“You good?” His chin dipped to search out her expression, but she wasn’t currently looking up.
She poked at the uneaten cheesecake with the tines of her fork. “Yeah.” Her head shook, then her eyes finally lifted to find his, open and honest and looking at her with genuine concern. “I’m sorry. I guess I just wasn’t expecting the article to be done so quickly. I thought we had more time to get used to the idea of being in the spotlight.”
“I don’t think it’s a very big magazine. It’s bi-monthly, if I remember correctly, and our article was a last-minute filler for something else. I think they rushed it to print.”
Shewasexcited to see it, but there was an equal amount of dread bubbling in her stomach when she envisioned exactly what Molly meant by chemistry. She knew they looked good together, but what else had the camera picked up on?
“I’m sure it’ll be great,” Spencer reassured, and when his hand came down over Trinity’s resting on the table between them and he gave a gentle squeeze, the gesture was comforting enough to let her worries go.Almostall of her worries.
“Do you think people are going to get the wrong idea?” she asked, her voice carrying a hint of doubt she couldn’t mask.
“What would the wrong idea be?”
That was a good question, she supposed. Because theyweredating, after all. They were out on one now, for heaven’s sake.
“I don’t know.” Her shoulders jumped to her ears. “I’m just worried people might talk.”
Something tightened in Spencer’s expression. His hand pulled back and folded with the other in his lap. “They might talk.” He gave a shrug that matched her own. “It’s no secret you could do a lot better than me. People might point that out, I suppose.”
“Oh, Spencer.” Her hand shot back out toward him, nearly knocking over his still-full glass of wine between them. “That’s not what I meant at all. I’m just worried people might say things.” Her gaze dropped. “About me.”
“What could anyone say about you that isn’t completely good?”
“That I’ve moved on too quickly.” The words rolled right out. “That there’s no way I could be over the loss of Calvin already. That it’s too soon.” They just kept coming. “That my heart is still too broken to hand over to someone else.”
“Do you feel those things?” She could see Spencer’s jaw flex, the muscle at the back pulsing as his throat strained to swallow.
“Most days I don’t. But some days I do.”
“Trinity.” Spencer’s lips pressed together, and he sighed. “I would never want to pressure you into pursuing something you’re not ready for. I’m sorry if that’s what I’ve been unintentionally doing.”
That wasn’t it, though. She had wanted this every bit as much as Spencer. Maybe more, even. She just wasn’t sure of the timing. If there would be some magical day when it finally felt appropriate to move on. If that existed, she was still waiting for it to come.
“I just don’t want to sully your good name, Spencer.”
He huffed out a loud laugh that caught her off-guard. “Not a chance of that happening, considering it wasn’t all that good to start off with. If anything, you only improve it.”
She had to chuckle. He really didn’t give himself enough credit sometimes.
When she didn’t say anything for a stretch of time, Spencer downed the remainder of his wine and called the waiter over for the check.
“I want to take things at whatever pace you’re comfortable with, Trinity. And honestly, if it means going back to when we were just friends, I’m fine with that.” He paused a moment, and the tender look that moved across his face was enough to make tears collect in her eyes. “I just want you in my life, any way I can have you.”
CHAPTER 21
“Ineed to have a word with Anthony.”
Clara rolled her eyes. “And just what are you planning to say? You realize he didn’t write the article, right?”
Spencer chewed on the inside of his cheek, his chest feeling so tight with frustration it made it hard get a full breath. “Yes, but he’s the one that set this all up. Introduced us to Molly and the photographer. Presented the opportunity to you. This was his doing.”
“Listen, I realize Anthony is not your favorite guy after everything that had happened between us, but you can’t blame this on anyone but yourself, Spencer.” His twin plucked a grape from the bunch on the kitchen counter and popped it into her mouth, realizing a little too late that they were for decoration purposes only, something added last minute for the photoshoot. She spit it out quickly, then added, “I mean, if you didn’t want a picture of the two of you kissing to end up in the piece, then maybe you should have waited until the cameras were gone.”
That was the thing, though. Spencer had assumed theywereout of sight when he’d pulled Trinity outside for a break during the photography session. Sure, there were windows, but it neveroccurred to him that they were still under the cameraman’s watchful eye once they’d left the building. He’d thought they were totally alone.
“Plus,”—Clara shrugged as she went to his fridge to rummage around in the produce drawer for some real fruit—“it’s an adorable photo of you guys. You both look really in love.”
His sister was right. The photograph was a good one. Even though it was taken with a window between them, they were framed perfectly within the shot with the barn in the distant background, complete with horses grazing in the pasture. When he looked toward his future, this very image wasn’t too far from the reality he envisioned.
