Page 92 of Reckless: Chaos

He set down his fork, picked up his napkin, and wiped his mouth. “Cooking class.”

She nearly choked on her water. “You took a cooking class?”

“As a favor to—” He looked away. “I had my arm twisted.”

She swallowed and took a drink of water. “Girlfriend? Bad break-up?”

“Wife. And yes.”

Wife?He was married?

Something in the way he said it told her that topic was not up for discussion, much like almost every other topic she could imagine, since Cole Turner wasn’t one to discuss anything.

Was this what everyone was always hinting about whenever his name came up? All the hushed, gossipy comments about “all he’d been through”—was that about some mysterious wife whose heart he’d broken? Or who had broken his heart?

Would she ever know?

“You?”

She glanced up. “Me what?”

“Ever married?”

Was that a thing people asked—like “have you ever had sushi?” When she got married, she was getting married for life.

“Um, no.”

“Probably smart.” He put his silverware and napkin on his plate.

“It’s not a choice,” she said. “Or at least not a conscious one.” She took a bite. “I’ve never even had a boyfriend.”

He stopped moving and stared at her. “Never?”

It wasn’t a conscious choice to tell him that either. Her mouth seemed to have a mind of its own.

“Never.” She shrugged, smiled, played it off like it was perfectly normal in her line of work even though she knew it absolutely was not.

She was the weirdo who’d never dated anyone. The head-down, get-it-done ballerina with something to prove, though she’d never quite figured out who she was proving it to. Her mother? Herself? There was a part of her that cried out,Am I good enough yet?but who was she hoping would answer that question?

“Wasthata choice?”

She covered her plate with her napkin. “It was a choice to dance.”

He eyed her like he was trying to make heads or tails of her, like he didn’t know what to make of what she was saying. It made her feel even more like a weirdo. “So, this dance thing—it was a big deal.”

“It was everything,” she said.

“Yeah, it seems like you’d have to give up a lot to get to where you are.” He took a drink of water.

She frowned. How did he know where she was? Before she could ask, he set his drink down and met her eyes.

“So, have you ever been on a date?” He watched her curiously, as if she were an animal behind glass at the zoo.

“I dated dance,” she said with another shrug. “That was all I had time for.”

And it’s why I left. I’m looking to go out and get a life and friends and maybe even a boyfriend and I’m wonderinga lotabout you, Cole Turner. Would you make a good first boyfriend? And what would it be like to kiss you?

The thoughts sent heat to her cheeks.