Page 28 of These Rough Waters

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Boy,” Ruthie scolds.

“I haven’t been a boy for a long time, Ruthie,” I pause at the door, “I’m going to dinner.”

“Which poor girl did you threaten?” She asks.

I sigh, “Maya.”

Ruthie’s entire persona shifts, “Now you hear me, Torin, don’t fuck with that girl.”

“When have I ever fucked with anyone here?”

“You think I’m blind to what you Avery’s do,” She quirks a brow, “Your secrets are dangerous.”

“Maybe so, Ruthie, but I have a feeling so are hers.”

“Perhaps. And perhaps she’s here to start again.”

“And I wasn’t?”

“There’s a difference, Torin.”

“It’s dinner, not marriage,” I grunt. “And it’s not a date. It’s to appease the kid.”

“The kid?”

“Yes.”

“And not your own curiosity?”

“What is there to be curious about, Ruthie?” I ask, “She’s a single mother with baggage.”

Ruthie chuckles as if she knows something I don’t, “Okay, Torin. Whatever you say. Glass houses and all.”

She doesn’t stick around for me to reply, and I don’t chase. I grab the wine and head out, placing the expensive bottle on the passenger seat of the truck before I make my way back to Maya’s cabin.

Yeah, she was trouble, but it seems old habits die hard. I used to chase trouble and it appeared I was heading down that same road. Following and chasing something I had no right to. I just didn’t know how it would end this time.

Fourteen

I’m pulling the dish from the oven while Harper is washing up in the bathroom for dinner when there’s a knock on the door and a riot of butterflies take off in my stomach.

There was no reason to be nervous. None. I knew where Torin and I stood, it’s where it needed to stay.

And I was totally overthinking it. Completely seeing shit that wasn’t there.

Rolling my eyes at myself, I cross the room and open the door and… oh.

Torin in jeans and a tee with a backwards cap was head turning, Torin in suit pants and a white shirt, sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows so all the intricate work on his forearms could be seen, was devastating.

“Close your mouth, little doe,” He whispers as he steps through the door, “You’ll cause a man to have indecent thoughts.”

My teeth jerk together painfully, and I watch as he saunters through the cabin, looking entirely too large for this space before he places a very expensive bottle of wine on the table and turns. His eyes land on me and do a quick sweep of me. I hadn’t changed like him, I’d swapped my pants for leggings and my sweater for an oversized hoodie I’d picked up from that hiking store. My socks were pulled up to my knees, my hair in absolute disarray on top of my head but his eyes seem to warm, burn almost when he finally meets my eyes.

“You brought wine.” I blurt.

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