I overwhelmed her. That has to be it. She must be regretting letting me in, convinced I’ll be gone soon. Back on the road. Back to the life that’s kept me moving and restless for too long.
But I’m not. Not this time. I don’t plan to.
She’s here. And seeing her every day feels better than staring at the endless blur of highways, testing the limits of an agingbody that’s tired of being rootless. I’ve missed feeling like I belong somewhere. And she’s the last piece of that puzzle sliding into place.
But the thought that I might have scared her off makes my chest feel too tight, like someone’s cinching a rope around it. Restraint sits in my throat like something choking me, pressing against everything I want to say but can’t.
If she needs slower, then slower it is. I’ll give her space, even if it feels like swallowing shards of glass. Because she’s worth it. And I’d rather hold back than lose the one thing that’s finally made me feel like I could stay.
Anytime Maya mentions me over the next three days, Paige suddenly finds something else to do. Wiping down a spotless counter. Restocking shelves that don’t need it. Checking on the ovens like they might suddenly sprout wings. She doesn’t yell. She doesn’t argue. She just… disappears into tasks, careful not to give me a single opening.
I try to find those moments with her. Little ones. The way we used to steal glances and brushes of hands. A comment about the morning, a quiet offer to help, anything to get her to look at me the way she did before. But every time I get close, she slips away—busy, distracted, unreachable. And it’s starting to weigh heavy. Not in sharp bursts, but like a slow, steady bruise spreading deeper every day.
Her silence is louder than any rejection I’ve ever heard. But still, I keep showing up. Because silence, no matter how suffocating, is easier to live with than hearing her say she doesn’t want me.
I keep telling myself that once she softens, once she realizes that when I said she was mine I didn’t mean for a single night, she’ll talk to me. She’ll either let me down gently or tell me what’s really going on.
But I won’t ask.
I’ll just keep showing up.
I’ll be steady. Consistent. The man who doesn’t bolt when things get complicated. I’ll give her the space she seems to need, even when it feels like I’m swallowing down my own frustration with every breath.
Because the truth is, I don’t know if I could stand to hear it if she’s changed her mind. I don’t know what it would do to me to hear the one woman who’s gotten under my skin in a week and a half say she doesn’t want me.
So I’ll stay where she can see me. Not pushing. Not demanding. Just a quiet reminder that I’m here. That for her, I’ll be patient. Even when it hurts.
Chapter 7 - Paige
“You can’t keep doing this,” Maya says with a sigh.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answer with a forced smile.
She leans over, looking further down in the line as if she has to. Ryder is impossible to miss. His tan cowboy hat, his black shirt, his thick dark hair, the body I got to know in just about every way five days ago .... not to mention the way the bakery feels.
It’s charged with a loose live wire that’s ready to fry my mind all over again and make me forget what I’ve heard from not one woman, but six over the course of this week and from Maya herself when I first laid eyes on him. I won’t let it. No touching. No conversation. He’ll leave. He’ll get annoyed and blow up. He’ll reveal the truth.
“Honey, what I said was ... I was repeating a rumor. That’s all. It’s obviously different now,” Maya whispers.
“You’re not the only one who said it and it’s not like it matters. Nothing happened,” I insist, because if I don’t admit to sleeping with him, then I’m not a silly, delusional woman who expects a man to change just because of her.
Maya starts to say something, then shakes her head. She motions to the line and we get through it until Ryder comes up. Itry to escape, to make an excuse, but Maya says something about calling her boyfriend. I hide my annoyance.
Why is she trying to push us together?It’s like she knows something happened even though I didn’t tell anyone.
“Something sweeter than normal today, if you don’t mind, sunshine,” he says, sounding tired.
I notice that he looks exhausted, but more than that ... he looks like some horses I’ve seen. The ones Maya says are tired of fighting their reins, the ones that are ready to snap and run, even if it means breaking down a fence. I see it in his tight jaw, the way he tightens his arms against his body, the tension crackling around him and in his steely gaze. It softens when our eyes meet, but then he’s tense all over again.
I offer him a peanut butter silk pie with chocolate drizzled on it and whipped cream. It’s honestly one of my favorites. I chew the inside of my cheek. “Goes well with coffee.”
He nods and gives me a warm, soft smile, full of questions I don’t know how to answer.
He takes everything, tips me twenty dollars, then sits. People talk around him, but he doesn’t join in. I’ve noticed that too. He eats with consideration, like I’m giving him a code he has to work out, until his eyes meet mine. I want to draw back.
I saw him leave here late. Wonder what next spot he’ll be visiting after hours. Everyone knows how he is. Makes a woman fall in love in one night, then gives her a lifetime to put herself back together after,the girl had said the morning after my night with Ryder.
It felt like proof at the time, that he didn’t really want me. that I was being stupid. There are so many reasons we won’t work. He’s experienced. He’s famous. He could have anyone. We barely know each other. Just looking at us would confuse people.
