He shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to worry you with that.” He offers me a sad smile. “That’s something I need to work at on my own.”
He lifts his water and takes another sip. I watch as his lips touch the glass and suck in the water only to flow down his throat.God, he’s gorgeous.
I’m still coming to terms with how long he’s liked me. Is it just that Perry and I had been together for so long that we’d forgotten what first attracted us to each other? Is that why it’s so nice to hear what Halsey first thought of me?
“You stunned me. It was your eyes that captivated me first. And then you smiled, and I was fucking gone. I honestly don’t think I heard one thing the entire time you talked to me. I was so caught up in the fact that I was feeling something for someone. I hadn’t felt anything since my brother died.”
He’s essentially waited for me. But what he’s noted about his stages of grief does concern me, if I’m honest.
“I was pretty dead inside, Blakely. I shut down after Holden passed, and when I met you, I felt this zap of life inside me. Like this fog had momentarily parted and let me see something,someone outside of my dreary life. You rocked me, and I knew I needed to learn about you.”
Does this mean he’ll always process things internally? Because Perry was a little like that. And I realize now that it’s probably what helped us drift apart. We became so good at simply problem-solving internally.
Halsey is such a different, complex man from what I thought initially. He’s shy and quiet. There’s his alpha, overprotective male side—which still gets me hot. The sex god. The swoon-worthy man. But I’ve always sensed his deeper, angry side, suggesting that terrible things have happened, and he’s never really dealt with them.
If he doesn’t address them, that can’t bode well for our relationship. It’s textbook. Should I be worried that he doesn’t want me to be involved in that?
“Would you like dessert?” the server asks, breaking through our short bout of silence.
“Just the check,” Halsey says, which makes me worried from his curt tone.
“Not a problem. Be right back.”
The server takes off, and I’m about to apologize again for making things so awkward that he wants to cut the date short, but then he says, “I wanted to walk around the public market and grab some dessert from a vendor. Does that work for you?”
“Oh yeah, that would be great.”
“You sure?” he asks. “Because if you like something on the menu here, we can get it.”
God, he’s so sweet.
I shake my head. “No, grabbing something from a vendor sounds like fun.”
“These are so pretty,”I say as I check out the thin gold bracelets that caught my eye at one of the jewelers. “Did you make these?” I ask the vendor.
“I did,” the woman says. “It’s one of my favorite sets.”
“Can she see them?” Halsey asks.
“Of course,” the woman says as she pulls them out of the case.
Halsey reaches for the bracelets and unclasps them one by one, only to nod for me to lift my wrist.
I give him a look, but he doesn’t let up, so I lift my wrist and he puts them on.
They’re so delicate and beautiful.
“Do you like them?” Halsey asks.
I look up at him. “I know that look, and you’re not getting them for me.”
He retrieves his wallet and fishes out his card. “Too late.” He hands the card over to the vendor, and she turns away, not wanting to be part of this argument. Smart lady, take the money and run.
“Halsey, they’re too much.”
“They’re not,” he says as he lifts my chin and presses a kiss to my lips.
“Here you go,” the vendor says as she hands back Halsey’s card and a receipt to sign. He scribbles his signature, then the vendor hands him a bag with the jewelry boxes in them, but he shakes his head.
