I wasn’t privy to what exactly caused the end of their relationship, but I’d bet good money her twit of an ex was the onewho fucked it all up. Ella wouldn’t have spent those first couple months so devastated and withdrawn otherwise.
Ezra’s words from a few days before came back to me then, reminding me that she’d been more devastated by the lost time than the lost love…so maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe she’d simply finally come to the realization that she could do better.
Whatever the reason, I was glad for it. Not that she’d been hurting, but that it was over. That I had a chance.
“Liam?” Ella prompted.
I blinked at her, realizing I had yet to give her a response. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
The words came out more skeptical than I intended, and I winced as I watched them land. As Ella’s shoulders curved in just a bit.
Determined to not let me see her sweat, though, she straightened her spine and tipped her chin up. With a scoff, like she was damn tired of people questioning her, she said, “Look, I know you’re a big, beefy man and can take care of yourself, but wouldn’t it be nice to have some company?”
Inwardly, I preened. Shehadbeen checking me out as I hauled those buckets earlier, and I definitely hadn’t imagined the way her eyes darkened when I’d flipped my hat backward.
Damn. It turned out that move really did work. For me, it was a force of habit, but I wasn’t above performing it more often simply to see that color rise to her cheeks again.
Admittedly, I was a big dude, but Ella wasn’t petite by any means. Each of the Delatou daughters was only two or three inches shy of six feet. Ella was on the curvier side, and I loved that about her.
In fact, she had an ass I wanted to sink my teeth into. I never thought I was an ass man until the first time I laid eyes on hers.
I raised an amused brow in response to her statement. “Beefy?”
Ella’s cheeks turned pink again, and I found myself desperate to reach out and brush my fingertips over that warmth. Fuck, I bet her skin would be so smooth under my rough hands.
And not just the skin on her face.
There I was, thinking about her ass again.
Marching ahead despite my light teasing, she waved a hand at me, eyes scanning my body up and down.
“Yeah,” she said, likeduh. “Beefy. How tall are you anyway?”
“Six four.”
“Fucking hell,” she breathed as she stepped closer, close enough that we were basically sharing air. “I’m five ten and you make me feel tiny.”
I reached up and tugged on a lock of her hair. “Youaretiny. Like a little wildflower compared to all this lumber,” I said with a grin, flexing my biceps. “But you’re strong too.”
“As weird as this is going to sound, ‘lumber’ kind of suits you.”
“Oh?” I asked. I hadn’t been serious; it’d simply been the best I could come up with. But I was interested to see why she thought so.
“You’re…rough around the edges. Like tree bark. But you’re solid and steady all the way through.”
I blinked in surprise. “That is…one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me.”
Ella giggled, the sound music to my ears. “Plus you dress like a fucking lumberjack.”
I tossed a piece of bread from my sandwich at her, but she batted it away, giggle morphing fully into a laugh.
“You’re a lot like a wildflower too,” I said quickly. “In fact, I think that’s what I’m going to start calling you.”
“And how is that, exactly?” she asked, sobering.
“Beautiful,” I told her, eyes scanning her face. She was beautiful in all ways, but without all that heavy makeup and dark lipstick she used to wear, she was breathtaking. I remembered a week ago, showing up at the winery greenhouse, my breath literally leaving me when she turned to look at me. It was the first time in months I’d seen her face free from that shit. Clear, olive skin. Marking pen eyebrows. Those gorgeous green eyes I wanted to get lost in for hours. “Stronger than she looks. They’re calledwildflowers for a reason. Nothing can tame them. They keep popping up no matter the circumstances.”
Ella appeared thoughtful for a moment, then said, “I like that.” She mouthed the wordwildflower, as though savoring it, turning it over in her mind and letting it soak in. Then her eyes clapped on mine again. “But you’re still not giving me an answer. Can I come on this road trip with you or not?”
