“So, how long have you two been seeing each other?” I see her sitting at a table that’s full of flowers and utterly gorgeous. I smile at the flowers thinking of my café.
“Two weeks,” I answer for us.
“Closer to three now,” he corrects me.
Turning away from the flowers to face him, he pulls out a seat which I take and sit. He sits next to me, his arm going on the back of my chair.
“And how did you meet?” she asks pouring herself a cup from her teapot.
“A bar. She hit on me,” Gunner replies.
I shake my head in embarrassment. Oh my God, he didn’t just say that. Did he?
“Well, I’m sure that’s ground for a great ending, too.”
I sit back shocked. Oh my God, she didn’t just say that. Did she?
“Grandmother,” Gunner hisses.
She waves her hand and a lady comes out with a tray of food.
“I’m sure a woman like her knows not to expect the world from you, Gunner. Let’s be real here.” She’s so cold and dismissive.
I’m not even sure what to say. So, I say nothing. Just sitting and watching as the food is placed in front of me.
“She knows what’s happening between us,” he hisses.
I don’t. Not really.
Not when I think I want more.
I feel her eyes on me, and I try to get rid of my facial expression that’s most likely giving me away.
“You aren’t a man who does this. So no. She doesn’t. She wants more. Isn’t that right, girl?”
Girl? Did she just call me girl?
I turn to look at her, and cold hard eyes just like Gunner’s stare back at me.
“Let me introduce you, Grandmother. This is Everly Thorne.” She looks to him then back to me.
“My apologies. Let’s eat.” She turns her head away and starts eating while I sit there confused by what’s just happened.
Should I say something?
“Did you live here?” I ask Gunner after moments of silence.
His grandmother looks to me then to Gunner, waiting to see what he’ll say.
“Yes.”
One simple word. Okay, nothing new there.
“That’s nice.” Honestly, it’s all I can think of to reply.
We eat with Gunner’s grandmother making small talk about what her day consisted of, and asking how Gunner’s been. He replies with short, curt answers with little emphasis on anything just like he does with me. When we’re done, Gunner stands, reaches for my hand, and I don’t miss the look his grandmother sends our way which she quickly replaces with a fake smile.
“It was a pleasure to meet you,” I finally say.
“Yes. You, too. I’m sure we’ll meet again.”
Gunner nods his head then pulls me out the door straight to the waiting car.
“Well, that was interesting. I didn’t expect to meet your grandmother, that’s for sure.”
“It was a last-minute decision, and I wanted to take you back to mine straight after. Two birds, one stone.”
“I didn’t think we were at that stage. Meeting the family.”
“We aren’t. I don’t want to meet yours.”
Well, okay, then.
Removing my hand from his which he just took, I turn away.
“I just want you. Is that not enough, Everly?”
I turn back to him. He’s watching me. Always watching with those cold dark eyes.
“Why do you call me bunny?” Finally, I get up the courage to question him.
He smirks, then it’s gone. “I was waiting for you to ask about that.”
“You didn’t think I would?”
He raises an eyebrow, so I raise one right back.
“I wondered if you would.”
“So…” I ask, waiting for a reply.
“You are sweet, innocent,” he says it like it’s a bad thing. Like being nice or sweet is something so foreign to him, he has no idea how to react to it.
I laugh at his words.
“Are you serious? Is that what you think of me?” I ask him in disbelief. “Do you think of me as…” I use air quotes around my next word, “… ‘cute’ too?”
He leans in close. His lips touch mine and he steals a kiss before he pulls back. “No. I think you’re the sexiest fucking thing to walk this planet. That fact is why you’re mine.”
Mine.
He just said I am his.
I didn’t expect that.
“Yours?” I ask, not believing what I’ve just heard.
“Yes, Everly. Does that make you feel good? I saw the way you reacted when I said it.”
I lean in close, my lips touching his as I steal a kiss back. “Yes.”
“Why? Why does that make you feel good? It’s a word, not an action, Everly.”
“Your words are calculated and well thought out, you wouldn’t have said that word unless there was some meaning to it.”
“Maybe I have underestimated you.”
We come to a stop out the front of his place. He gets out and walks around to open my door as we walk inside.
“Most people do,” I say, smiling to his earlier reply.
He looks at me, really looks at me. “I guess they do. That will change.”