He pushed the wet hair back from his face. ‘I did some of my own panicking.’
‘You did?’
‘Yes. Ever since I realized you were wrong.’
‘Wrong about what?’
He put down the photo he was holding, giving her his full attention.
‘I’m not repeating old patterns.’
Daisy swallowed hard. ‘You’re not?’
‘Nope.’
‘Are you going to elaborate?’ she asked, exasperated, and Elliot smirked.The gall!
‘I don’t think so.’
‘You don’t think so?! You’re just going to tell me I’m wrong and that’s it?’
His smile grew. ‘I don’t think you’re ready for me to elaborate, Daisy. Just know this, my feelings for you are nothing like my feelings were for Leigh.Thisis nothing like that.’
Daisy’s throat went dry. ‘And what is this, exactly?’ she rasped.
‘Whatever you want it to be. I just like spending time with you.’
‘You just like spending time with me?’
‘Yes, I want to spend time with you, Daisy November. If that’s all right with you.’ He stared at her from across the table, his eyes dark behind his glasses, waiting for her answer. As if there was anything else she could say besides yes. But he waited anyway.
‘Yes,’ She cleared her throat. ‘It’s all right with me.’
He smirked,again. ‘Good.’
She stared at him, but he turned his attention back to the spread of documents in front of them.
Elliot turned the diary over in his hands with reverent awe. ‘This is very cool. It’s in such good condition. Where did you find it?’
She was torn between her desire to tell him all about it and her desire to kick him in the shins under the table for teasing her like this. But maybe he was right. Maybe she wasn’t ready for him to elaborate.
‘My grandmother had a box of things she’d cleared out of the shop a while ago, and this diary was in there. It’s like it was fate for me to find it.’ That’s how she’d been feeling, like fate or… or… something had been reaching out to her, like she was meant to learn about her great-aunt, to fix things for her. But all of that was a bit too crazy to admit out loud.
‘It’s certainly incredible that it ended up with you.’
‘She cannot shut up about this guy named Nathan, and I think it must be your lookalike from the photos, but I don’t have any proof of that, really. So, do you know any more about him? The guy that looks like you?’
Elliot winced. ‘I started looking through some ancestry stuff I had worked on years ago, but things got kinda chaotic at work, so I haven’t had a ton of time. He’s definitely my great-grandfather’s cousin. His name is Nathan. That’s about all I know.’
‘Nathan! So, itishim!’
He smiled at her, and she had to look away.
‘What’s going on at work? I don’t want to keep you.’
‘I needed a break. And I wanted to see you.’
Daisy couldn’t help her smile. ‘So, what’s going on?’
