Dare to Love: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Finding Love Book 4)
Page 12
Butterscotch’s impatient tug on the leash reminded her of what she should be doing. The puppy’s curiosity was boundless. He hadn’t stopped moving yet. Trent found them investigating a patch of newly planted grass near the baseball fields. She glanced at the plastic tray he held in one hand and the huge coke Icee with two straws sticking out of the top in the other.
“You need a third hand. Let me hold your drink so you can tackle those nachos,” she offered.
“Thanks,” he said, giving it to her. “I got a large Icee so we could share. I remembered to get you your own straw. Sharing straws is the concession stand equivalent of getting to first base. I didn’t want to push my luck.”
“There are so many flaws in that logic; I don’t even know where to start.”
He grinned as he maneuvered a cheese coated corn chip into his mouth. “You’re always so diplomatic. Just come out and say it’s cheesy, which given what I’m eating, shouldn’t be a surprise.”
Sabrina groaned. “Is that the best you’ve got? I would have thought after six years your technique would have improved.”
He licked some cheese off his fingers. “You didn’t complain about my technique before.”
“I’m older now and wiser.”
“It’s obvious I’m the first; not so sure about the second. What are you doing for Thanksgiving?”
“I’ve been invited to go with Madeline and James to his parents’ house in Raleigh, North Carolina. To be honest, I’d rather stay home. I feel like a third wheel if you know what I mean.”
“I do know. Since my brother and sister are both married now, my bachelor status is a never-ending topic of conversation.”
“Do your parents still live in Augusta?”
“No, they live in Florida now.”
“Is that where you’re going for the holidays?”
“We’re all converging on St. Marys this year. My brother moved there last May. That’s fine with me. I don’t have to drive as far. Do you like to ride roller coasters and play arcade games?”
“This conversation is all over the place.”
“There’s a reason I asked. Mason’s school is going to Six Flags weekend after next. Veronica works most Saturdays so I told her I’d take him. I’m not a big fan of roller coasters. I was hoping you could go with us and ride them with him.”
A big guy like Trent being afraid of anything was surprising, but at least he was willing to admit it. “I’ll think about it and let you know.”
“We’ve progressed from ‘not yet’ to ‘I’ll think about it’. I wonder what I’ll do if and when you actually say ‘yes’.”
“I came to this game with you.”
“Let’s not kid ourselves; you’re here tonight because of Mason.”
“You need to find a new girlfriend, and then you won’t have to worry about what I’m going to say.”
“You make it sound so easy. I spend most of my time at work. I can’t exactly date my clients; that’s bad for business. I met my last girlfriend when she ran into my bumper at an intersection.”
“You don’t waste your opportunities, do you?”
“I saw a set of clubs in the back of her car. We started talking about golf and one thing led to another.”
“I know how it works, Trent.”
“More specifically, you know how I work. That puts me at a disadvantage. The game’s about to start. Let’s go find a seat.”
Sabrina wondered about those remarks as they retraced their steps to the bleachers. It almost sounded like he was interested in her as something more than friend. A flurry of excitement mixed with agitation pulsed through her veins before common sense reared its more sensible head. This was putting the cart before the horse with a vengeance. The ink wasn’t even dry on their cease-fire agreement.
Chiding herself for looking for trouble where none existed, she picked up Butterscotch and followed Trent into the metal stands. She attributed the interested glances from the other parents to the presence of Butterscotch until she realized they weren’t looking at the puppy. Under the cover of the public address announcer, she leaned over to Trent and asked, “Why is everyone staring at us?”
“They’re trying to figure out how I got so lucky.”
“Would you be serious for once?”
“I was being serious. They probably think Mason is my son, and they’ve never seen Veronica. It’s only natural that they think you’re his mother. I can stand up and make an announcement if it will make you feel better.”
Since her hands were occupied with Butterscotch, she pushed against him with her shoulder. “Oh, be quiet. Unlike you, I’m not used to being the center of attention everywhere I go.”
“Then you must have your head in the clouds. You’re an Amazonian goddess come to life.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I’m a what?”
“You heard me. Get ready to stand for the national anthem.”
Sabrina turned her attention to the field and kept it there. Once the game got started, she forgot about Trent’s outrageous comment in the excitement of watching Mason play. The little boy’s enthusiasm and energy were contagious. Soon she was jumping up and down and hollering along with everyone else.
Later when she sat waiting in the car while Trent walked Mason to the latter’s front door, she remembered it again. Most men would just say something like, ‘you’re pretty’ which was fine, but could be said to any woman. Trent never did the conventional thing. His comments were imaginative and sometimes ridiculous, but they were also very personal, as if he put some thought into them. His remark at the game addressed the two things about herself that she secretly wished she could change - her height and shape - and made them sound attractive and desirable. It was as if he knew and understood her insecurities without having to be told.
In a few minutes, he was back in the car. “Thanks for coming tonight. It meant a lot to Mason and to me.”
“I’m glad I came. I had fun.”
“I could tell. I’ve never seen you so animated before. I don’t remember you getting that excited when you watched me play.”
“I just didn’t show it. I was shy back then.”
“I found that out. You were by far the most resistant girl I ever dated.”
“Because I wouldn’t let you take me to your dorm room? At least I had enough sense not to do that.”
He smiled at the disgusted tone in her voice. “That wasn’t the only reason. You didn’t respond like other girls. You said what you thought without playing little head games. You didn’t flirt with other guys behind my back. You went to ballgames that you found boring and called me out if I acted childish. You also sent me home with my tail between my legs when my behavior crossed the line.”
“I didn’t realize you’d made such a thorough analysis of my character.”
Trent pulled into her driveway and shut off the engine. “That’s because I didn’t realize for a long time how much of an impression you were making.”
He got out of the car and walked around to her side. After he opened the door, he reached in to take Butterscotch. In the small space, their faces were inches apart, their eyes forced to meet. The warmth and tenderness reflected in his glance shook Sabrina to the core. She was incapable of movement; she wasn’t even sure she was breathing. Was he remembering how this would have ended in the past? If so, he didn’t try to repeat it.
After a long moment, during which the only sounds were the crickets in the hedge, he scooped Butterscotch off her lap and moved away. Like an actress taking her cue in a play, Sabrina unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her purse. In silence he followed her along the short sidewalk leading to the front door. She frantically tried to think of something – anything – that would make her forget that for a few brief moments she’d wanted to feel his lips against hers.
As she slid the key into the lock, he broke the taut silence that had followed them from the car.
“I have to go out of town for a conference tomorrow. I won
’t be back in the office until Monday.”
A few days ago, this news wouldn’t have bothered her. The fact that it did so now said much about the changes their relationship had undergone in such a short time. “Are you going somewhere nice?”
He smiled slightly. “I’m sure many people would consider Nashville nice, but I like where I am right now.”
His words confused her. Was he talking about work or something more personal? “What about Butterscotch?” she asked, reaching out to touch the puppy’s head.
“My neighbor’s going to keep him for me.”
“Are you flying?”
He nodded. “My flight leaves at six a.m.”
“Which means you have to be at the airport at like four-thirty. You better get going. It’s almost nine now.”
“I know. I just don’t want the evening to end, that’s all.”
It was comments like those that made Trent so dangerous. They contained so many shades of meaning. “I hope you have a safe trip.”
“I know one thing,” he said softly, his eyes looking intently into hers. “It’s gonna be a long one. Goodnight, Sabrina.”
As she let herself inside the empty house, she remembered those tense moments in the car when her heart had taken on a life of its own, ignoring all attempts by the rest of her body to resist or at the very least remain impartial. Had forgiving Trent uncovered what she’d hidden even from herself? Or was she doing what she hadn’t thought possible?
Chapter Seven
Trent rubbed the back of his neck and stretched his legs as far as he could in the tight space between the rows of seats. The chairs in these conference rooms were set up to maximize attendance, not to ensure the comfort of the participants. He’d been asked to present this year which had been both gratifying and inconvenient. As a speaker, he couldn’t leave early. He had to stay for the entire event.
That wouldn’t normally be a problem, but this trip was different. The few days away from Sabrina seemed like an eternity. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her since he left her house on Wednesday evening. He also hadn’t stopped thinking about those few seconds in his car when the slightest movement forward would have had their lips touching. It had taken everything he had not to kiss her, not an easy task given the wealth of memories he carried around his head of doing just that.
Why hadn’t anyone told him how emotionally consuming falling in love was? Or how quickly his contentment would become subject to the actions of someone else?
Only half his mind had been on the break-out sessions he’d hosted yesterday and again this morning. The other half had been counting the minutes until he could drive to the airport and board the flight back to Georgia. All his anxiety over leaving was a waste of time. Getting back to Alpharetta today wouldn’t make Monday come any faster, but his heart didn’t seem to care about that. The wretched thing just wanted to be in the same zip code, happy in the knowledge that there was some probability of running into her.
Trent laughed inwardly, his eyes moving from the back of the seat in front of him to the woman standing behind the podium. What was she talking about anyway?
“…to have a cohesive marketing plan for your business. Cohesion is the act of forming a united whole. Think of unity, togetherness, a solid bond…”
“You’re thinking of cohesion. That’s when ‘like’ molecules stick together. Adhesion is when ‘unlike’ molecules stick together,” Sabrina explained, pointing to a diagram in the book resting on the table in front of them.
“So when I kiss you, is that adhesion or cohesion?” Trent asked.
Her eyes instinctively went to his mouth, and he didn’t hesitate. He leaned closer and kissed her, waiting for the soft sigh that always teased his lips when he pulled away.
She looked around quickly to see if anyone had seen them. “We’re supposed to be studying. We’ve got a test tomorrow.”
Half the fun of kissing her in public was her reaction; she was always so embarrassed afterward. He moved his hand from the back of the chair to her ponytail, sliding his fingers through the silky strands. “We’ve been studying for three hours. We’ve earned a break. Let’s go take a drive.” He saw the indecision in her face and knew she was tempted, but then she shook her head. Her discipline alternately impressed and irritated him.
“If we leave, I’ll never get you back in here.”
He brushed the ends of her ponytail across his face. “I promise to come back. You just tell me when.”
She bit her lip and looked away from him. “That’s the problem. Once you kiss me, I won’t want to say when.”
Her honesty aroused a protective instinct he hadn’t known he possessed. “Then we’ll stay here.”
The rustle of movement brought him back to the present. The space behind the podium was empty and everyone around him was leaving. Trent grabbed his laptop case and stood up. It was a good thing he already knew this stuff because he’d daydreamed his way through the last presentation.
* * * * *
Trent’s trip to Nashville hadn’t come at a better time for Sabrina. In view of her confused feelings, a few days away from him shouldn’t have been a bad thing. There had been plenty of work to keep her busy so there was no excuse for why her eyes kept straying to the closed door of Trent’s office as if waiting for him to walk out or why she’d stood outside Jared’s office listening to him talk to Trent on the speaker phone. It also didn’t explain why she’d gone to the park for lunch each day and fed the ducks. Or why she was there now on a Sunday afternoon when she should have been in her garage putting another coat of sealer on the trestle table.
On the way back to the car, she heard the chime of her phone. A quick glance at the screen brought her steps to a halt. It was a text from Trent. The fact that this was the first she’d heard from him in four days had been the subject of much internal examination. It made absolutely no sense to be disappointed that he hadn’t wanted to communicate with her. She should be happy that he wasn’t pushing himself further into her life. But she wasn’t happy, and there was nothing she disliked more than being illogical and conflicted. Life was easier when it was black and white; those gray areas always led to trouble.
“My grandmother had a heart attack this morning; she’s in critical condition. I’m at the Atlanta airport waiting for my plane to take off. I can’t believe it; I just talked to Gran the other day and she was fine.”
Guilt rose up within her. Her worries were trivial compared to what Trent was going through right now. Tears pricked her eyes as she remembered those agonizing days spent sitting by her grandmother’s hospital bed. “I’m so sorry, Trent. I’ll keep you, your grandmother and the rest of your family in my prayers.”
“I appreciate that. This has really blindsided me. I can’t even think straight right now.”
“It will get better when you get there. It’s the not knowing that’s the hardest. Is there anything you need me to do?”
“The neighbor who’s keeping Butterscotch for me has to go out of town on Wednesday. I hope to be back by then, but if I’m not, could you pick him up and take him to the kennel?”
She wasn’t going to put Butterscotch in a kennel. She’d keep him with her at work during the day and at the duplex at night. This was an emergency. It wasn’t the time to be worried about the no pet clause in her lease. “Of course I can get him. Just send me your neighbor’s address and phone number.”
“Hopefully, you won’t need to do anything. I’ll tell you what’s going on when I know more.”
Sabrina tried to work off her worry and agitation through the usual methods: cooking, cleaning, and exercise. Nothing was even remotely successful. She kept remembering how alone and empty she felt after her grandmother died. She didn’t want to think about Trent going through that. Just before she drifted off to sleep, she received another text from him.
“Gran is still in ICU, but there’s been some improvement.”
“I’m so glad she’s doing better.”
“I went through that with my grandmother. There’s no way to prepare for it.”
“No, there’s not. The control freak inside me doesn’t handle sudden changes very well.”
“But there are good changes, too. You don’t want to miss out on those.”
“The only nice change I’ve had lately came from you, and you’re right, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on it.”
“Me, either.”
“Does that mean you miss me a little?”
She missed him a lot. “I do, actually, and so do the girls.”
“You went to see the girls for me?”
“I feel a certain kinship with them. It’s late, Trent, and you need your sleep. You’ve been traveling all day.”
“Needing to sleep and being able to sleep aren’t the same thing, but I’m going to try.”
He was right about not being able to sleep. Sabrina tossed and turned all night. She hoped Trent would text her the following morning, but it wasn’t until after her session with the ducks that she heard from him.
“Gran is doing better. They were able to take her off the ventilator.”
“That’s great news.”
“If she’s still doing this well tomorrow, I’m coming home.”
A wave of relief burst to life inside her. She tried to tell herself that it was because his grandmother was on the mend, but refusing to acknowledge something doesn’t make it any less true. “If anything changes, let me know so I can make arrangements for Butterscotch.”
“I will. Thanks for everything. Just being able to tell someone has helped tremendously.”
“That’s what friends are for.”