And there it was. Maybe he’d forgotten how sensitive she was about the splatter of brown that covered her from head to toe. She could have handled a few on her nose—those girls were “cute”—but her body had gone all in, and the kids in school had teased her mercilessly about it. They had called her Leopard or Spot, and chased her with a marker threatening to “connect the dots.”She couldn’t count the number of times some well-meaning person had told her she had chocolate on her lip.
Jerk.
Okay, um…
She waited. Was it really that hard for him to think of something nice to say?
Another message appeared on her phone’s screen.
Your eyes. They’re like polished emeralds lit with fire.
Her heart kicked. Good God, now he was a poet. But he was toying with her. Wasn’t he?It was the only option she could handle.
Bravo. You can rake muck with the best of them.
The three dots appeared and then stopped several times.
Ten minutes passed.
Finally, he replied.
Sorry, gotta go. I’ll call later.
Her body drooped. How could she miss him already? She tapped the thumbs-up response and stuck her phone in her pocket.
Maybe she and Kurtcouldn’tbe friends after theyrescued Rose. She might too easily come to rely on his presence in her life again, and that was a risk she couldn’t take.
