“No way.” Matt continues to hold my hand. “I’m going to teach you my ways.” To my disappointment, Matt lets go of my hand and leans back in his chair, putting more space than I want between us.
“Okay, will do,” I say teasingly, and lean back in my own chair, trying to mimic his easy coolness.
“I know you’re picking on me but get ready to be wowed.”
I roll my eyes playfully but decide to pay attention. It’s not that I’m interested in learning how to get good at puzzle, but rather that I can’t help but pay attention to Matt.
With his stunningly good looks, the man dominates the tiny kitchen. But beyond his physical appearance, over the last few days I’ve started to fall for Matt’s charming demeanor, kind personality, and good-humored manners.
And despite the fact that the storm has raged for days and that my cabin was almost burned to a crisp, the reality is that since Matt showed up like a white knight, I have never felt so at ease with a man. Not even Marky was this great to be with.
So if he wants to teach me how to ‘properly’ complete a puzzle, I lift an eyebrow as I think, then so be it.
“What are you raising your eyebrows about over there?” I look up to see Matt’s intense blue eyes gleaming into mine.
“Oh, nothing, it’s nothing.” I mutter.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“It’s… complicated?” At least, I think it’s complicated.
“No pressure then. So,” Matt changes the subject and I’m grateful for his perceptiveness, “to start building a puzzle without – what was the word, cheating? – it’s best to pull out all the edge pieces. From there, organize by similar color if you can.”
“Okay, sure. That sounds easy enough.” I start pulling out the edge pieces. “And if you must know, I was thinking about Marky,” I blurt out.
Matt continues to organize the puzzle pieces alongside me, not looking up. “Oh?”
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
“Just that everything with him always felt so complicated. Like I always felt like I was reading too much into certain situations or conversations, and I guess now, looking back on it, I wasn’t. Because obviously we were completely wrong for each other, and I feel dumb for not knowing sooner.”
Matt stops organizing the puzzle pieces, but still doesn’t look up. He resumes the task when he starts to speak.
“You know, when Marky was a kid, maybe four or five, I made him a wooden rocking horse. The kind that sits on little wooden sliders. Anyway, one day Marky tells me not too long after I’d given him the horse that he wants a bike. Now at the time, I was just getting started with my business, so money was tight. We couldn’t afford a bike.”
Matt settles into his chair more and continues.
“So I tell him no, he can’t get a bike. And I’ll be damned if that very afternoon I didn’t come home from work and Marky had the rocking horse off of its rockers and tried to glue wheels from a toy truck onto it.” Matt starts laughing. “I walk in and see this tiny kid covered in glue and bits of sawdust and the saddest expression.”
I smile with compassion.
“That sounds like Marky, always tinkering and getting into mischief.” My voice must be sad because Matt looks up quickly and his face falls upon seeing mine.
“Hey, I’m sorry Cora. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just thought a story about Marky in another light might make you feel less angry at him.”
“No, it’s okay, really. The whole situation with him is more weird than anything.”
“That’s an understatement.” Matt squeezes my hand gently and we both go back to busying ourselves with sorting the puzzle pieces.
“I’m not exactly angry at him. Well, I was. But I think now I’m just confused.”
My handsome companion raises his eyebrows.
“That seems like a totally fair reaction.”
I smile at Matt, grateful that despite him being Marky’s dad, he can appreciate that I’m going through a range of emotions.
Except I’m not confused about Marky, I acknowledge to myself. I’m confused about why I find Matt to be so handsome and intriguing and tempting…
Okay let’s not go down this line of thinking, Cora. Find a new subject.
“Not to be rude…” I venture, eager to talk about anything aside from my feelings for Matt.
“Come on, Cora. We’re way past formalities. You’ve seen me in a hot pink bathrobe.” Matt smiles and I immediately feel at ease again.
I grin at the memory of that first morning.
“True. Well, I just thought that your family was really rich? Like your parents and grandparents and everyone. But you said you couldn’t afford a bike.”
“Oh for sure, the Harrisons are too rich for our own good. But at the time, my parents had actually cut me off. They weren’t too happy about the whole getting a girl pregnant situation.” Matt shrugs. “They eventually came around, and I think mostly because of Marky. It’s sometimes hard, I think, when you have money, because you start to care too much what people think of you.”