“Saw you brought Max back with you… are you planning on going back out?”
It was the perfect opportunity to tell her, but my mouthsimply wouldn’t form the words:Yes, I’m dropping you and Max at my brother’s and never seeing you again.
“You don’t want to talk about anything. Okay.” She cut off my thoughts and smiled. A twinkle of excitement flashed in her eyes. “But are you hungry?”
My gaze shifted to a cooler at the edge of the dock—that I hadn’t even noticed when I’d walked up. Another missed clue for the par.
“What’s this?”
“Dinner.”
46
JAGG
“Lunch, and now dinner?”
She shrugged, that familiar flicker of shyness softening her features—the same shift I’d noticed when she pulled the picnic basket from her truck earlier. She was quieter when it came to real emotions. Maybe even a little uneasy with vulnerability. And damn it if that didn’t make her even more endearing. It felt like I was getting a glimpse of something no one else got to see.
I didn’t know what to do, what to say. How could I tell her I was leaving? That I’d made a decision—one I hadn’t had the guts to follow through on yet.
… And I was hungry.
I took the plaid blanket from her hands—the same one we’d used at lunch.
“Thought maybe we could eat and watch the sun set,” she said, already reaching for the rest of the supplies.
It sounded… perfect. Exactly what I wanted at that exact moment. No—what I needed.
I laid the blanket at the edge of the dock while Sunny moved around me, lighting a circle of Citronella candlesthat cast golden glows across the wood. She set out a can of bug spray at the end, then added a few pillows, napkins, and plates—effort in every detail. A twilight dinner on the lake.
“Sit,” she said, a little firmer now.
So I did. I smoothed the edges of the blanket, needing something to do with my hands, already feeling the quiet tension that lingered beneath the peace of the moment. Like we both knew time was ticking.
She settled beside me, close, but not quite touching. Poured red wine into two paper cups and handed one over.
I took a sip. Rich. Smooth. Delicious.
She'd thought of everything.
And it scared the hell out of me how much I liked it.
“How’s Brute?” I asked.
Concern pulled her face. “Vet said he needs to have surgery.”
Words I’d heard more than a few times.
“You going to do it?”
She nodded. “Anything to take his pain away.”
I was glad to hear it. That damn dog had squirmed its way into my heart.
Sunny opened the thermal bag and began unloading the contents. The smell of salsa, cheese and bacon filled the air, but it wasn’t until she unwrapped a burrito the size of a mini-submarine and placed it on my plate that my stomach growled. Loud.
In awe, I shook my head and looked at her. “Don’t tell me it’s a breakfast burrito.”
