Goodness, but it’s getting hot in here.
“I…ah…I think we should get back to the game,” Leah said.
Caleb’s searing gaze remained on her, causing a flood of warmth to invade her bloodstream. Several long, weighty moments drifted by before he finally released her from his sensual stare.
“Let’s see, two truths and a lie.” He tapped his fingers against his lips. “I hate ice cream. I coach youth basketball at the YMCA.” He paused. His eyes honed in on hers again, suffocating in their intensity. “I’ve had a thing for my neighbor since the very first time I met her.”
Leah’s breath caught. Her heart began to beat triple time, thumping like mad within her chest as Caleb’s softly whispered statement pierced the fragile bubbled she’d placed around this entire weekend. It was playacting, right? That’s what this was supposed to be.
Leah cleared her throat and tried her best to ignore the sudden charge surging through the air. With a light laugh, she said, “Katherine said not to make the lie too obvious, remember? It’s clearly the last one.”
Caleb stared at her for a long time before slowly shaking his head. “Wrong. I love ice cream. I’ve also had a thing for my neighbor since the moment I saw her stealing herbs from my garden.”
Awareness fluttered in her belly. “Caleb.”
“I kept it to myself because you were with Derrick, but you’re no longer with him,” he continued. “I’m not going to deny how I feel about you, Leah. Not anymore.”
“Caleb, I—”
But before she could complete the thought, Katherine Mumford clapped her hands, ending the session.
A manic level of anxiety surged through Leah as they made their way back to the center of the room where the rest of the couples had gathered. She didn’t even pretend to pay attention to whatever Geoff had begun to explain to the group. She could not get Caleb’s words out of her head, nor could she unsee the look she’d observed in his eyes.
Truth. Absolute, unmitigated truth. That’s what she’d seen in his eyes.
The fact that she was as taken aback as she now found herself only confirmed that she could no longer trust her own instincts. How could Caleb have had a thing for her since the day he first met her and she not realize it?How?
They weren’t the type of neighbors who invited each other over for backyard barbecues, but it wasn’t as if they went months without speaking to each other, either. Even if it was just a couple of minutes of small talk while she checked the mail or watered her flower bed. She’d had enough face time with Caleb to have read something into his feelings, hadn’t she?
Was he that good at hiding it, or was she just that bad at reading people? Lord knows she’d failed on that front when it came to her two ex-fiancés.
Even more alarming than discovering her neighbor’s year-long crush was acknowledging that the flutter that continued to hum in her belly when she thought about him was very much real. There was no playacting there. Her skin still tingled from when his fingers had brushed against hers while they worked on the puzzle together.
God, was she falling for him?
She couldn’t be. No way. This was nothing more than physical attraction.Intensephysical attraction, but that’s it.
She’d just broken up with a man she’d been engaged to marry. She wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle falling for someone else this quickly, even if that someone else did make her breath quicken and her heartbeat escalate with a simple smile.
At this point, Leah wasn’t just unsure if she could trust her own instincts, she was certain that she couldn’t. She’d been so wrong about Derrick. What if she was wrong this time?
* * *
Caleb castthe fishing line into the pond, then immediately reeled it in for a better one, even though his first cast had been damn near perfect. Taking his frustration out on his brand new, ridiculously expensive fishing rod was probably the dumbest move he could make, but then again, making dumb moves seemed to be the theme of the day.
Why in thehelldid he admit his feelings for Leah the way he had?
What happened to easing into it? Taking things slow? Not freaking her out?
“Idiot,” Caleb mumbled under his breath.
He’d come on way too strong, way too fast. Leah had been engaged to someone else less than forty-eight hours ago. Even if shedidfeel something remotely romantic toward him, she wouldn’t be ready to admit it. Not to him. Not even to herself. If she acknowledged any feelings for him whatsoever, she would have to acknowledge that she was preparing to marry a man she didn’t love.
Maybe shedidlove Derrick.
“No.” Caleb shook his head.
He refused to believe that. After what he’d learned about Leah’s relationship with her ex-fiancé—how being engaged to Derrick had dimmed the parts of her that should shine the brightest—Caleb could not fathom there being true love between them. But that didn’t mean she was ready to love anyone else either. It didn’t mean she was ready to lovehim.
