Such a silly, stupid thing to get excited over, but there was no running from what Carson already knew—he liked her. A lot. More than a man like him deserved.
He twitched his head toward the exit. “I thought I could help you clean up at the shop. What do you think?”
Her eyes melted into even deeper pools. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I’d like to. If you want me.”
Her breath hitched. For a long heartbeat, neither knew what to say. Finally, she gave a small nod, her lips turning up in a gentle smile. “I do.”
Before he made a complete ass of himself, he led the way to the truck. Then he focused on navigating the familiar road into Willowbrook. When they turned onto Main, the front of her shop came into view, the window display destroyed.
She dragged in a rasping breath. “I swear it looks even worse today.”
“Then we’ll make the inside better.” He turned into the alley leading to the parking lot in back.
They settled to work in the old rhythm of the previous day, sorting books into piles that she began arranging on the shelves. They finished one big bookcase and moved on to the next.
This one didn’t fare as well as the first. Several of the shelves were broken and collapsed on top of each other.
He rolled up his sleeves, aware of Felicity’s stare tracing his movements. “I can fix this.”
Her breaths came faster, and her cheeks dusted with color in a way that made his gut tighten more. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Marine.”
His body was already turning. He took a step closer to her, hovering over her. She gazed up at him, her lips tipped upward, just meant for kissing.
He let out the breath he was holding. “Do you have a hammer?”
“Red toolbox. In the back.” She sounded as if she’d run a marathon.
He forced his legs to move, to walk away from her when everything inside him wanted to yank her flush against him and show her just how amazing she was.
He easily found the toolbox and carried it back to the broken bookcase. She had found some dusting cloths and was busy cleaning the shelves. He set to work removing the broken shelves so he could restabilize them.
“Tell me something about you.” Her quiet command shouldn’t make his pulse leap, but when it came to her, his body didn’t follow any rules.
He huffed a laugh. “What do you want to know?”
“What’s next for you?” She paused in her dusting, hand relaxed on the shelf. “You’re here now, but is this the plan? Are you staying? Drifting?” Her eyes twinkled. “World domination?”
He swung to face her, shrinking the distance between them without even trying. “Honestly? I don’t know.”
Her brows rose a fraction. “You always seem so sure.”
“It was easier when someone handed me orders. In the military, there’s always a next mission, a next objective. Out here…” He issued a slow breath. “I feel most at home on the ranch. The work makes sense. And the quiet. But beyond that? I’m still trying to figure out who I am when I’m not wearing a uniform.”
She was silent for a beat, gaze searching his. “It’s okay, Gabe,” she said finally. “It’s okay if the answer isn’t big or impressive. It’s okay to just…be. To do normal life things. Mundane things. You don’t have to save the world every second to matter.”
The words hit him harder than he expected. Everyone always framed his worth in terms of service—what he’d done, who he’d protected—himself included.
She took a step closer, bringing her sweet scent and her freckles and those tantalizing lips closer too.
“You’re allowed to rest. To heal. To figure out what you want.” She pitched her voice to a whisper. “You’re allowed to just stand in a ruined bookshop with a woman who doesn’t know what she’s doing next either.”
His hand lifted without a command from his brain, and he slid his fingertips into the wave of hair at her ear that he’d been dying to touch all day.
He realized his lips were hovering mere inches from her sumptuous mouth. When had that happened? One second he was fixing shelves while chatting. The next he was close enough to see the tiny blue-green flecks in her eyes.
She didn’t back away. She flicked a quick glance at his mouth, then back up to his eyes.
