It was only when they finally separated that she realized her tears had wet his shirt. “Oh God. I’m sorry.”
“You never need to apologize.” He gave her a steady look. “Want to talk about it?”
She shook her head. Absolutely not.
He seemed to consider that for a moment. “Okay. But youdoneed coffee.”
Despite everything, she laughed. Shereallyneeded coffee. “I do. But unfortunately, I’m all out.”
“Lucky for you, there are these great places that sell coffee. And not just the beans—they combine it with milk and put it in a cup.”
She playfully hit his shoulder. “Okay, funny guy, but that would require leaving the house, and I planned to be a hermit in my photo-editing cave today.”
“Take a break from the cave and come get a coffee with me.” When she nibbled her bottom lip, he cocked his head. “Please.”
Did he know that she could never say no to his please? “Okay. But can we walk? I need the fresh air.”
“You got it.”
It was only a ten-minute walk to The Tea House. A perk of Amber Ridge being the size of a shoe.
She grabbed her phone and pushed it into her back jeans pocket before stepping outside. Colt was there, waiting. He touched a hand to the small of her back. And even though she should probably have stepped away, she didn’t. She let the warmth of his palm heat her entire back.
Three minutes into the walk, she asked, “Aren’t you going to push?”
“Push what?”
“Me…for an answer. I just cried into your chest and said it was because I was tired.” Which was true. But why was she tired? Something she was sure Colt would like a specific answer to.
“I’d like to know. But it’s your choice if you share.” He shot a glance down at her. “I have another question for you, though.”
Oh God. “What?”
“How are you out of coffee?”
Her brows shot up. “That’s your question?”
“Yeah. You used to buy those pods in bulk as if every store within a sixty-mile radius was about to sell out.”
She cringed. It was true. She’d done so many sunrise shoots back then that she’d relied on coffee to get her going in the morning. She still relied on it, but pods were expensive. A problem she wasn’t going to share with Colt.
She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe I’ve changed in the last year.”
His brows flickered, and he was looking at her like he was wondering if that was true. In a lot of ways, it was. She felt better within herself. Her head was finally above water. But nothing had changed about the way she felt about Colt.
A couple minutes of silence passed. It was a nice silence. The kind that felt comfortable. But then, silence with Colt had always been comfortable, and neither of them had ever felt the need to fill it with unnecessary words or questions. It was the kind of quiet that she could sit in for a long time. And honestly, she would choose silence with Colt over any kind of noise with anyone else.
“So,” he finally said, breaking that quiet. “I’ve been wondering what these sperm donors are like.”
Jesus, she didnotwant to talk about that. “Colt—”
“I mean, how do they sell themselves?”
“Sell themselves?”
“Yeah. Do any of them make you think they have golden sperm?”
“Colt—”
