“I know,” I whisper.
My girl tips her head back, searing me with her baby-blue eyes. “Do you?” she asks.
I hum in confirmation. “My dad died when I was young. He was in the military and overseas. My mom passed away a few years ago from cancer.”
“Oh, Gavin, I’m so sorry,” she whispers, the sincerity in her eyes making her look that much more innocent and vulnerable.
I tuck a few strands of her silky blonde hair behind her ear, letting my fingers slide across her cheek before I drop my hand to my side. I want to touch her every-fucking-where, both to give her pleasure as well as comfort her.
“Thanks,” I murmur.
“Is it just you now then?” she asks and I shake my head.
“No, I have an older sister. I’m actually here with her and my nephew tonight.”
Pia gives me a small smile and steps away from me. I hate to let her go but I suppose that I don’t have much of a choice.
“You should get back to them. I need to take care of Penny,” she says as we reach the stable tent.
I glance at it, and I know that now is my chance.
“Have dinner with me,” I say. Pia blinks, clearly startled.
But I can see it. The longing on her face. She wants to say yes. She wants me just like I want her, and I wonder if she can feel this invisible connection between us too.
Maybe I should have told her that I fell in love with her the second that I saw her. Maybe she wouldn’t have been freaked out at all.
Visions of our life together start to float inside my head. Us at our wedding, our wedding night, decorating a nursery. I want all of it, and it’s so close that I can taste it.
Georgia would be so happy. She’s been pestering me to settle down for years now, and it’s finally going to happen. I’ve finally met the woman that I was meant to spend my life with.
“I can’t,” Pia says.
It feels like a metal door slamming shut on my hopes and dreams. I blink, all of those plans for our future disappearing before my eyes.
“What?” I mutter, in shock.
Doesn’t she feel this between us?I saw that she was interested in me. She has to want me too.
“I’m sorry,” she murmurs, looking down at her feet and then over at Penny. Anywhere but meeting my gaze. “I just… I can’t.”
Pia wrings her hands in front of her nervously, then turns on her heel in a jerky movement, pushing the canvas door aside and disappearing inside the tent with Penny.
I’m left staring after her, wondering where I went wrong.
FOUR
Pia
I peekthrough the tent flap one last time, taking in Gavin. He’s still standing there, staring at the opening in the flap, but I’m off to the side and hidden behind Penny so he can’t see me.
He looks surprised that I said no and disappeared, maybe even a little disappointed, though I’m sure he could find someone else to take out on a date in a heartbeat. I hate the thought of Gavin with another woman, which is ridiculous, seeing as I just turned him down.
My whole being is urging me to go back out there and say yes, but I push that craziness back down, trying to tamper my lust. I’m lightheaded from crying and confused by the large, too-sweet, far too-sexy stranger with the captivating blue eyes.
What’s his endgame? Maybe he felt obligated to ask me out after I cried in his arms. That must be it. There’s no way someone like him would look twice at someone like me.
Not only is he a twenty on a scale of one to ten, but he’s several years older and clearly wealthy if his designer shoes, tight jeans, and sparkling watch say anything about him. We’d never work in the long run, and I’m in no position to be starting anything with anyone anyway.