Page 46 of Just Like Starting Over
I blush but I keep looking.
He watches, admiration lighting his eyes and a smile curving his lips. We stare at each other, until I clear my throat. “That’s amazing.” I’m not sure whether I’m talking about just the bee, or having Mike look at me like this again. It’s enough to shake my world hard.
To make me tingle.
To make me aware that I don’t have to plan on forever to enjoy something right now.
“It’s not the only thing that is,” he says under his breath, but I’m concentrating on descending the ladder, one rung at a time. He moves back only a little, so I’m trapped between his solid strength and the ladder. Now I can feel his heat and I wish he would wrap his arms around me, maybe never let me go. I know I could push him away with a fingertip, but it feels good to be so close tohim again.
I stop on the last rung and glance over my shoulder at him. His gaze is unblinking and bright.
“We’re not usually eye-to-eye,” I say, sounding more breathless than I intended.
“That doesn’t mean that we have to disagree,” he says, taking a different meaning from my words. His gaze searches mine. “You stopped painting?”
“No time.”
“Didn’t you go to art school?”
I shake my head. “I was busy.”
“Right.” He shakes his head. “That’s funny in a way.”
“Why?”
“Because I went there, to the art school, for their student exhibit twice. If I’d known you didn’t go, I could have saved myself from reading all those tags.”
“You went there?” He nods and I’m pleased beyond reason. He went there. Twice. Looking for my art.
He really didn’t get those letters, much less read them.
Our gazes cling and I don’t even want to breathe, lest I break the spell.
“Can I ask you that question?” Mike asks finally.
“Of course.”
“Why, Sylvia? Why are you here?” He looks puzzled. “Why did you come back now and not before? What changed?”
“That’s more than one question.”
“Got carried away once I started.”
“Not you, the heart and soul of restraint.”
He smiles that I’m teasing him but his gaze is still serious.
He’s waiting.
I turn on the ladder so that I’m facing him. “Maybe a month ago, a guy came into Merrie’s restaurant in Toronto. The place was going under and we didn’t have a lot of options. Andthis guy, well, it was Luke.” I leave out the bit about the pitcher of ice water. “I barely talked to him that day, but he knew it was me. After he left, he came up with some plan for Merrie to set up in Leon and Dotty’s diner.”
“Because he wanted you and Sierra to come back here, so you’d all be together.”
“No.” I meet his gaze steadily. “Luke thought he owed me something, and he wanted to try to make things right.”
I see that Mike is biting his tongue, so I hurry on.
“Turns out he visited Una and asked her why I was waiting tables in Toronto, and instead of answering his question, she told him that she had cancer.”
