Page 187 of Irresistible Rogue

“That’s why I left you a note. I was afraid you’d wake up and think I was gone. So I left you my number. So even if you had to run or something, you could call me and we’d get to see each other again.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“You left the hotel room that morning… to get coffee?”

“Sad but true.”

“Why?”

“In case you wanted one.”

“I love coffee!”

“The irony.”

“So, basically… you lost me over a cup of coffee?”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

She gazed at me in wide eyed wonder.

Then her phone jingled somewhere around her ass, and she dug it out of her back pocket. “Sorry,” she said, texting someone. “It’s my best friend, Alyssa. I was texting her a minute ago. She’s just checking in on me.”

When her eyes met mine, I was pretty sure I could read that look.

“You told her about me.”

“I told her… a few things.” She stashed her phone away.

“She’s worried about you.”

“She is.” She fidgeted a little, avoiding my eyes. “Mainly because she knows I’m leaving and she doesn’t want me to get attached.”

Attached to what, exactly, she didn’t say.

I stared at her, my heart thumping weirdly in my chest. “Are you getting attached?”

Her eyes met mine. “Of course not,” she said softly. “What’s the point of that?”

The coffee had finished brewing. I poured her a cup, and got out the honey and sugar for her. “Sorry I don’t have any milk. We can go pick up some food after you have your coffee.”

“Thank you.” I watched her stir sugar into it, looking like she was deep in some troubling thought. Then she looked at me again. “I like you, Shane,” she said seriously, like she was worried she’d hurt my feelings.

“I know,” I assured her, and she kind of laughed.

I like you, too.

* * *

While Jolie had her coffee, we went outside and she poked around the yard, marveling over how many different birds were singing in the trees. Honestly, I didn’t really notice the birds until she pointed it out. Maybe because I was too fixated on her.

Her soft hair around her shoulders. Her bare feet in the grass.

Her face lighting up as she looked up into the tall trees, the dappled sunlight and shadow on her face.

Then I took her grocery shopping. And I confessed to her that I didn’t really cook.

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