He cleared his throat. “I was going to watch a movie. If you want to stay, we could watch it together.” He pointed to the chair on his right, far away from the couch, indicating we would not be sitting together, and I relaxed a little.
“As friends,” he added, and I laughed.
“You know a spooked widow when you see one, don’t you?” I asked him, walking over to plop into the chair beside him as he tucked into the soup.
He nodded. “I was one once.”
I squirmed a little in my seat, but I was curious about this topic. “Have you…dated since Scarlett?”
“A couple of first dates. It was weird.”
I nodded. It would be weird.Soweird.
I changed the subject. “What movie are we watching?”
Seth handed me the remote and leaned back on the couch.
Wow. Was he letting me pick?
“Super sappy Hallmark love story it is, then.” I teased.
“Oh, good, my favorite.”
I rolled my eyes, but he was looking at me seriously.
“For real?” I asked.
He nodded. “Better if it’s a holiday love story.”
“Seth Knight. I’ve found your kryptonite. Hallmark movies.”
He grinned and then looked over his shoulder at the front door. “Don’t tell the boys. As far as they are concerned, I watchThe Godfatherin here.”
I tipped my head back, laughed, and then selected a cute holiday love story.
As the movie played, I kept flicking glances over at Seth to see any indication he was bored or had fallen asleep, but he watched with rapt attention, and I thought it was adorable. The six-foot-five-inch-tall cattle rancher was a gooey cinnamon roll inside. I decided then that the more I got to know about him, the more I liked him. James would have loved him. They would have been fast friends. When the movie ended, Seth got up and walked me out.
He looked down at my belly and shook his head in wonder.
“What?” I asked.
“The movie got me thinking. Next Christmas, you’ll have a six-month-old baby.”
I gasped. He was right.
“Whoa. I’m not ready.” I felt dizzy just thinking about it. “I don’t even have a crib.”
Something flicked across Seth’s face, a sadness so profound it was like a punch to the gut to watch.
“What? What’s wrong?”
He peered down the hallway and chewed his lip. “I’d like to show you something.”
An ominous feeling came over me then. I knew I was about to step into Seth’s past. I just knew it. And I was ready. I’d been waiting to know more about what had made this man the man he was now. But I hadn’t expected what I saw next.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Seth
