Page 22 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

Torture

Blake

I sat in the window seat in my bedroom with a cup of coffee and stared out at the pines.

Today was Dair’s (and his family’s) last day in Prescott.

And I was extremely bummed about it.

The night before last, the rest of Dair and my date was a great deal better than the beginning of it.

He was witty. Clever. Openly into me. Thought I was funny.

And worth a repeat, openly into me.

A man like that, not just his looks, but confidence, his unceasing energy for life, his humor.

I’d never met a man like him.

Indeed, until getting to know him again, I didn’t know men like him existed.

On our date, after our dinner, we wandered the streets of Prescott and around the square, his arm around my shoulders, mine around his waist.

And it’s safe to say, that felt nice too.

I’d never strolled, connected to a man (or anyone) with no real purpose (except the important mission to get ice cream). No place to go. Just being together, spending time, chatting.

Touching.

We hit the ice cream place. He took his cone, and I took my sundae to a bench on the square. There we sat eating, and while we did, and even after, Dair made up stories about people that passed by that had me bending double from laughing so hard.

It was a toss-up, the walking close together vs. the laughing that hard as to which felt nicer, so in the end, I decided they were a tie.

What wasn’t a toss-up was that, regardless of how it began, by far, my date with Dair was the best I’d had in my life. Bar none.

In fact, not a single one even came close.

And I didn’t think I’d ever laughed that hard.

Ever.

And this was my decision about the date before we made out on my side in the open door of the car. And although it wasn’t as off the hook and all-consuming as when we were going at each other in the kitchen, it was still fabulous.

One could say (and I so did), the man could kiss.

More fabulous, I knew he wanted to kiss me, I wanted him to kiss me (badly—enough couldn’t be said about our kitchen kiss), and he found a time to give that to the both of us.

But he didn’t neck with me in his car outside a house my father and his mother were in, or inside for that matter.

We were grown adults, but I still thought this was him being sweet to me, and respectful of Dad, also his mum.

Again, I liked that.

A whole lot.

Nevertheless, when we got home, we found, even if it wasn’t all that late, everyone was in bed, and we headed that way too.

It sucked to say goodbye to him in the hall.

I might have sent a yearning glance his way before I walked through my bedroom door.

Actually, I was sure I did, considering the arrogant smile on his face when he saw it since he was standing outside his door waiting for me to go in mine.

Though, his arrogance was good. It wiped the yearning out of my mind and swept the vexation right in.

After we all went to brunch in town the next morning, Davi and Kenna took the rental car to go explore, Dad took his car to go home, and Dair slid behind the driver’s seat in mine because he decided we were spending our day together in Sedona.

I loved Sedona, even if it was more than an hour drive away, so I was all in.

However, as it seemed was us, during our day together, we shared cross words five times.

This started about two minutes after we were underway.

It began with Dair stating, “Ye barely have any petrol, lassie.”

“Okay. So let’s stop by a gas station.”

“Ye should never be this close to empty,” he decreed, his tone weighty.

It was the weight in his tone that made me turn to him and ask, “Why?”

“It’s dangerous. Ye should always keep it upward of half a tank because ye never know what’s going to happen.”

“Well, should I ever have the urge to rob a bank whereupon I find myself in a car chase with the police, I’ll remember your words when I run out of gas halfway to I-17.”

Now his tone was impatient. “What I mean is, there’s long stretches in this country with a good deal of nothing. Or ye could get busy and forget. And then you’d be stranded.”

“I’m sure it will come as no surprise when I tell you I don’t often motor around in desolate rural areas and my car doesn’t let me forget, Dair. A warning comes on that tells me precisely how many miles I have left before I have to gas up.”

“Ye see what I’m saying, though. Aye?”

“Your accent is thick, but I’m getting used to it, so I do understand you. I just don’t agree with you.”

He made a growly noise at that point, which was so scrumptious, it made the entire mildly annoying conversation totally worthwhile.

Our next exchange of words happened about two minutes later, at the gas pump.

When he stopped, he got out.

So did I, with my purse.

He scowled at me like getting out of the car was akin to me threatening world peace.

“I’m pumping,” he stated.

I wasn’t going to argue that. I hated pumping gas.

“I’m paying.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“You’re not.”

“It’s my car.”

To that, he shoved his credit card into the slot.

“Dair!” I snapped.

“Get in the car, Blake.”

“You’re impossible.”

He grinned and pulled out his card. “You still like me, though.”

I hmphed my way into the car.

We then exchanged words about thirty minutes later, when he went off the beaten path.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Looked at the routes and this one is supposed to be more scenic.”

“It’ll also take longer.”

“Do we have somewhere to be?”

“Yes, a particularly good jewelry story in Sedona,” I retorted.

“I’ll get ye there.”

“Yes, perhaps after someone buys a pair of earrings I would have wanted to own,” I shot back.

He sounded in dire need of laughing when he asked, “So you’re on my back about the route because of a pair of earrings that may or may not exist?”

I decided to shut up.

We then had words over who was going to pay for lunch (he won).

And last, we had words over when we were going to head back.

I wanted to go a bit early. He wanted to stay.

When I told him I wanted to check on his mum, that discussion, I won.

That said, the day was fun. Even, I had to admit, bickering with Dair was fun.

It felt good to watch Dair marvel at the beauty of Sedona. Not to mention, he was no less witty and charming than ever.

And it felt good to be able to be just me. I could be argumentative and stubborn all I wanted, he didn’t mind.

I think he even liked it.

And he bought me a pair of earrings at that store, ones that I liked a great deal, but I was going to pass them up even knowing full well I’d probably obsess about them when I did, which would necessitate me contacting the store and having them shipped to me.

They were dangling square hoops made of round semi-precious stones set in silver.

I’d been attempting to create a Prescott wardrobe, with accessories, that I could leave at the house so I didn’t have to pack so much when I went there, and they were the perfect addition, because they’d go with a multitude of outfits.

All of this was awesome, but the best part was it was an incredibly lovely gesture from Dair.

Outside of our squabbling (that I still enjoyed), the day was just…easy.

Conversation flowed. We had history. We knew some of the same people. From afar, we even ran in the same circles. Thus, we had a myriad of connections and connected interests.

Not to mention, Dair was physical, demonstrative, and before him, I didn’t think I liked that. And then he did it, and I realized I liked it very much.

To put it plainly, I was proud to be on his arm.

He was so handsome, he got his fair share of looks from the female population, and I felt like preening at his side, because he chose me.

This man chose me .

When we arrived home, we discovered that Kenna had indeed commandeered the kitchen.

She made a hearty stew that wasn’t my idea of summer fare, but it was delicious.

And unsurprisingly, considering Dair had known her all his life and he said this would be so, she seemed much more settled after making dinner, having had something to do, and doing it for people she cared about.

We didn’t play a game or watch a movie after dinner.

We all sat on the deck, talking and reminiscing and enjoying each other’s company.

That was easy too.

It was marvelous.

And scary as all hell.

But now, they were leaving.

And I wasn’t conflicted about that.

I was coming to the realization no man I’d ever dated, no man I’d ever been with, was a man I picked.

They were men I thought my mother would approve of. And if not her, then Dad.

Some of them were men in my set I didn’t even like.

For the first time, I was with a man I chose. A man I wanted to be with. A man I really, really liked being with.

And he was leaving.

On this thought, and a heavy sigh, I got up to head back down to the kitchen to rummage around and see what to make everyone for breakfast. Their plane didn’t leave until the evening from Sky Harbor in Phoenix, but they had to check in two hours early, and it was a two-hour drive, so they had to leave right after lunch.

This brought something else to mind.

I’d always been very late to bed, very late to rise. Hell, in my mean girl heyday, it was rare I was out of bed before noon.

Now, it was the exact opposite.

If I wasn’t in bed with a book by nine thirty, I considered it “up late.”

But if I wasn’t out of bed by six thirty, I thought I’d wasted the day (I was usually up, latest, by six).

It didn’t occur to me, until Dair shoved up in my face, how much I’d changed.

But I’d changed.

A lot.

It didn’t only make me happy, realizing I had, it made me happy that Dair had held that mirror up to my face and forced me to see the woman who had become me.

The woman he saw me to be.

And she wasn’t half bad.

On my journey to the kitchen, I hesitated outside Dair’s door, wondering what he’d do if I went in and climbed in bed with him, just to cuddle.

It’d be interesting to see what cuddling with that big, strong body would feel like. Pressing up against it while kissing was sublime. Cuddling, I figured, would be everything .