“You have a degree inbirds?”
“My textbooks mentioned them.”He moved into the living room as Furgie and I trailed behind.“Want me to get the fire going again or are you going off to bed?”
“Is it your bedtime?”
“No, I’ll be up for a couple of hours.”
I noticed what he was offering for what it was, it was barely late evening, definitely before I would normally go to bed.But he was giving me the option to retreat, and gain distance.
I shook my head.“I’m not tired.”
“You hungry?”
“Not really, but I could snack.”
He moved toward the kitchen, and despite how he squeezed past me trying not to enter my space, his arm brushed mine.Even though it wasn’t even skin on skin, my stomach flipped, and my heart skipped a beat or two.Nothing I couldn’t ignore.
But then his back was turned to me, and the full breadth of his shoulders were fully displayed.
I pinched my lips between my teeth to keep from groaning.
Forget the quilt, he was the coziest thing in this place.
Stop it.You do not lust after this man.
But I did.
I really did.
Chapter Fourteen
Alicia
Itwasalmostpainfulto admit, “You know, I want to be annoyed that the only snacks you had was cheddar cheese, apples, and peanut butter, but I’m really happy with this right now.”
“Are you sure?You gave me a lot of shit just a few minutes ago.”He shoved a peanut butter slathered slice of apple in his mouth.
“How do you not have a single potato chip in this place?”
He leveled narrowed eyes at me.“Because I ate them all.What do you do withyourchips?”
“You’re not being very considerate of your guests.”
“You noticed all of those,” he retorted sarcasm dripped from every word.
I lifted an eyebrow at the plate on the coffee table between us.“There was that woman at the clinic before my appointment a couple weeks ago.”
Groaning, he pressed the back of his head into the headrest of his recliner.“Don’t remind me.”
We’d moved into the living room after he’d plated the snacks.The quilt was draped over my lap, and it was even better than I’d remembered—a warm, comforting weight as if there was more than fabric and thread holding it together.Furgie was curled up on the sofa next to me, watching his cat perched on a window shelf on the other side of the room.She’d only whined when he’d hissed at her, but we kept her leash on her lying on the cushion next to me.
After Remi had ensured that I was settled, he’d turned his attention to the fire in the stove.
“So, what happened there?”I sounded like the answer didn’t matter to me, but if I was being fully honest with myself, it did matter.I didn’t want him spending the rest of his life pining over me or anything, I would just like to not be unimportant to him.There were invisible marks all over me, divots in the essence of who I was because of him.I just wanted to be there on him too.
“Nothing.”
“Okay, don’t tell me.It’d probably be weird to have that conversation, anyway.”
