When Arden looked into his eyes, all the steel in them was gone. So funny how her eyes could so quickly go from cold and hard to warm and light. So welcoming. So easy to fall in and forget.
She licked her lips and Kyle figured he must be deafening her with his heart pounding. “Thank you. I... You may think it’s weird, but that really does mean a lot to me.” She looked at his hand still holding hers, and her blush turned up a notch. “Kyle, you’re a good man. I’m really, really sorry that we have to be on opposite sides over Camo.”
“I am too,” Kyle said. And he meant it. He meant it down to his soul. “Because I think you’re a really good person too, Arden. But I can’t give up my dog.”
“And I can’t give him up either.” She pulled her hand away.
Goddammit. Why? Why’d it have to be her? The most perfect fucking woman I’ve ever met, a woman who sets me on fire with a look and makes me forget my own pain, and we gotta be at odds over the most important thing in my life.
Kyle wanted to scream. Instead, he said, “Well, at least we’re on the same side about this. And we don’t have to decide who Camo goes with for a while yet. At least not until after Christmas.”
“So you’re calling a truce?” Arden nodded to herself. “I can live with a truce.”
Nine
Dinner went quietly, at least on the surface. Arden pictured herself and Kyle as boxers retreating into their corners between rounds. She really could have used a trainer right about now, a rugged old guy rubbing her shoulders, taping up her hands, and telling her she had what it takes to win.Instead, I have me, myself, and I, per usual. She was proud of that, proud of her independent spirit, her ability to accomplish anything and everything on her own. But lately, she’d felt that pride wearing thin. She saw the holes in it, and through those holes, she recognized the people who did help her along the way. But along with that came the fear that they wouldn’t always be there. Like Sean.
So now what was she going to do with this tenacious Marine wolfing down her chicken and dumplings like it was the last food on earth? She fought back a smile as she watched him. He finally looked up and his chewing slowed from somewhere around the speed of light to slower than a cow chewing its cud, amusing her to no end.
“It’s delicious,” he said through a mouthful.
“You mean you can actually taste it? It’s not just warping past your tongue and straight into your stomach?”
“Old habits,” he said, taking a gulp of water. “And when I like something this much, I just tend to go for as much of it as I can, and as fast as I can.”
Whoa. That woke up her nethers. Arden crossed her legs under the table and gave herself a little squeeze. She tried not to think of what else she’d like to give him. “By all means, help yourself to more.” Was it possible to physically hurt yourself with a mental facepalm?
Kyle’s gaze dropped briefly from her eyes to the rest of her—again, dressed in her least-flattering clothes—and then abruptly got up with his empty bowl and went to the slow cooker. Was that a hard pass? Of course it was a hard pass; she looked dreadful and dull. She couldn’t blame him. God, why was she thinking this at all? Gee, maybe it had something to do with the perfect ass she couldn’t help but steal a glimpse of as he dished out a second helping. Arden looked away quickly when he turned around and he didn’t even try to meet her gaze.
From his bed, Camo suddenly lifted his head and scanned the room. Kyle noticed immediately and went pale as he looked around too.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He held up a finger to quiet her. Then he gestured for Camo to come to him. The dog trotted over silently, still on alert. After a minute, Camo relaxed but Kyle stayed on-high.
“Camo did that last night, too. After you fell asleep. Just looked up and scanned. I thought maybe he heard something outside, but I didn’t see anything.”
“Ah,” Arden nodded. Time to have some fun. “Well, the ranchishaunted.”
“Haunted?” Kyle looked around, and then realized what he was doing. He grinned at her as one eyebrow raised. “By Nancy?”
“Who else would have the fortitude to come back and haunt a house? She loved this place. Loved her family. My brother and I used to try and scare each other about her. She’s actually buried on the property. Family graveyard. Creepy, huh?” She laughed when his eyes went wide.
“You’re shitting me. There’s a graveyard on the property?”
“I kid you not. She’s buried there next to her husband, Jim. All of her children and their spouses. It gets patchy after that. Not everyone stuck around here. But my grandparents and parents are all there. My brother and I have our plots, too. We used to creep each other out about those, too. We’d dare each other to go in the graveyard at night, or one of us would go in there and say, ‘Hey, look, I’m walking on your grave.’ Stupid kid stuff, you know?”Great. Way to go. You’ve weirded him out.
Arden expected him to roll his eyes, or maybe get up and back away slowly, take his chances outside with the snow. He nodded instead.
“My team used to do stuff like that. Before every mission, we’d make the most morbid jokes.”
“So you don’t think I’m weird?”Which is the gold standard question asked by weirdos.
“Oh, I absolutely think you’re weird.” Kyle leaned in, his voice going lower. “But as long as Camo likes you, you can’t be all bad.”
“What about you? What do you think?” Arden said, matching his tone as her heart sped up.
“Already told you, I think you’re a good person, Arden.” Those moonlight-on-snow eyes started to look more like warm, inviting pools. But how deep? How dangerous?
