Page 193 of Mountain Daddy
Glancing down, I see my sunglasses.
I drag them closer to me. “Thank you.”
“What are you reading?”
His question is its own reminder.
That he listened.
That I told him things.
“A book about a vampire.” I set my phone down next to my glasses.
“Does he sparkle?”
The edge of my mouth tries to pull up, knowing Ashley has to be the reason he’d ask that. But I don’t have it in me to smile. “He doesn’t. But he can smell his fated mate from across the city.”
And he would never dump her.
Not for anything.
Not fucking ever.
“You like it?”
I lift a shoulder. “So far.”
We look at each other, and it’s so uncomfortable because it’s all so wrong.
We shouldn’t be sitting across the table from each other.
We should be sitting on the same side.
We should be part of the same team.
This… distance. It doesn’t feel natural.
And the wrongness of it makes me so sad.
Luther breaks the silence. “I brought an antler for Buddy.”
My lips part. But my throat closes.
He brought something for Buddy?
My Buddy?
“What?” I can only manage a whisper.
“It’s in the bed of my truck. I found it. Thought he might like it.”
My shoulders drop.
Just… release.
I try to ask why, but no sound comes out.
And I feel so frustrated with the whole thing. With all of it. That my eyes fill with emotion.
