Page 4 of Mountain Man's Autumn Angel
“No, it wasn’t like that.” He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “I was scared. What we had online, those phone calls…it meant everything to me. But I’m not good with people in person. I haven’t been, not for a long time. I thought if you met me first as just some guy with a business proposition, maybe you’d give me a chance.”
I studied his face, seeing the vulnerability there, the fear that I was about to walk away. “Why did you stop responding to my messages when I got to town?”
“Because I knew I was going to meet you here. I knew I’d have to choose between keeping up the lie or telling you the truth, and I…” He shrugged helplessly. “I was a coward.”
The crowd jostled around us, but I barely noticed. All I could focus on was the way he was looking at me—like I was something precious he was terrified of losing.
“Are you attracted to me, Luca?” The question came out before I could stop it.
His eyes widened. “What?”
“I need to know. Everything I felt with you today, all that chemistry…was it real? Or were you just being nice because you felt guilty?”
He stepped even closer, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact. “Melanie, I’ve been attracted to you since the first photo you sent me six months ago. Meeting you in person today… God, you’re even more beautiful than I imagined. And the way you talked about your angels, your passion for your art. I’ve never wanted someone the way I want you.”
Heat flooded through me at his words, at the intensity in his voice. “Then why are we standing in this crowded diner?” I asked.
His breath caught. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying yes to dinner at your place. And Luca?” I reached out and touched his hand. “There’s something you should know about me. Something I never told you in all our phone calls.”
“What’s that?”
I took a deep breath, feeling my cheeks warm. “I’m twenty-three years old, and I’ve never…I mean, I’ve never been with anyone. Not…that way.”
His eyes searched mine. “Melanie…”
“I want it to be you,” I said, the words rushing out before I lost my courage. “Tonight. I want it to be you.”
The look that crossed his face was pure hunger mixed with something deeper, more tender. “Are you sure?”
“Not a doubt in my mind.”
He threaded his fingers through mine. “Then let’s get out of here.”
3
LUCA
“Iswear I’m not a stalker.”
Those were the first words out of my mouth as we stood in the entry to a small shed on my property. The shed was a pottery barn—an actual workshop for making pottery, not the furniture store. The stalker part was that the far wall had shelves holding about a dozen of her creations.
“I inherited all this property when my parents died,” I said, “along with a bunch of money. It all started when I needed an urn for my mom’s ashes. You custom-made one for me, even though you didn’t normally do urns.”
She looked over at me, eyes wide. “That was you?”
I nodded. “Her favorite flower was?—”
“Daisies,” Melanie finished for me. “I remember. I’ve only done one urn.”
“You didn’t have it as an option, but you had that whole daisy collection. I bought a few other items that I have in my house, and I just kept supporting you.”
She gestured at the wall of her pottery. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah, this was under a different name. My real name. I felt like I was getting to know you through your work, so I keptordering. I wanted to talk to you, get to know you, but I didn't know how to start a conversation as just another customer. So I created Lumberjack47. You reached out to ask me a question about one of my orders, and we started chatting and, well, here we are.”
She studied me for a long moment, and I couldn’t read her expression. Then her lips curved into a slow smile.
