Page 27
Hattie made a sound like a Victorian maiden fainting into a chaise lounge.
“You’re awfully cocky over there, cowboy,” I said, ignoring how high-pitched my voice was sounding.
Sterling tilted his head. “Cocky or confident?”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I think I’m learning,” he murmured. “Pretty quickly.”
My stomach tightened. He couldn’t learn me. Not the real parts. Not the parts I kept buried under a million different locks. Some things were buried for a reason.
“Stop that,” I said.
“Stop what?”
“Being…that.” I gestured at him.
His grin went wicked. “Oh, I haven’t even started.”
Babs snorted loud enough to rattle the bottles behind her. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She dropped a glass of Coke in front of me with a thud. “Drink that before you pass out. You’re vibrating like a newborn calf.”
“Thanks,” I muttered wryly.
“Be nice,” Hattie hissed.
Babs rolled her eyes. “I am being nice…and helpful, I might add. By the looks of her, she’s got low blood sugar.”
She was probably right. I bet I did have low blood sugar. And between that and the concussion, it could be the explanation for why I was reacting to Sterling like this after everything that had happened in my life thanks to the male species.
I grabbed the glass and sucked it down like salvation, ice and syrup biting all the way to my lungs. My eyes watered. My brain rebooted. My whole body sighed in relief.
“Thirsty?” Sterling asked, still watching me intently.
I set the glass down harder than necessary. “As a matter of fact, I was.”
His mouth twitched and he scooted toward me, erasing the distance I’d just put between us. “So, what brought you passing through Blackwood, Sienna?”
The way he said my name pressed against a part of me I didn’t realize was still capable of wanting anything at all.
Babs and Hattie visibly leaned in, as if Sterling and I were about to spill the town’s new favorite secret.
I blinked at them. “Do you two mind?”
“No,” they said in unison.
I cleared my throat. “I was…on my way to California, if you must know.”
Babs wrinkled her nose. “Why?”
Hattie physically recoiled as if I’d just announced I worshipped the devil. “California? Oh, honey.”
Sterling didn’t move, but his brow arched like this should be good.
I forced a shrug, pretending it didn’t stab something hollow in my chest. “I just needed a change. Fresh start. New scenery. After…a failed marriage.” It came out quick and practiced. I’d rehearsed it in the car a hundred times, but I still couldn’t seem to make it sound like that’s all it was.
Because it wasn’t. Not even close.
Once again, Sterling appeared to notice something wrong with me that the others didn’t. His eyes narrowed slightly as he studied my face.
