Page 68 of Spilling the Tea

“I recall mentioning the name of my hotel to Corbin in front of you. But how did you know my room number?”

“I didn’t. At least, I didn’t until I got here. The woman at the check-in desk happens to be someone my brother Emerson dates on occasion.”

“I see.”

She decided to keep the conversation going, especially when their silence seemed to stir the attraction they were trying to downplay. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“I thought I’d throw a couple of steaks on the grill. I left them marinating this morning. It won’t take long to put the baked beans in the oven and prepare my slaw. Corn on the cob is also on the menu.”

She licked her lips. “Sounds delicious and since I skipped breakfast, I’m starving.”

He smiled at her. “Glad to hear that since I look forward to feeding you.”

Today, she was thinking she liked him too much. Probably because of how kind and thoughtful he was being. He didn’t have to come to the hotel to check on her, but he had. She was also noticing things about him that she would rather not notice. Such as those dimples that were usually kept hidden until he smiled. She had seen them for the first time that day they’d met on the side of the road. She hadn’t seen them again until last night when they’d danced. Then there was Chance’s scent. Whatever cologne he was wearing should be personalized and calledChance.

He was also a man full of compliments. More than once today he’d told her how nice she looked. She thought the same about him. From the moment she’d opened her bedroom door to find him still there, she couldn’t stop her gaze from roaming over him from head to toe. Once they left her hotel room, she still couldn’t keep her eyes off him. She hadn’t been the only one. Numerous females had turned to stare. But then the same thing had happened last night while they’d been dancing.

She had to remember he was a man who preferred one-night stands. That meant he didn’t want an emotional involvement with a woman—just a physical one. On top of that, he was a self-declared loner. Something they would talk about over dinner.

Why wait until then? Besides, there was one thing she needed to know. “Chance?”

“Yes?”

“Who is Ravena?”

***

Chance could only blame himself for having brought up Ravena’s name in their conversation earlier that day. When he brought his truck to a four-way stop sign, he shifted his gaze to Zoey and saw her intently staring at him.

Their gazes held, and he felt it and was certain she did, too. It was more than a flutter in the tummy; it was more than an increase in heart rate. It was sexual chemistry so powerful he was convinced it had more nuclear energy than an atomic bomb. And that wasn’t good.

Hadn’t he told Zoey last night that he fully understood she wasn’t into meaningless sex? And just that morning, he’d told Mama Laverne that friendship was the only relationship he wanted with Zoey. He’d known they were sexually attracted to each other, but when had it become so volatile?

“Ravena was the woman I was engaged to marry five years ago,” he said.

He figured she was letting that sink in because she said nothing. Then she asked, “What happened?”

It wasn’t until a car blasted its horn behind them that he realized they were still sitting at the stop sign. “She ended our engagement.”

“Oh.”

When she said nothing else, he glanced at her as he turned a corner. “You have nothing to ask?”

She met his gaze, and a smooth smile touched her lips and extended to her eyes. That made her features different from when she’d opened her hotel room door. Both her eyes and lips had been swollen from crying. She was still sad. There was no way she wasn’t. But at least now she was smiling, putting her complicated life on hold to concentrate on his.

“Only if you wish for me to know, Chance.”

He had planned to tell her everything over dinner but wasn’t sure he was ready to do it now. Did it matter? Maybe telling her now would be for the best.

He refocused on the road again. “After high school, I chose a career in the military. After being an army ranger for eight years, I came home on leave and met Ravena.” There was noreason to tell her he and Ravena had met at Vance’s Tavern, the very place they were last night.

“We began dating exclusively, and eighteen months later, I asked her to marry me.”

“And?” she asked when he paused, obviously a little too long for her liking.

“And I got injured and was sent home in a wheelchair after being told I would never walk again.”

Her gasp sounded so deep he actually felt it. “You?” she asked as if she found such a thing unbelievable.

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