“Is that your way of calling me old?”
I turn toward him, trying not to notice the silver bleeding through the sides of his short, black hair and how it amplifies his rugged good looks.
A big, solid man in a nice but simple suit and jacket. He’s older than Nick was, and his steady gaze was the exact opposite of how that slimy shit looked at me.
Nick never could look at me fully. Even when we were alone. And I’d thought it was exciting to catch him looking. Or maybe, he’d caught me.
Oh, how stupid I’d been.
I look into his green eyes again, and he raises a brow, like he’s caught me looking. Well, he should be used to people sizing him up.
I cross my arms as a barrier between us, because I certainly need one. “Do you really need an event coordinator?”
“I do.”
Why do I feel like that’s not the whole story? Perhaps it’s the calculation in his gaze, like he’s long since sized me up and is putting a plan into play.
Silence spreads between us, and it doesn’t seem to bother him one bit.
I’ve lived most of my life silently communicating with Gabe. This is nothing.
“See you bright and early. Seven a.m. The Lodge lobby.” The words hang for a second before he smiles at me and backs away.
It takes him half a dozen steps to turn away and head back the way he came.
I watch him go until he’s at the end of the block and looking over his shoulder at me.
What the hell just happened? Why do I have this unsettled excitement swimming around my center at the thought of not only getting out of the bakery but doing something I enjoy…with that man?
“Speed Demon Drew, why are you standing out in the cold?” Greyson calls from his front door, leaning easy and unbothered like he doesn’t want me to know he’d seen me with Adam. “Get in here, and I’ll make you some cocoa.”
6
GREYSON
Drew turns to me, cheeks pink and brown eyes bright. I saw the way Adam looked at her, and my protective instincts won me over.
Worry settles into my gut.
She’s lit up like I’ve rarely seen her, mouth parted like she’s going to give me a piece of her mind.
The want to treat her like the kid she was when I moved away doesn’t feel quite right, but she nods and comes up the steps.
Tightness contracts in my chest. I want to hear her lay into me if she’s got something to say, but she’s characteristically quiet as she slips past me through the front door.
“Weren’t you supposed to be at the bakery today?”
She takes off her coat and brandishes the bakery’s apron with a deadpan flourish. All the life radiating from her a mere moment ago vanishes.
“Went that well, did it?”
“Do you really need to ask? You know how this town is.”
I do. Unfortunately. The gossipers got a hold of my personal life not six months ago.
Nothing like having my marriage fall apart and people speculating over what’s wrong with me when I moved back into town.
Back to my childhood home at the mercy of my little brother’s generosity.
