Page 35 of Flirting With Forever
“Final answer.” She bit her lip and waited.
“You’re right. I hate the stuff. It stinks to high heavens.”
She let out a whoop and did a seated happy dance. “Time for some haters to hate, hate, hate in the rentals building,” she sang in her best Taylor impression.
He let out another husky chuckle at her antics and grabbed a handful of popcorn. She watched as his jaw worked while she continued to openly gloat, earning an elbow nudge of rebuke. “So, Mr. Blackwell. You thought you’d have a family of your own by now?”
Gage shifted as though suddenly uncomfortable and focused on getting another scoop of the buttery goodness. She started to retract her words but then decided to keep her mouth shut and let them hang in the air between them. Why not?
“Not the white-picket-fence kind but, yeah, kind of. Especially as I’ve watched my brothers settle down. But working the way I do doesn’t leave a lot of time for dating. And…I don’t have a lot of time to make the effort.”
“You get what you put into it,” she countered, being truthful. “If something’s important to you, you make time. Even if it means scheduling it in. Priorities, you know?”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you want a family? Plan to settle down? Do you date?”
Unease filled her because those questions…
She dipped her hand into the popcorn bowl but didn’t eat any of it. “I think it’s best that you don’t have someone in your life if you’re only able to give them breadcrumbs.”
“You’re right,” he said, nodding his head. “But you also avoided my questions.”
“Did I?” Being honest, she said, “I move around too much for a family or roots or relationships.”
“And you don’t plan to have roots anytime soon?”
Longing filled her, but she shook her head, popping some kernels into her mouth to keep from having to say more.
She glanced up at him and found him watching her. Her breath ceased, and it took a moment for her to inhale again after she swallowed. Because the way he looked at her? “Why have roots when you can fly? As to you, I’m sure you’ll do fine when you’re finally ready. I’d say you’ve turned that broody blue gaze of yours on many unsuspecting women and used it to your advantage. That won’t change.”
The words emerged husky and murmured, but the air stilled around them and thickened. The soft light of the battery lantern left one side of his face shadowy, but even that didn’t disguise the heat in the gaze she mentioned.
Gage tilted his head to one side, canting it as though to see her better.
“Would that include you?” He lifted his hand and took hold of one of her curls, and she watched him watch it wrap around his finger.
“Gage…” She couldn’t form the protest she knew she needed to make. Should make. Because this night? This man? It was the most fun she’d had in years. He was handsome and interesting. And a woman would have to be blind not to notice or…be curious.
“Why are you so afraid of the wind?”
The question slapped her in the face. “There’s…that’s a hurricane outside.”
“I hate to say it, but what’s happening out there now is just a little wind. The worst is yet to come, Merida.”
Distance. She needed distance. To get away from the heat of his body pressed along her side and the scent of his soap or cologne or whatever it was that made her think of spending their time hunkered down doing other things. “My name is Sloane.”
“Why are you dodging my questions, Sloane? There’s a story there. I’d like to hear it. And I’d like to think you’d trust me enough by now to tell me.”
A story made it sound…romantic. Soft. But it wasn’t. It was ugly and brutal and full of painful come-to-Jesus moments that things happened and sometimes nothing made sense. “My mother was killed by the wind.” A rough laugh left her, the sound holding tears she struggled to tamp down. “By a tree, kinda like me getting taken out by the branch earlier. I don’t like it because we all know lightning kills people. Flooding. Tornadoes. But wind? Just wind?”
“What happened?”
Gage’s husky query made her struggle for control harder than ever. She closed her eyes and immediately saw it in her mind, not that it was ever too far away. “It—It had rained for a week straight, and…the wind toppled a tree onto her car right as she drove past.”
“Ah, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
