“Eastern. I don’t think he’d hurt me. I think he just wanted to talk.”
The look Eastern gave her said he didn’t believe her.
“He plays it tough, but he’s really not,” she added softly as the doors opened and they stepped out onto the fourth floor. “Trust me, if my slap didn’t make him want to run, then your arm-twist move did.”
Eastern frowned as she stopped at her door. “You slapped him?”
“Yep. Right across the face.” The door opened, and she cringed. “Wait, I probably shouldn’t have said that to you, right? Is that assault? Damn, I just keep coming off as this crazy, violent person.”
Humor sparked his eyes. “It’s not assault if it’s self-defense.”
Ha. It was less self-defense and more unresolved anger, but sure, she’d let him think it was self-defense.
She stepped into her apartment and dropped her stuff onto the side table before grinning at Eastern. “Yeah, it was definitely that then.”
He chuckled as he stepped inside after her. “I wish I’d been there to see it.”
“Maybe next time you will.” Crap, she needed to stop admitting to her combatant tendencies.
She opened her mouth to take it back, but the way he was looking at her stopped her cold. It was a look filled with heat and pride and…something else. Something much more primal.
Swallowing, she slipped past him into the kitchen. “Do you drink tea? It’s a bit late for coffee, and not everyone’s a tea person, but I love a chamomile before bed.”
Not only was she rambling, but with the pantry door open, she was hiding. Hiding because she didn’t trust herself around this man. He was in her apartment, taking up all the space, smelling far too good and looking way too kissable.
When she had the tea box in her hand and had no other reason to stand behind the pantry door, she finally closed it to see Eastern in her kitchen. God, he really did make her place look tiny.
“Tea would be nice,” he said, voice like silk.
Shit. Hold it together, Sadie. Do not give him another reason to kiss you—it’ll just be followed by a painful apology.
Turning, she filled her kettle with water. “So,” she started, desperate to fill the silence with anything. “You were a Navy SEAL?”
“I was.”
She turned to look at him over her shoulder as she set the water on the stove and pulled out two mugs. “But you left.”
“Yeah, Dad got sick before he passed away, and that was a wake-up call I needed. I’d missed his last few years, and I knew if I didn’t get out, I’d miss too much of Avery growing up.”
Something inside kicked at his words. She set the mugs onto the island and put in the tea bags. “I know what you mean. I was only away from Avery for a year, and yet she seems so much older.” She grabbed honey from the cupboard. “Do you miss it?”
“Every damn day. I loved my time in the military. But I don’t regret leaving, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat to be her full-time father.”
Barely thinking about what she was doing, she reached over and slipped her hand over his. “You’re a good father, Eastern. Avery’s lucky to have you.”
“It doesn’t always feel like that.”
She wasn’t sure if he meant to say those words out loud or if they’d just slipped out, because a frown creased his brow immediately after and he almost looked surprised.
She grazed her thumb over the back of his hand, wanting to give him some form of comfort. “Jamie hired me to watch Avery from the time she was a baby. Six months old. And from the second she could talk, all she wanted to talk about was you. Her big strong daddy, who lifted her up into his arms and made the rest of the world disappear.”
“When he was around.”
Those words cut into her. So did the guilt and vulnerability in his voice. “You can’t be everything to everyone all the time, Eastern. But you’ve come pretty close.”
He dipped his head, and she had to force herself away from him to grab the boiling water from the stove and fill the mugs.
As they drank their tea, they shared stories of times Avery had made them smile or laugh. They spoke about Sugar and Spice and her grandmother, and all their favorite cupcakes and cookies. Eastern even told her the funnier details about Denny’s arrest.
