Intent(19)
“Thank you for spending time with her. She probably gets tired of it just being her and me all the time.”
“She doesn’t seem to be tired of it at all. It’s so obvious that she loves you. You’re doing a really great job of raising her, Ace.”
I don’t know why I like hearing my name fall from her lips. I don’t know why my thoughts stray to hearing her say it very differently. On a breathless scream. In the throes of passion. With a primal need driving her into a frenzy.
“Thank you,” I manage to reply.
I think she just paid me a compliment, but my brain is too foggy from staring into the dark blue depths of her eyes to really process it. My gaze travels down the long strands of her thick blond hair. If I allowed myself to think about it, there are so many things I could fantasize about doing with her, my fingers in her hair, my name on her lips, my lips all over her.
If.
“I guess I should be going now,” Layne says softly. “Thank you again for the wonderful dinner and the delicious ice cream.”
“It was my pleasure, and the very least I could do as a thank-you-slash-apology.”
Even though I don’t want her to leave, I don’t have a good excuse to ask her to stay longer. I stand first and offer my hand to help her up. When she looks up at me through her eyelashes, the mixture of fear and desire are unmistakable. But the fear wins, holds her hostage inside, and I watch as she brings her emotions under control. She’s done that several times since she’s been here, though she hides it well.
She takes my hand and I feel it again—a slight shudder when we touch. It tells me she’s not as immune as she wants me to believe. Maybe she even wants to believe it herself, but it’s there regardless. At a different time in my life, she’d definitely be someone I’d be interested in getting to know better.
“Laynie,” River calls out as she runs toward us. “Don’t go!”
The slight grimace on her face is masked as quickly as it appears. “It’s getting late. Probably close to your bath and bedtime, too. Am I right?”
“But when we have company, I can stay up later.” River tries her best to persuade Layne to stay, but we all know she has to go.
“Would you like me to take you home?” I offer.
“No, thanks. It’s not far back to my cabin. I enjoy the walk.” She smiles affectionately at River before turning her beauty to fully face me. “We’re neighbors now. Don’t be a stranger.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’ve been in the South for a lot longer than a day.”
“I stayed close to this area before, a few years ago, when I was an intern working on a case. The people in that town often said that, and it always stayed with me.” She shrugs nonchalantly, but her demeanor tells me much more than she realizes. It stuck with her, it was important to her, and she felt like she was part of something bigger.
“Then you know my momma raised me to look after a lady. Since you won’t let me drive you home, I’ll give you eight minutes to walk back before I start calling to make sure you made it. At nine minutes, I’ll be in my truck looking for you.”
“I feel safer already,” she quips.
With a goodbye kiss for River and a small wave for me, she begins her walk back to the cabin next door. After checking to make sure she made it back safe and sound, I get River ready for bed and settle in to watch television before I drift off to sleep. My mind has different ideas, though, and they all revolve around the blue-eyed, blond-haired beauty next door.
* * *
It’s been a few weeks since our initial meeting and impromptu dinner, and I’ve seen Layne every weekday after work and at least a couple of times a day on the weekend. River has found a new friend and has some reason to convince me why she needs to see Layne every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Good thing for all of us, Layne honestly enjoys spending time with her. And I’m finding more and more that I enjoy spending time with Layne.
Long, blond hair blowing in the wind catches my eye as I drive past the river park. Before I realize what I’m doing, I’ve parked my truck and started my trek toward Layne. She’s walking alone beside the river’s edge, her eyes fixed on the flowing water, and she’s lost in her thoughts. The last thing I want to do is scare her—actually, that’s not true. The last thing I want to do is leave without talking to her.
“Are you following me?” I joke with her.
“Absolutely. You caught me,” she deadpans without looking at me. “I was here first, but I’m the one who’s following you.” When she turns to face me, her bright smile leaves no doubt that she’s playing back.
“It’s embarrassing, really, the way you stalk me. To save you from being labeled by the town, I guess I should do the gentlemanly thing and make it look like I’m the one stalking you.”
“Careful, or I’ll start to think you’re secretly a nice guy.”
“I am a nice guy,” I insist. “When I want to be.”
She grins at my self-deprecating jab and our eyes lock for several heartbeats. “Ah, you’re not so bad,” she replies softly.
She still seems to be wrestling with herself in a battle of wills between the fear that controls her and the powerful desire to be set free. Part of me wants to help her drop all her guards, but I can’t. I’m not the one to take her pain away when I’m still dealing with my own shit after what I went through with River’s mother.