“I wish too,” he said, gruffly. “But for now, let’s take this day and pretend that we both aren’t realists.”
She thought about it for a few moments. Could she do that? Why not? As he said, they both weren’t going to pretend this was the prelude to forever. They both knew that their lives weren’t going to merge together suddenly and magically. Today was a moment they’d have to look back on. Fondly, she promised herself.
“No regrets.”
“Never with you, lady,” he said, rolling them to their sides as he pulled away from her. “I’ll go shower in another room and meet you back in the kitchen.”
She shook her head. “Shower with me. This day isn’t going to last forever, and I don’t want to waste a minute of it without you.”
He nodded in that short way of his. Then sat up and got to his feet before reaching back and lifting her in his arms. “No one’s ever carried me before.”
He arched one eyebrow at her. “Like it?”
“I do. Makes me feel like a princess,” she said.
“Hmm. Too bad you don’t have a white knight.”
“I do. I have you.”
“I’m not a white knight.”
“Today you are,” she said. She wished they had more than this time together. So she could show him the man she saw behind the thorns that he’d wrapped himself in. Behind the legend and the temper he used to keep everyone at bay. But she didn’t, so she’d just push and take what she needed from him while he was here in her arms.
“Today only.”
“That’s all I need,” she said but even as the words left her mouth, she knew they were a lie. She’d prided herself on being truthful, but she couldn’t be now. She only had one day with Conrad and she wasn’t going to ruin it with the truth.
Twelve
Indy had given up on trying to cook and sat on a stool watching him making pasta, talking about her favorite books. It was as if, by saying they only had this one day, he’d unlocked something in her.
“So what’s the book about again?” he asked. She was trying to explain the plot ofA Swiftly Tilting Planet, the third book in the Madeleine L’EngleA Wrinkle in Timeseries. Which he’d read when he’d been a teenager. He and Dash had read it when Rory did because she liked talking about books. He had a feeling that Rory and Indy would get along great. Or the Rory he had known. She was of course a shadow of the girl he’d known now.
But there was a real woman sitting there talking to him about her dreams and her love of fairy tales and books; it gave him hope that Rory might find that one day. He thought of the trauma from Indy’s past that she’d dealt with. God, she was such a strong person. At times he was in awe of that strength in her because it allowed her to be open.
His strength was a fortress he used to keep everyone at bay. Hers was a warm hearth inviting those she chose to come closer and be comforted by it.
He wasn’t sure he was worthy of being invited in. God, when was he going to? Today when he was with this woman, who had turned him inside out, he had wanted to celebrate so much of himself—and he still couldn’t just exhale and let himself be with her.
She took a deep breath. “I love the sibling dynamics in the book. I’m an only child.”
“As am I,” he said. “But as you know I was raised with Rory and Dash, so I’m sort of not. I read that series a long time ago. It was okay. If you want a really good science fiction book, you should tryDune.”
“I have. Oh my gosh, it makes my head hurt when I read it. I have to pay close attention to everything. I really like a book I can just sink into and not have to...well, think so much,” she said. “What about you?”
“I don’t read that much anymore. I will sometimes put an audio book on when I go for a ride on the bike,” he said.
She shook her head, smiling at him.
“What?”
“I’m just picturing you looking like a badass on your bike and listening toDune.”
He laughed softly. “I can see your point. What’s the best book you’ve read lately?”
“Hmm...not sure I can pick just one. My go-to is always historical romance.”
He hadn’t heard of the genre. “What do you love about it?”