“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Are you sure we can’t just pretend you didn’t say anything?”
“No, I can’t.” Caleb took several steps, closing the rest of the distance between them. He trailed his finger down her bare arm. “And I don’t think you want to pretend I never said it either.”
“Caleb—”
“I like you, Leah. A lot. And, yes, it’s been that way for a while. But I kept quiet because the one thing I refuse to do is go after another man’s girl. But you and Derrick aren’t together, and I’m not going to just stand by and wait for the next guy to come along.Iwant to be that guy. I want to show you how good we can be together. Because I think we can bereallygood together, Leah.”
He brought his hand up to her hair and tucked several flyaway strands behind her ear. “Are you willing to give us a chance? We don’t have to rush. We don’t have to change anything we’ve been doing.”
“We werepretendingto be a couple,” she pointed out.
“Youwere pretending.”
She sucked in a breath. “Caleb—”
“Just give me a chance.” He cut her off before she could issue another protest. “That’s all I’m asking for. Just a chance. It may turn out that it’s better if I’m just the guy who lives right next door, but what if it turns out that I really am your Mr. Right? Don’t we both deserve the chance to see where this leads?”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and Caleb almost gave in to the urge to kiss her. But it would be the worst thing he could do seconds after telling her they could take things slow. Instead, he gave her arm a gentle squeeze.
“So?” he asked.
“Okay,” Leah said. Her smile was hesitant, but at least she was smiling. “Let’s see where it leads.”
The relief that rushed through his system was so intense it nearly brought Caleb to his knees.
“Good,” he said after releasing the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“So, where do we go from here?” Leah asked.
His mouth tipped up in a grin. “Do you want to join Katherine and Geoff for the relationship obstacle course?”
“I think I’ve had enough of Katherine and Geoff for the day,” she said. She tipped her head to the side. “Would you mind coming into town with me? Well, what constitutes ‘town’ here. I noticed some pottery outside of a little antiques store we passed yesterday. I’d love to take a closer look at their pieces.”
Caleb picked up his fishing rod and pail of bait.
“Let’s go pottery shopping.”
