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I shook my head. “They can be destroyed over time.” I knew that much firsthand. “You can learn they weren’t as strong as you once thought they were. They can be deepened. Strengthened. But you can’t light a fire without a spark.”
She swallowed, drawing my attention to her throat. It was thick like the rest of her, and I imagined how it would fit in my hand. Suppressing my shudder was almost impossible.
“Will you be going on another date with my brother?” I asked. I couldn’t not.
She glanced at the table, shaking her head. “I don’t think so.”
She didn’t seem sad about it.
And some sick, twisted part of me liked that.
A lot.
Our server from earlier brought out four plates of food, and she looked around the table, confused. “Where did the other two go?”
“They weren’t feeling well,” I answered. “Can we have a couple to-go containers please?”
She nodded. “Do you want me to box it up for you?”
“No.” I smiled over the table at Liv. “I think we’ll enjoy our own little buffet.”
For the next hour or so, Liv and I picked over the food on all the plates while she asked questions about my grossest ER stories when I worked at the hospital in Dallas. I thought the one about a kid putting rabbit poop up their nose might make her sick, but the woman had worked at a feedlot. Her stomach was clearly made of steel.
But then the conversation turned serious again when she said, “I’m pretty sure Wayne’s kids have three or four rabbits.”
“What happened with Wayne?” I asked. I remembered Rhett telling me that he proposed several years ago but then never got a wedding invitation. After a while, Dad told me they never got married at all.
She frowned at the table. “I guess it was what you’re talking about. We were good on paper, but it just didn’t feel right.”
“And no one’s snatched you up since then?” I asked.
She seemed stunned for a moment. Then she laughed.
“Why are you laughing?” I demanded. This wasn’t funny. Not to me. “You’re a smart, attractive woman in her early thirties. Women like you usually don’t stay single long in Cottonwood Falls.”
“Did you just call me pretty?” she asked, a flirtatious smirk on her face that reminded me of Rhett. Maybe that was one reason not to be attracted to your best friend’s little sister; you could see their similarities. But if I was being honest, a smirk on her was sexy as hell. And her question caught me off guard, getting me slightly flustered.
“You know what you are,” I finally said.
Her lips curved slightly. “And what’s that?”
“Are you going to make me say it?”
“Say what?” she said, exasperated. “Because unless you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly have guys lining up, begging to date me. Knox was the first person to ask me out in six months. I never get more than a dance or two at the bar on the weekends, and it usually stops there. So no, I have no idea what you mean.”
I’d like to blame the whiskey, but I’d only had half a glass. More likely it was the anger raging in my chest that made me say the truth. “Olivia Griffen. You are the most beautiful damn woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. There’s no one with a better smile, a kinder heart, or a more contagious laugh. I knew it was true when I was sixteen years old, and it’s just as true now.”
Her lips parted and closed again. “I... I never knew you saw me that way.”
I sat up, squaring my shoulders. “I don’t. I can’t. Because we have Maya to think about. And she has to come first.”
Her eyes searched mine, and she nodded slowly. “Fletcher, if you don’t mind.” She let out a breath and spoke quietly. “I think I want to go home.”
I quickly looked down. Man, I fucked up. When I looked up again, her wide eyes were on me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. It was all I could manage.
She shook her head. “Don’t be.”