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A wheel of responses spun in my mind. I could tell her that her brother asked me to keep an eye on her. Or I could tell her that I wanted an excuse to touch her. Or I could tell her yet another truth. I went with option C; it seemed like the lesser of the three evils.
Leaning down to ensure none of the other dancers beside us would overhear, I whispered, “Stella Barnes.”
I felt a tremor run down her body as my lips grazed the cusp of her ear.
“Stella Barnes?” she repeated quietly.
I nodded. “Since Grandad’s fall, she’s been showing up at my doorstep with dinners, offering to clean, to help with Harper. She’s made it clear that cooking, cleaning, and childcare aren’t the only things on the table.”
“Ahh. I see.”
“I appreciate her offer, but I’m not interested.”
She leaned back, and once again, her eyes searched mine as if she were trying to see all the way down to my soul. I feared that if she kept looking, she would. “Why not?”
I rarely talked to people about myself, and I never talked about my personal life. I liked to keep myself to myself, but for some reason, I found myself answering Ruby’s question.
“She’s not someone I could see myself getting on one knee for.”
“So, you are only interested in dating people who you can see yourself marrying,” she stated as if she were confirming something.
“What other reason is there?”
“Sex.” Her eyes remained locked with mine as a flush crept up her cheeks.
Fuck. I hadn’t expected her to say that. My cock stirred in my pants. I knew if we continued dancing like this, if this conversation continued, there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to conceal the effect that she had on me.
Not wanting to embarrass myself or her, I dropped my arms from her waist and took a step back. “Thanks for the dance.”
She blinked up at me, looking blindsided and even a little hurt by my abruptness. The vulnerability in her eyes awakened every protective, possessive cell in my body. I wanted to lower my mouth and kiss away any confusion or pain I’d caused.
Since I couldn’t do that, I turned and walked off the dance floor. Distance. That was what I needed from her. And that’s exactly what I was going to get because she would be gone tomorrow. One more night. I just needed to get through one more night.
9
RUBY
“No one ever hit a home run without steppin’ up to the plate.” ~ Miss Dottie
There has to be something in the water, I thought to myself as I scanned the crowd in the parking lot. Everyone in town seemed to be loved up.
It wasn’t something I’d noticed just tonight. It was a conclusion I’d come to over the past week that I’d been here. Another thing that surprised me was how many people had either stayed in Wishing Well or come back.
In high school, most of the people I knew talked about getting out of the small town, but they all seemed to migrate back. Over eighty percent of my graduating class had settled down and started families, something I’d always said I never wanted. So why was I feeling FOMO?
“Tonight was so fun!” Harmony enthused, throwing her arms around me in a tight embrace.
I hugged her back. “Yeah, it was.”
As soon as her arms dropped, Hudson wrapped his arms around his wife as he asked me, “Are you okay to get home?”
“Yeah.” I’d nursed one drink all night.
Hud nodded then picked Harmony up and carried her to his truck as she giggled. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. I’d felt it quite a few times tonight. It’s not that I wasn’t around married people in New York. Quite a few of my friends were wife’d and husband’d up, but there was something different about the relationships down here.
Or at least, it seemed like there was. The men were so protective, caring, and affectionate. Maybe it was because there weren’t a lot of distractions in a small town, so the couples were able to focus on each other more.
As I got behind the wheel, a melancholy mood settled over me. I tried not to read too much into it. It was probably loneliness. Even though Peter and I broke up a month ago, I’d been lonely for a while before that.
