“Cheat?”
“Yeah. I’m a one-woman kind of guy. Or…” Gentry’s frown deepened. “I was really trying to be a zero-woman kind of guy. I’m shit at relationships.”
“You don’t say.”
Gentry cast a quick glance around and pulled the cart to a stop. In a low voice, he murmured, “What are you angry about, Blaire? Explain it to me, because I have to tell you, women are a complete mystery to me, and you are the most confusing one of all.”
She matched the low pitch of his voice because, apparently, they were telling secrets by the milk case. “I was looking forward to breakfast with you, Gentry. I thought maybe you were different than those guys who fooled around with a girl and bolted, but then first thing this morning, you throw attitude and cancel on me, and now I feel…I feel…”
“What?” he asked, looking utterly baffled. “Say it.”
“I feel dirty and kind of cheap.”
Gentry ran his hand over his head, pulling off his black winter hat, and blew out the word, “Fuck.” He paced off then back and squared up to her even closer, trapped her in that bright green gaze. He lowered his voice again. “You aren’t dirty and you aren’t cheap. Last night wasn’t just some screw-around for me, Blaire. It was scary. I’m not supposed to be with someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“It’s so fucking complicated right now. So complicated, and I don’t want the hole I’m in to rub off on you, okay? I want you to have a good vacation, a good week. I want you to have good memories of this place.” Good memories of me. The words were right there, unspoken but hanging in the air between them anyway.
Blaire was stunned with the honesty in his eyes.
“I didn’t get any sleep last night, and I was moody and pissed at the damn wolf—” Gentry’s eyes went wide as he cut himself off.
“You heard it, too? Gentry, it was terrifying! Howling right at dawn like that. I’ll have nightmares for a week. I didn’t even know there were wolves around here.”
“Shhhh,” he hissed, scanning the store around them. Quick as a whip, he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her to him, settled his lips near her ear, and whispered, “There are a few newly released into the mountains, but it’s a hot topic with the town. Best not to mention them.”
“Okay,” she murmured, feeling drunk on his smelly-good body spray. She was going to dress as his toothbrush next Halloween.
“Are you sniffing me, Trouble?” he asked, his lips brushing her ear.
No use denying it. “Mmm hmm.” When Blaire clenched the fabric of his sweater in her fists, he reacted with a low, soft rattling noise in his throat that sounded wild and sexy.
“’Scuse me, love birds,” a little elderly lady with thick glasses said.
Gentry backed away from Blaire like she was made of burning buffalo chips. He was pressed against her one second and on the other side of the cart the next, staring at the lady like they’d been caught boinking under the bleachers.
“Gentry,” the woman said cheerfully.
“Nelda,” he muttered, much less cheerfully. His eyes hardened like shards of green glass on the woman.
Blaire cast him a what-the-heck look and apologized to Nelda. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be, dear, I used to act like that with my Ted. It’s good to see young love again. Can you reach that for me?” She pointed at the two percent milk on the top shelf of the refrigerator.
“Of course,” Blaire said, grabbing two, one for her and one for the nice lady.
Finally, someone with manners in this town.
“Thanks, sweetie.” Nelda gave the brightest smile and then turned toward Gentry. In the softest, kindest voice Blaire had ever heard, she said, “She’s pretty. Rhett’s gonna kill you.” And then she shuffled off, pushing her cart, humming under her breath. Oh good, another lunatic.
Blaire blinked slowly and shook her head to rid herself of that ruined moment.
Nelda wasn’t sweet after all.
Nelda was a cock-blocker.
“I’m going to get some stuff for the house,” Gentry said in a distracted voice as he watched the woman walk away through narrowed, angry eyes.
“Don’t forget the macaroni,” she joked.
Gentry huffed the softest laugh and then cast her a quick glance. He looked like he wanted to say something, shook his head hard, then strode off toward the front of the store.
Okay then. Blaire rubbed the edge of her ear softly just to remember what his lips had felt like there. Her body was still revved up, and right now, all she wanted to do was get lost in a hug from Gentry. He wasn’t the public affection sort though, obviously, so she was barking up the wrong tree with wants like those.
Rhett’s gonna kill you. What a strange thing to say. Wait, maybe Rhett was who Gentry got into a barfight with last night.
She frowned at where Gentry had disappeared and then pushed her cart toward the cartons of eggs stacked in an open refrigerator along the wall. She felt pulled in a hundred directions around Gentry. A part of her loved the excitement, but another part of her grew scared of all the mysteries that surrounded him. The more she thought she knew him, the more layers she found, and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out if she liked that about him or not.
One thing was for sure and for certain, though. Gentry Striker was going to keep her on her toes this week.