“I’m sorry if I scared you, you just seemed so happy dancing, I didn’t want to stop you.”
She lowered her eyes, embarrassed.
“You looked beautiful, and I especially like the fact that your clothes match.” It had been the perfect thing to say, as her spine went stiff, all uncertainty leaving her eyes.
“You’re so shallow.”
“It’s not shallow to want to look good, Hope.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You did that on purpose.”
“What?” He tried to look innocent, not an expression he’d ever pulled off with any success.
“Insulting me.” She took a step back as he advanced. “What are you doing?”
“You’re hot. You know that, right?’
“Neanderthal.”
Her eyes flared with heat that he was sure she saw in his as he stopped inches before her.
“Watching you dance was almost mystical, Hope. I’ve never seen that side of you before.” He cupped one cheek.
“What side?”
Knowing this subject was a minefield of wrong turns that he would likely take, Newman kissed her. It was soft and sweet, and he wanted to take it deeper but he was in the house of two elderly people who had once changed his diapers.
“The dancing side.”
She wrinkled her nose, and he even found that a turn-on.
“That made no sense.”
“Has anything about us, or this,” he rested a hand on her stomach, “made sense to you yet?”
She studied him.
“No, and you are way too good with words. I bet they’ve got you out of plenty of sticky situations using just the right combination.”
“It’s how I earn my living, sweet cheeks.”
“I reckon one of your birth parents was a politician.”
He smiled, because hearing her openly discuss and acknowledge that he was adopted felt good.
“I was thinking royalty. You know there’s something regal about me.”
She snorted, and poked him in the stomach. “I don’t think so, buddy.”
“I’m sorry if I upset you in the trails that day, Hope, with my proposal. I was a bit off-balance because I’d just gone a few rounds with my father, and this is not a situation I have a handbook for.”
She tilted her head to the side.
“Okay, so how about we work out the rules slowly, and together?”
Newman nodded, because there was a lump in his throat the size of a golf ball. She’d actually alluded to wanting to explore the future, and for now that was enough for him. Peace had once again been restored between them, and it felt good, even if he knew it was temporary. Taking a deep breath, he then let it out slowly, and began to tell her what he’d learned from Cubby.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
