“Where were you born?”
She turned her head and looked out the window. “Texas.”
“Really? You don’t have an accent.”
She shrugged, keeping her gaze out the window. “When I was eight, my parents were killed in an automobile accident. Eventually, my brother and I came here to live.”
“I’m sorry. Did you live with your relatives after the accident?” He stroked her leg in a tender gesture. His warm hand nearly melted her jeans.
She looked at him, and then just as quickly, dropped her gaze to her fingers as she absently toyed with the zipper of her jacket. “No. For two years after my parents died, my brother and I were shipped from relative to relative until we ran out of family members. Finally, the state put us with a foster family, and that’s where we grew up.”
A stretch of awkward silence spread between them. Mentally, she kicked herself in the butt for giving away so much information. What made her do it when she’d never been so open before? Was it because she actually enjoyed talking with him, and especially sitting this close to such an attractive man?
“Hey.” The man’s finger touched her chin and lifted her face so she could look at him. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Tell me what I can do to bring back your pretty smile.”
My pretty smile?Surprise washed over her from his comment and she almost laughed out loud from the hilarity of it all. Nobody had ever told her she had a lovely smile. Obviously, this man couldn’t see very well. Without being able to control it, the corners of her lips stretched upward. Her cheeks burned and she knew they shone inside the cab like beacon lights.
“There it is,” he cheered.
She chuckled and turned her face to the window. Her heart raced. It’d been quite a while since she experienced this kind of unsettling emotion. It reminded her of when she was in school and had a crush on a boy. So why did she have it now?
The man named Montgomery turned to his friend, and for the remainder of the ride she was content to listen to his soothing, deep baritone voice. When he laughed, flutters bounced in her stomach. He shifted her on his lap a couple different times, but his arms remained around her. By the end of her journey, she’d relaxed against him. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind.
The cab driver dropped her off first. Montgomery opened the door for her and helped her out. He followed.
“Hey, thanks for the exciting ride, sweetie.”
There’s that name again!Although she loathed cutesy nicknames, her cheeks warmed. “Thank you for letting me share your ride. How much do I owe the cabbie?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it taken care of.”
“Why?”
He grinned. “Because I like you.”
The temperature in her face shot up.
“Well, have a good life,” he told her.
She smiled. “You, too.”
“Maybe I’ll see you around some time.”
She shrugged. “Manhattan is very large.”
“You never know, though.” He gave her a wink before climbing back into the cab.
She kept her eyes on the back of the cab until it disappeared down the street. Strange that her body would react in such an odd way to a total stranger. She’d been with Tom for over five years, but during the past hour, as she sat on a stranger’s lap, she was more relaxed than she ever had been with Tom.
Shaking her head, she cleared the confusing thoughts. It was a good thing she wasn’t going to see that man again. Her heart might be in big trouble.
