Page 23 of Burning Love
“Am I a friend?”
“Right now, sure. I’m still deciding if you’ll be more. Do you need an answer before the end of the night?”
“Nope,” he said. “We can just talk and see where it leads us.”
“Good, because I like where it has so far and I don’t do well when I’m given a timeline to come up with a decision.”
It was probably meant to relate to the two years she was trying to figure out her career after college.
“Don’t be hard on yourself. Do you know how many people change their careers in their thirties? You’re doing a good thing for people. Who cares if it took you time to figure out it’s what you wanted? Maybe you’ll change your mind in a year or two. No one knows the future.”
She nodded. “That’s right. No one does. Thank you, Jace. I appreciate the encouraging words. You have no idea how much they mean to me.”
There was a sincerity in her words that made his heart flutter and stirred a quiet worry in the back of his mind. No other woman had ever gotten to him like this, and that realization hit harder than he expected.
Maybe it’d be best if she did take her time deciding.
8
YOUR ARMS AROUND ME
“That’s what you’re wearing?”
The next morning, Talia looked down at her shorts. She’d pulled her car into the mall parking lot next to Jace on his motorcycle. “What’s wrong with them? You’re wearing shorts.”
“Mine come to my knees,” he argued. “Yours barely cover your thighs.”
“It’s the longest pair I have. It’s too hot to wear jeans and my longer ones were dressier. I thought it’d look funny having nice pants on riding a motorcycle.”
“I’d feel more comfortable if you had pants on the first time.”
She pointed her finger and squinted one eye at him. “You’re not very good at giving instructions.”
“Sorry.”
“I’ll go buy something now. Come on.”
“I have to go with you?”
“Yep,” she said, grabbing his arm. “It’s your punishment for not telling me exactly what to wear.”
At the end of their date last night, Talia had made up her mind. She wanted to give this a shot, see where it might lead. Hewasn’t the commitment type; he’d been upfront about that. But maybe that was okay. Maybe what she needed right now wasn’t promises, but a little fun—something spontaneous to balance out the constant grind of chasing the next chapter in her career.
When she’d told him she wanted another date and asked if they could go for a ride, he’d smirked at her. She knew what he was thinking.
Maybe she was too.
No way she was putting out that fast regardless of how smoking he was.
He offered to pick her up and she’d quickly said nope. Not that she cared if her mother saw her on a date, but she didn’t need her mother to lecture her on the motorcycle.
Not to lecture her about an older guy either, so it was for the best right now.
They entered the mall and walked past several stores.
“They have jeans in the last three stores we passed,” he said.
“Not brands that I like or wear. I know what I want. If I’m going to get a pair, I might as well get ones that I’ll wear again.”
