There was a sadness in the curve of his smile.“It’s enough.”
Ugh.Shut up.
But I didn’t really mean it, and I reminded myself that it was a sign of my personal growth that I only thought it instead of screaming it at him or shoving a cupcake in his face.
“What about you?”he asked, catching me off guard.“What do you want?”
“To save this wetland and get home,” I said ignoring his deeper meaning.It was true, but there was no denying “home” felt a lot more like him than Chicago.
With the cupcake in his hand, he ate about half of it in one bite.“Do you have more signatures to get?”
“Yeah, there were a lot of duplicates.”I covered my mouth with one hand as I spoke around a mouthful of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.“I just have this feeling like time’s running out.Frost laws will lift soonish, and that’s bad news for me.”
He tilted his head in question.
“Because semi’s are so much heavier, they cause a lot more damage to the roads, and while the ground is frozen there are certain roads they can’t go on unless they have a special permit.Our lawyer at the capitol has heard that they’re already applying for driveway permits and such.They must be getting pretty close to finalizing the purchase of the land, and I might still be able to fight the land’s development at that time, but it’ll be harder and a complete reset of my strategy.My limitations are set by how warm it gets and how quickly the ground thaws.”
“And it’s supposed to be in the forties next week,” he observed.
I nodded.“My best chance of winning is changing the zoning before the property is sold.Even if I get the signatures, a vote still has to happen and pass.Time’s running out.”
I could feel it like a physical thing.A ticking in my chest, a bomb about to go off.
“Hmm.”Remi swallowed his last bite.“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just keep helping me get signatures and whatever sway you have to win the vote when we get it.”
“I don’t know how much I could do there, but I’ll do what I can.”
“Please, Remi, you have to know how popular you around here.Hell, I hadn’t even lived here for a day, and I was warned that my neighbor wasreallyhot.I think the name was doc-too-hottie; not exactly a catchy nickname but it speaks for itself.”
“Does it?”His eyes lit with amusement.
I rolled my eyes.“Does your ego need me to tell you you’re hot?”
“Would you, for my ego?”
I was ready to say the truth, but I wasn’t willing to do it with full sincerity.Stuffing the rest of my chocolate cake in my mouth, I mumbled, “You’re likereallyhot.”
“You’reso hot,” he retorted, laughing and shaking his head.
“You really think so?”I smiled back knowing my teeth must be covered with masticated cake.
“God, I do.You have a little frosting”—he gestured at the whole front of his face.
“Do I really?How could that have happened?”
He snorted.“It’s a mystery.Here.”
I froze when he reached for me, knowing how his thumb would brush my cheek.A shiver ran up my spine at his touch—then he swiped at my chin and nose sending my sexy-to-funny ratio too far in the funny direction for my liking.It left me wondering if the joke had been worth it.
“You wild animal,” he practically growled, and I felt it through my whole body.
On the pad of his thumb was a dollop of frosting.He went to suck it clean.
“That’s mine,” I blurted out, clearly too fogged up on raw emotion, his attention, and lust to have any control over my mouth or actions.I took hold of his wrist in both hands.
Slowly, he shook his head from side-to-side while holding my gaze.“You always were food protective.”
