I walked over to the door and flipped the lock, opening it. “We’re closed.”
“I am well aware of when you close, Keely.”
He didn’t say anything else, just crossed his arms and stared at me, his gaze dipping lower as if he was taking me all in. I wanted to suck in my stomach, straighten my spine, make myself the kind of woman he’d be attracted to. That Barbie-doll type all made up and pretty. Skinny. That was what men wanted.
Men his age especially. Men who’d had time to figure out exactly what they wanted and had probably had it a few times over. He’d been with experienced women. Older women. Women who knew what they were doing and looked good doing it. I was twenty-three with flour on my apron and nursing textbooks in my bag. I had no business wanting him to want me back.
I’d spent years shrinking myself in other ways — taking up less space, asking for less, needing less. But my body had never cooperated with that particular instinct. It was just there, all of it, all the time, refusing to be minimized.
“So what do you want?”
I heard the wordyouechoing through my mind. What would it be like to be wanted by this mountain of a man? To have all that strength focused entirely on me—to be held by someone who could actually carry the weight I spent every day balancing.
“You finished closing up?”
I gave a heavy sigh. “Yes.”
“Then go get your stuff. I’ll wait by your car.”
I watched him cross the parking lot and tried to come up with one good reason not to go after him. I couldn’t find one that held water. The man had shown up at closing, uninvited. Not to flirt, not to make a move, just to make sure I got to my car, safe and unharmed. That was either very sweet or very strange, and I hadn’t decided which yet, and the fact that I was still thinking about it probably told me something I wasn’t ready to hear.
I’d been taking care of myself and my family by myself for what seemed like forever. I knew how to change a tire, negotiate a bill down, stretch fifty dollars of groceries across two weeks. I’d sat in doctor’s waiting rooms and school offices alone and got through every hard thing because that was what you did when you were the one other people leaned on. You didn’t get to lean back.
I wasn’t sure what to do with a man who showed up anyway.
And, there was the other thing—the impulse to offer myself up like a piece of apple pie.
For some reason, this man seemed to have activated that part inside me that was supremely conscious of the opposite sex. And sex. I don’t think I’d ever actually thought about sex with a man. But as soon as he’d walked into the diner that first time… my dreams had gone from somewhere over the rainbow to let’s get it on.
He was just there to see that I got to my car. He’d probably been driving through. Going home from a dinner date with a woman. I reminded myself he was no Prince Charming asMaggie had suggested. Not that I wanted him to be that type of man. No, his type was okay by me.
But he’d stopped, to check on me, and something about that made my insides quiver. No one looked after me anymore. Sensing arguing with him would be a losing battle—and did I really want to anyway? I gathered my things and turned out the lights. He was waiting for me by my car, leaning against the hood, arms and legs crossed. He looked so damn sexy, I had to remind myself to breathe.
“I would tell you thanks, but I didn’t ask for this.”
“I know. Do you always close this late?”
“Most nights,” I admitted. “The tips help pay for nursing school. It’s taking me a little longer, working full time and helping raise two younger siblings.”
“I know how much you’re carrying, Keely.”
“What? Did you ask about me?”
“Yes.” His answer was simple and straightforward. And made me feel good inside—he’d been interested enough to ask about me. “Yeah, well.” I shrugged. “Life doesn’t wait for perfect timing.”
His gaze dipped lower, again as if he couldn’t help himself. I waited for the part where his eyes did the thing. The quick scan, the recalibration, the almost-imperceptible decision. Every man did it eventually. Saw the whole picture and quietly revised their interest downward.
He kept looking.
I didn’t know what to do with that, so I talked instead.
A small silence stretched between us before I grinned, trying to lighten the mood. “Maybe I need to find myself a mountain man. One who isn’t afraid to take on a readymade family?”
His body stiffened. “What does that mean?”
“That means I’m a big sister to two six-year-old twin brothers who are, even though I love them fiercely, holy terrors.”
“Is that what you’re looking for?”
