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“He said, ‘Good job, Anna Banana, now you need to learn how to do a somersault.’” I scoffed. “I know he meant well, but it always felt like my achievements, great or small, were never enough. And it just jars me when you”—I gestured toward him— “are just you.”
I let out the hundredth nervous laugh of the day, staring at my lap. The hand he had on the sofa back lowered to my bare knee, and he gave it a squeeze.
“Your family loves you beyond reason, Anna. They may not be the greatest at supporting you unconditionally, but they believe in you.”
“Not like you,” I practically whispered, snagging his gaze.
In the dim light of the television, his midnight-blue eyes darkened to stormy gray. The intimate quiet of his living room felt suddenly small and oppressive. Not with something terrible and crushing, but with heady emotion and tight anticipation.
I didn’t miss the way Reed’s heated gaze dropped to my mouth or the growing warmth of his big hand enveloping my knee. Scowling, he blinked and pulled his hand away, like he hadn’t realized what he was doing.
He picked up our plates and stood. “I’ll take care of the dishes. Dinner was delicious.”
“Oh, sure.” I popped up and followed him into the kitchen where I’d set my purse.
He roughly scraped the scraps from my plate into the garbage and then put the plate in the sink. There was nothing left on his, which again sent a bubble of joy through me.
“Well, I’ll do my first cleaning tomorrow while you’re at work. I can put this spaghetti away for tomorrow’s dinner.”
“No, I’ve got it,” he quickly said, turning toward me with a hand on the sink. “I’ll put this away for tomorrow.”
“I didn’t have time to do a salad, but I can make you one for tomorrow night.”
He watched me with those keen eyes, the tip of his mouth curling up like I loved so much. That look always lightened the mood and eased the tension that seemed to constantly build between us.
“You don’t have to. This is better than anything I’ve eaten since last time I went to Nana’s.”
I laughed and pulled my purse over my shoulder. “Good.” I nodded emphatically. “Tomorrow then.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
“I don’t think I’ll get attacked in the driveway, Reed.”
His scowl returned full-force. “I’ll walk you out,” he repeated, voice deepening to something dangerous, the lightness of a second ago vanishing.
I turned and walked ahead of him, wondering what had set him off. Then, automatically, my thoughts raced to that time long ago where Ihadbeen attacked in a driveway. The time that he’d saved me.
That was the first secret he’d kept for me. He’d never told Jonah. Never told a soul.
When I walked down the steps into the evening heat, I turned. “Thanks again, Reed. For everything.”
Rather than answer, he simply nodded and watched me all the way to my car, arms crossed. He was still watching on his porch when I backed out onto the main road and drove away.
Only when I was finally out of sight did my muscles relax and the tension ease. It had always been that way between us. While I couldn’t ever seem to make the discomforting tightness go away, it didn’t compel me to leave his company. The opposite, actually.
It was like that feeling you get on a roller coaster when you’re climbing that first steep incline. Your stomach is tight, butterflies are building, and your nerves are bearing down and getting you ready for the exciting big drop. That’s how I felt every time I was with Reed. Except we never got to the big drop. Not yet anyway.
But a girl could dream.
Chapter Five
~REED~
As I drove homefrom Anna’s studio around eight, I was still working out how to get Hale to help me on this job for her without spilling her secret to Jonah. I’d finished gutting it this week, including the carpets, but I’d need professional help to put down the hardwood floors.
Jonah and I had known Hale since high school. And afterwards, when he’d started his construction company with nothing but an inexperienced crew of buddies looking to make an extra buck, we were in on it.
While Jonah left for college and only came home to help work on Hale’s crew during summers, I’d stayed on and worked my way up to become his first foreman. His company expanded quickly so that I was in charge of my own crew, building mostly residential houses in newer neighborhoods in Beauville and towns nearby.
