“You’re repaying me by looking so gorgeous right now.”
Her head dips, and she opens her eyes slowly, blinking at me through the rain that’s gotten heavier in the last minute. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
She twirls her finger, pointing at me. “That. We’re coworkers. For real this time. You are my boss, and I am your employee.”
I climb up off the ground. “You’re so much more than my employee, and you know it.”
“Okay, you have hackberries to oversee being planted.” She kneels back down on the ground, digging another hole for the next set of lavender.
“I’m really happy you took the job,” I confess to her back when I should be staring into her eyes. “It’s been a long time since I was this excited to come to work every morning.”
“Hackberry trees!” she shouts with a giggle and points away from where we are.
I take my chances because I’m losing control of my usually calculated decisions. I squat behind her, leaning closer. “It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted someone like I want you, Delaney. Like, seven years long.”
Her breath hitches, and I lean in closer, inhaling her scent once more to carry me through the next few hours before we’re in the cab of my truck again.
“B,” she sighs.
“Call me that again.”
She shakes her head slowly. “We can’t.”
I sit down so that I’m facing her, interrupting her work. “I’m here when you’re ready. We can go slow. Start as friends if you want, but…” I stop for a second because I haven’t really thought this through. For the first time in a long time, I’m going on instinct and feelings. For a split second, I doubt myself, until I look at her. “I want to give us another try.” There, it’s out there, and I can’t take it back. “You know, when you’re ready.”
I may not have weighed all the pros and cons of my admission, but the moment the words leave my lips, I know them to be true.
For the first time ever, there’s something in her eyes I can’t piece together. “And if that’s never?”
I bring my legs up and wrap my arms around them. “I don’t think the word never applies to us.”
She holds my gaze. “That’s not what you thought seven years ago.”
And there it is, the flash of hurt still sparking in her brown eyes. My roadblock to getting her back will be the worst mistake I’ve ever made and the one I’ve regretted the most.
“Dela—”
“No, just… go.” The pain lining her voice warns me not to push this issue right now.
I open my mouth, but Mark hollers from the edge of the green that he needs me on the seventh hole.
“Hackberries,” I murmur.
“Told you.”
I get up but then squat beside her. “I want to continue this conversation.”
“There isn’t much to say.”
I stand and wipe my ass although I’m sure my shorts are ruined from the rain and muddy grass. “I disagree.”
I walk toward Mark, hoping like hell I’m right about all the signs I’m seeing. That the pulse between us is still alive and just needs a jumpstart.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Delaney
