Page 21 of Boston
“I think you just answered it,” he said. “But I’d just like to point out that you literally asked me to drive my truck forty-five minutes each way toask me questionsover mac and cheese.” He looked at her again, raising his eyebrows as a final way to ask,Did you not?
She blinked a couple of times before her features softened. “I suppose that’s true. What were you going to ask?”
“If this was a meeting or a date, but you saidmeeting, so.”
“I think it could actually be both.”
“Both?” He shook his head and focused on the road again, though it simply stretched ahead of him in a black, straight ribbon. “It can’t be both.”
“Why not?” she asked. “You ‘sort of’ hung up on a client today.”
“I did not hang up on her,” he said. “I said I had to go first.”
“I think we could talk about the lodge now, and then we can have lunch together later.” Cora blew out her breath. “But what do I know? I’m new in town, and maybe this isn’t how you do things in Coral Canyon.”
Boston had no idea different places had different rules. “I’ve been set up on my last few dates,” he said. “So I guess I don’t know how things work here either.”
“No girlfriend?”
“Not right now,” Boston said, shaking his head. “Nothing serious ever came of the blind dates.”
“Who sets you up?”
He grinned over to her. “Julie.”
“Mm, seems like she’d know.”
“You’d think so, but nope.” His pulse stormed through his veins. “What about you? No boyfriend?”
The mood in the truck shifted slightly, and since Boston had grown up in the background of a large family with a lot of personalities, he’d gotten very good at listening, watching, and reading the room.
“No,” she said. “Things ended with my last boyfriend last fall.”
“How long were you guys together?”
“Three years,” Cora whispered, and Boston didn’t like the way she’d folded into herself. He found her physically the same—sitting up fine in the passenger seat. But she’d definitely wilted right before his eyes.
She’d clearly not ended the relationship, and while Boston wondered if she was truly over this other man, he didn’t want her to hurt. His momma had often told him he had a bleeding heart, and that his kindness and goodness was one of her favorite things.
He reached over and took her hand in his. “That’s a long time, so that had to be hard. I’m really sorry.”
“It was…I thought he was going to ask me to marry him.” She sighed and squeezed his hand as her fingers settled between his, locking into place. “It’s okay. I knew Wyoming was calling, and when I look at the situation correctly, being here feels like a blessing.”
“Maybe a fresh start?”
“Yeah.” She smiled at him. “A fresh start.”
“Well, then, your break-up is great news for me.” He expected a semi-sarcastic, half-flirty comeback like the ones that had confused him previously, but she simply took a breath and released it, relaxing further as she did.
“I like your shoes,” he said.
She lifted her head, everything about her brightening. “Yeah?”
He smiled at her. “Yeah.”
“I love shoes,” she said. “The worst part of moving was I couldn’t bring all my shoes with me.”
He chuckled, though he couldn’t imagining owning so many shoes that he had to leave some behind when he moved. “This doesn’t sound like a meeting,” he said, though he certainly didn’t want to change the subject to work. At the same time, he totally did, because he wanted his mac and cheesedate, and that meant they had to have theirmeetingnow.
