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“Um. Trying to do the exact opposite, actually. What has you dropping in?”

“You. Always.” He stood still with his hands buried in his pockets. His answer was sweet, but I couldn’t help noticing there was something off about him. Though there was the possibility it could just be me with everything I was feeling prior to him walking in.

“And I actually wanted to talk,” he added.

“Talk? It couldn’t wait until I saw you tonight?”

“Not really.” He rubbed his palms together, seemingly antsy. And all that did was make me feel a heavy weight return to my shoulders at his reaction. It was hard not to read into his body language and take my mind to the worst place.

“Follow me.” I held one of his hands, leading him into a private room, the same one we’d been in a time or two before.

When the door clicked shut behind me, I met him on the couch, straddling his lap so I could feel as close to him as possible.

“W-What’s wrong?” I finally asked, lacking my bit of confidence I usually had.

“I don’t know how to say this without coming off like an asshole,” he blurted out.

Was this it? Had I been a fool this whole time? Falling for a guy who made it seem like we had something special? Like we’d shared all these firsts together and had me gutted and feeling guilty about my job because I was falling in love with this guy even if I wouldn’t admit it in so many words?

I dropped my hands from his neck, the feeling of impending doom creeping up my spine. “Say it. Whatever it is … just say it, Hunter.”

Dragging his hands slowly over his face, he stuffed down the words that laid on the tip of his tongue.

Was I going to have to fucking beg?

“Out with it … Please,” I snapped, clearly not knowing the first thing about handling the pressure of mixed feelings and emotions when it came to men.

The golden brown in his eyes shimmered in the dim light when he lifted his head and finally asked, “If you weren’t here, doing … this,” his finger swirled in the air, motioning to the room around him, “What would you be doing?”

“You mean, like … professionally?” My eyebrows drew together.

“Yeah. If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?”

Feeling slightly less anxious, but still confused as to where his question was leading, I pondered for a moment, truly letting the weight of his question sink in. To be fair, I hadn’t really thought about it. As a girl from a small town, with no experience besides stripping, and no college degree … what would I do?

“I … um … Why do you ask?” I couldn’t come up with a damn thing, and when Hunter let out a heavy sigh, it was apparent that something was clearly eating him up inside. “Is everything okay? With us?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t come off as shaky as it felt.

“Yes. Of course.”

Another sigh.

You’re not really convincing me here, Hunter.

“I think so,” he added, and those three words had me doubting everything.

While I’d been tossing around the three words that held the heaviest weight, I now had a new set of words taking over my every thought. Why did it suddenly feel like I’d gotten an entirely wrong read on everything between us?

Hunter was a widower, for Christ’s sake. I should have thrown my guard up the moment he told me about his past. Instead, I let it down, thinking I was lucky enough to be the woman he’d move on with.

While it was heading in that direction, or so I thought, maybe he’d had a moment of realization that I wasn’t the one.

I was spending my days stripping, and he was a fucking billionaire trust-fund baby who owned one of the most successful hockey teams in the NHL.

If I had to guess, everything wasn’t okay with us, and I was way in over my head.

Andi shot off my lap as if something I said internally slapped her. All that had proved was just how terrible of a job I was doing at trying to convey my feelings to her.

Sure, I could have waited until she came over later to have a conversation like this one, but after Carter dropped by my office, I couldn’t get this elephant in the room off my mind.