“All right.”
Blowing out a breath didn’t help. And then she sort of burst. “You’re doing too much.Givingtoo much.” Tunneling her fingers into her hair, she paced away. She probably looked deranged, but there was still so much up in the air. “All I meant to do was ask for a little time so I could get my finances in order. That’s it. Then I would get things figured out. I didn’t want to be seen as a victim.”
He snorted. “That’s the opposite of how I see you.”
“I wish I could believe that, but –”
“But nothing. You’re a survivor. You got out of a shitty situation and still managed to stay so sweet.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Right now,sweetdoesn’t exactly sound like a compliment.”
“From me it is,” he assured her. “You’re sweet but strong. Strong enough to make your son your priority. That’s admirable no matter how you view it.” He went quiet a moment, as if looking back at something important but grave. “It makes me wonder if someone else, another woman, might have been a survivor if she’d had a chance.”
Alert to the nuances of what he’d just said, Joey moved closer. “Do you want to tell me what that means, Hendrix?”
When he shook his head, she had to fight the urge to smack him. Instead, she threw up her hands and paced away. “Sweet or not, I wasn’t looking for you to save me, or protect me or house me. But it’s like one thing has led to another and now suddenly we’ve moved in on you.”
“Because I want you here.”
“You didn’t want Christmas,” she reminded him over her shoulder, “but my son twisted your arm about a tree.”
“It was my heart, not my arm.”
“I know how you feel about that. I mean, I don’t knowwhy.” A sudden surge of unreasonable annoyance brought right back, until she almost chest-bumped him. “I spilled my guts to you.Twice, Hendrix. You know everything there is to know about me. Every humiliating detail. All I know is that you didn’t want to be bothered, and you despise Christmas, but now you don’t mind either as much.”
When Hendrix caught her to him, she tried to shove away, and that made him laugh.
But he also opened his arms. “I’m being too grabby? Sorry,” he said, but he didn’t look the least bit sorry. “This is going to piss you off more, but I’m glad to see you blowing up a little. You’ve been so freaking polite when I knew somewhere in there you had to have a temper. A woman without a temper never would have worked up the guts to leave an abusive asshole, or to change her whole life. She wouldn’t have had the balls to stay in my campgrounds when she knew she was supposed to leave.”
“I do not have balls.”
“Thank God.” Pretending to be absurdly cautious, he inched closer. “You get my drift, though. I love that you’re human.”
Love?“Was that in doubt?” she quipped.
Without answering, he said, “And I love that you trust me enough to show your anger.”
She supposed it did have to do with trust, because she’d never dared with Ted. What really got her though was his liberal use of the “L” word.
“Am I infuriating sometimes? Yes. Does it make me hot to see you angry? Also yes, but I promise, I listened anyway.”
“You’re saying so many ridiculous things, I can’t keep up.”
“Then how about I get to the point? No, I didn’t want a tree, but the way Ryder sees it helps me to see it differently, too. Now I’m thinking it might be fun. Maybe.”
She huffed another breath.
“It’s tough to get a read on me, I know. Half the time I don’t understand myself, either. All I know is that with you and Ryder, everything looks different, even decorations.” Taking her hand, he led her to sit on the end of the bed.
Joey sensed something big was coming and now she felt horrid for pushing him. She’d gone a long time without sharing her personal trauma, yet she was insisting that he do so on her timetable. How unfair was that?
“Hendrix,” she said, prepared to let him off the hook.
“I was with the Indiana Metropolitan Police Department before I moved here.” Several seconds passed in silence. “It was right before Christmas, and I’d been investigating a murder, talking to everyone in the area.”
Amurder, at Christmastime. Her heart lodged in her throat, urging her closer to him. She rested her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”
He quieted again, struggling. No wonder Hendrix didn’t open up often.
