Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
To give her credit, she wasn’t giving up even as she pushed her chair back and shot me a smile that wasn’t totally friendly or unfriendly. “If you change your mind, my number is in the school directory then.” She got to her feet. “Hopefully I’ll see you around school, Mr. Rhodes.”
I was the only one who watched her walk off, and I knew that because I felt his intense gaze on my face as I did it. It was confirmed too when I glanced back toward him and found him looking at me.
He’d shot her down. Politely, but he had.
“Hi, sneaky,” I told him, holding the cup of hot chocolate a little higher. “Sorry to interrupt you and your friend.” Did that sound sarcastic, or was I blowing it out of proportion?
“She’s not a friend, and you didn’t interrupt anything,” he replied, picking up his own cup and taking a small sip. “She was Amos’s English teacher last year.”
I nodded before taking another sip. So she’d waited to make her move. It all made sense now.
Rhodes’s eyes narrowed a little as he took another drink, the cup looking small in his hand. “I had a feeling she had been interested, but I hadn’t known for sure until today.”
I raised both my eyebrows and nodded. “She’ll probably ask you out again real subtle the next time she sees you.”
He got a funny look on his face. “I’m sure she got a clue now that I don’t feel the same way.” He leaned forward in his chair, propping his elbows on the table. His gaze was steady on my face as he whispered, “She talks too much.”
I reeled back and laughed. “I talk too much! Remember when you asked me, ‘Do you always talk this much?’ You do, don’t you?”
A big smile came over his full mouth, and I swear he was more handsome than ever. “I changed my mind, and the difference is that I like hearing you talk.”
My heart skipped a damn beat or ten before he managed to keep going.
“I don’t like talking either, but you get me to somehow.”
I didn’t even try and suppress the elation that had blossomed in my chest. I was sure it was on my face too as I grinned at him, pleased. So pleased. “It’s a gift. My aunt says I’ve got a friendly face.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” he argued softly.
I shrugged, still beaming from the inside out. “So . . .” I started to say, not wanting to talk about Amos’s flirty former teacher.
Those gray eyes caught and held mine, inviting my question.
“How are you? How’s Colorado Springs treating you?”
“Fine,” he said, lowering the cup to sit on top of the thigh farthest from me. “It’s keeping me busier than I was expecting. I’m glad I didn’t take the position when it became available.”
“Busier than our little stretch of the woods?”
He tilted his head to the side. “It’s more driving here, a lot more, but it’s still less. Less people. Less bullshit.”
“Any idea how much longer you’ll be there?”
“No. Nothing has been finalized yet,” he replied before taking another sip. “They told me no longer than two more weeks, but I’m not holding my breath.”
I moved my leg until it tapped against his. “I hope it goes fast, but we’re holding down the fort. Amos is doing okay, at least from what he tells me. He’s eaten dinner with me a few times when his uncle is running late, and I make sure to get him to eat some vegetables. I asked Johnny about him the other day when he picked him up, and he said he was doing fine.”
“I think he’s doing all right,” he agreed. “He doesn’t seem too heartbroken to be alone so much.”
I grinned at him, and his mouth hitched up in that familiar way I liked.
“You? You’re okay?”
We had barely seen each other in that week between the Hike from Hell and him leaving, and we hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk about what happened that night. Me almost losing it. Me sitting on his lap while he comforted me. Him stroking my back and holding me close. There were all these signs . . . all these things I picked up from him and . . . I wasn’t sure what to think about any of them. I knew a man didn’t act that way for nothing. I wanted to ask . . . but I was too much of a chicken.
But I still told him the truth. “Yeah, I’m good. Business has picked up a lot with so many hunters in town, so we’ve been busy at the shop.”
His purple-gray eyes were on me as the side of his leg nudged mine beneath the table. “And when you’re not at the shop?” Rhodes asked slowly.