fights, the dump I lived in—’

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