Maybe he was meant to tell her, that’s why.
If the acknowledgment of his love was like a flame, the challenge of telling her was a full-on explosion.
No.He rejected the idea at once, forcing his attention back to the list of details before him. They were heading back to the university today. The place he’d first heard and seen her speak. Even in recollection, the moment was a thing of beauty.
Sophia’s voice continued from the other room, traveling down the hall where Blayze stood. “… which is why I encourage you to get out to those polls and vote,” she said with a flourish. Roman started a round of applause, and Blayze pulled himself away from the wall to join him.
He formed anokaysign with his hand and brought it to his mouth. With his pointer finger and thumb pinned between his lips, he let out a long whistle.
Sophia grinned at him from across the room. A blue apron wrapped snuggly around her waist, a smudge of flour on her cheek, and a pair of pink, fluffy slippers on her feet.Dang, she was cute.
“I like the outfit choice,” he said as he moved toward the dining area.
She laughed. “Thanks. I didn’t want to come across too intimidating.”
“Too late,” he assured. She’d intimidated him since day one.
The oven timer rang out, causing Blayze to inhale the incredible aroma filling the cabin. He pondered for no more than a second and spun to Sophia as he recognized it.
She was shuffling around the island toward the oven. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” she purred. “You said it was one of your mother’s specialties, and I wanted to do something for you.” She slid a pan onto the granite countertop. A dozen plump, pumpkin cookies filled the pan, each dotted with dark chunks of chocolate. “I hope it’s close enough to your mother’s recipe.”
The sincerity he saw in her eyes made him want to pull her into his arms and assure her, between long, passionate kisses, that they’d be perfect. Blayze was pretty sure he wasn’tactuallyentertaining the idea, but the fact that Roman’s presence topped the list of reasons he couldn’t said a lot. “I’m sure they’ll be perfect.”
She caught her lip between her teeth, eyes pasted on him as she rounded the counter. She stood so close to him that her hands, which were folded before her, grazed his chest. “Good,” she said, then reached in and kissed him on the nose. “I’m going to grab a few outfits to choose from.” Her shoulder rubbed against him as she glided by.
Blayze stood very still as she walked away, musing that if Roman wasn’t in the room he’d have definitely pulled Sophia in to sample those lips. Perhaps the words he’d decided not to speak may have come out after all. The thought of saying them seemed almost natural to him in the moment.
“Boy, are you in trouble,” Roman said under his breath.
Blayze shook his head and spun to face the man. “You said it.”
“Today’s not going to be a walk in the park.” Roman moved around the counter and rinsed out his mug.
“As they say in the SEALs,” Blayze said, “the only easy day was yesterday.”
“I have all the faith in the world in you,vato,” Roman said. “I can say that with all my heart.”
Blayze gulped, sensing he wasn’t finished just yet.
“Still…” He squirted a drop of dish soap into the stopped sink basin and turned on the faucet. “I have a feeling that says we’ve got to watch her good today.”
Blayze gulped again, nodding in agreement while his insides screamed. “Mr. Vasco said that a few local news stations posted schedules of who they’d hear from today, and her name was nowhere to be found.”
“Good,” Roman said. “So, we get her to the university. She’ll be the second-to-last speaker of the program, and we’ll have her out of there before the final speaker’s through.”
As Roman dunked the batter bowl into the suds, Blayze snatched the dishtowel off the oven handle, contemplating the hours that lay ahead.
He’d go into the challenge like the ones that had come before: fingers crossed with a prayer in his heart. Blayze supposed he’d have to do the same when it came to telling Sophia how he felt for her. He’d kept her at bay during their time together, save a weak moment or two, but as his mother would say, a woman deserved to know when a man loved her. And whether he liked it or not, the time to tell her just might be now.
Chapter 18
Sunlit trees sped by in a blur through the tinted windows of the Land Rover. Sophia couldn’t help but think it was a good representation of the moment. Here they’d gone day after day in wait at the cabin, time nearly moving in slow motion as the date approached, and now it seemed to be rushing upon them, ready or not.
“I was really hoping to get a better idea of who we were up against before today.” Blayze’s comment was loud enough for Sophia to hear, but just barely. She wondered if he’d been murmuring to himself, but then he turned away from the window to face her. His expression was flat, somber. Almost regretful.
“Yeah,” Sophia replied. “I was hoping so too. But I guess we may never catch him unless he acts out again. It’s like that catch twenty-two. On one end I hope he never shows his face. But if he doesn’t, I’ll probably be haunted by him for the rest of my life.” There’d been a question looming in her mind, one she hadn’t spoken aloud: If nothing happened today, could she expect yet another package in three days’ time? How long would the cycle continue?
Blayze stretched an arm over the middle seat between them, offering his hand to her, palm up. Sophia glanced at his loosely curled fingers, considered slipping her own fingers through them, but had a better idea. With one quick move, she released her seatbelt and shrugged out of it. A swift slide across the leather seat and she was nudged up beside him
