Page 29 of The Lies I've Told
No doubt Millie was no different.
I needed to stop with the antics. She was never going to remember, and even if she did, so what? Neither of us would be around long enough to see it through.
I needed to get my head back in the game.
I was here for one purpose and one purpose only.
To fix a problem and move the hell on.
Aiden was quiet on our way back into town.
Uncomfortably quiet.
With both hands on the steering wheel, I tried to focus on the road ahead.
I tried to focus on anything but the color of his hazel eyes under the bright summer sun.
Or the way they seemed to speak to me in a way no one else could.
Like he understood me without effort.
Like he knew what I was thinking without words.
Without explanation.
I nearly shook my head at the idea.
It was ludicrous.
I’d just met the guy.
We’d known each other less than twenty-four hours.
Didn’t stop you from jumping into bed with him.
I let out a frustrated puff of air, releasing it into the car like a long prayer drifting up to heaven.
“You okay?” Aiden asked.
“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. “Just admiring the blue sky. It’s the perfect shade today.”
It wasn’t much of a lie because, honestly, the sky really was putting on a show today.
I saw his head move forward toward the window as he looked up. “It is.”
“Do you work much with color?” I asked, suddenly curious about his profession.
“Not much,” he said, still gazing up at the sky. There was a sadness in his eyes, something I hadn’t noticed before. Almost as if he were saying good-bye to a good friend for the last time. “I dabbled in pottery for a while when I was learning how to work with clay a long time ago, so I have some experience with colored glazes, and yeah, you do have variations in stone colors, but it’s not a vivid color like this.”
“You work with clay?”
He nodded, his arms folded around his chest. It made his biceps thicken, and I tried not to notice.
I said I tried.
Thank God I could focus on the road ahead of me; otherwise, I’d probably have drool forming around my mouth from staring at the guns on that man. Who knew stone carvers were so ripped?
“I use it to do a rough workup of most of my pieces. It helps guide me as I’m working. Clay is easy to form. If you make a mistake, you just smooth your hands over it and work it in a different direction. Stone, however, isn’t nearly as forgiving.”
