My heart dropped and I broke our stare off. He was in love with someone? Maybe it was Stella, his high school girlfriend. I never knew why they broke up, but she was heartbroken. Maybe Rhett was as well? You could never tell since he didn’t show emotions very often.
“Right. None of my business anyway.” I pointed to his bowl. “Do you want more?”
“I’m good.” I gathered the bowls together and started cleaning up the room. Rhett followed me to the kitchen, thwarting my attempt at escaping.
“Are you going to tell me why you thought I was engaged?”
“I told you, I heard it somewhere.”
“And I don’t believe you.” He caged me in, my back to his front, his whole body touching mine, his lips brushing my ear when he spoke. Dear lord, I couldn’t think straight when he was this close. Ever heard of personal space? “Now why did you think I was engaged?”
“I saw it on Facebook.”
“I don’t have an account.”
“It wasn’t on your Facebook.”
“How much stalking did you actually do, Emmi?”
Another brush of his lips and I was ready to jump out of my skin. When I didn’t respond straight away he trailed his hand up my arm. And I was a pile of mush.
“Not that much.” If three nights of obsessively trying to find anything on Rhett could be called not much. “Your girlfriend doesn’t have a privacy setting on her account. Anyone can just look at her pictures. So I did. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Still doesn’t explain why you thought I was engaged.”
Another touch of his hand, this time across my stomach.
“The picture said future Mrs. Rhett Cormack. And she was wearing a giant ring on her finger.”
“I’ll say this again. I have never been engaged. Anyone could have posted that picture. I go to a lot of functions and meet a lot of people.”
If that didn’t say I meet a lot of women and don’t remember who they are, I didn’t know what did. The real question was could I be mad at him for it? A little bit, because I was a woman. Was I willing to let it go to see where this was going? Probably. Who cared, we weren’t going to fall madly in love. I needed to have a bit of fun. And since I’d sworn off dating, this was going to be the next best thing. And despite my many declarations to the contrary, I trusted him.
He pressed in closer and my breathing became choppy. I braced my shaky hands on the counter, relishing the feel of having him this close. What was he doing to me? God, I hoped he wasn’t playing one of his games.
“Okay,” I squeaked out before my voice gave out when he pressed a kiss to my neck. It was so soft, I hardly felt it, wondering if I was imagining his gentle caress.
“What about you, Emmi? Have you ever been engaged?”
“Me? No, never got that far. My last boyfriend couldn’t run away fast enough when I got custody of Josie.”
“He sounds like an idiot. And I’m glad for it.”
“He was an idiot.”
His hand was now splayed across my stomach, his thumb lightly brushing back and forth. What was happening? Did I fall asleep on the bed? Maybe the mac and cheese was drugged.
“Mimi?” Josie’s voice came from the hallway. I pushed against Rhett, who released me and stepped back.
“In the kitchen,” I responded, feeling flustered.
Josie came toddling from the hallway, barely keeping her eyes open. I met her halfway and picked her up, cuddling her close. She instantly went limp, her head snuggling into my neck. “Me tired.”
“I know,Spatz. Let’s brush your teeth and get you to bed. You want to say good night to Rhett?”
“Night, Rhett,” she said, not moving a muscle.
I was surprised she hadn’t fallen asleep on the bed already.
“Night, honey. I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.” He didn’t sound put out about it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was excited. He nodded at me and left. Without a word. Like the last ten minutes hadn’t happened.
