“We’re going to dig into that later.”
“That’ll be a fun conversation.”
He’s back.
The man I met in Hawaii is fully back, without me inviting him back this time, and every cell in my body is reacting to the flirtation.
This feels almost the same as if Emma would forgive me.
Like everything is right in the world with one of my best friends.
I shouldn’t feel that way, but I can’t help it. I like him.
“Are you more in danger at high elevations?” I ask.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“So what’s not fine?”
He pauses.
Jitter whines and tries to roll over Grey’s feet, making him take another half step back and nearly tumble again. “Stress,” he finally says. “Standing up too fast. Not eating enough. Not hydrating enough.”
“Porcupines and powdered cheese?”
He actually laughs.
I am in so much trouble.
“Is it permanent?” I ask.
“This is trail conversation.”
“Have you ever been on a snowy trail?”
“I’m a beach bum, remember?”
Yep.
I’m doing it.
I’m giving in to the charm he’s laying down, and I’ll regret it, but this?
This is fun.
I want fun. I miss fun.
And orgasms.
Which are not on the table here.
“Stay. Both of you. And do not move. Don’t even shift your weight. Understand?” I shove Jitter’s leash at him without waiting for an answer, then march back to my SUV in my snowshoes.
Lucky and Decker both regularly join me on hikes, and they both regularly forget their own snowshoes, so I keep spare spikes in my car. No extra gaiters to keep Grey’s jeans dry, but I have a backup set of hiking poles, so I grab those and a spare water bottle and return to the trailhead.
“Put these on,” I order the man.
He lifts his brows, then looks at me as he takes the strap-on cleats that’ll give him traction on the trail. “On…？”
“Your feet.”
“Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my feet are a little larger than yours.”
“They’re my boyfriend’s.”
His eyes flare while he jerks his head to look at me.
Say what you will about Greyson Cartwright, the man is not always the smoothest.
Grumpy? Sometimes. Annoying? Also sometimes. Adorably charming when he wants to be?
Unfortunately.
But if he were cast in a Razzle Dazzle film, he’d be the awkward librarian who can’t quite hide all of his feelings. And while I love Jonas Rutherford, the channel’s biggest star, and while it absolutely pains me to admit this, I’d watch Grey in that role in a heartbeat.
Even after all the heartburn he’s given me these past few weeks.
“You have a boyfriend,” he repeats.
“Long-distance. It’s brand new. Military. He’s stationed in Korea right now. We have phone sex every night before I go to bed.”
“That’s your toothbrush,” he stutters.
I suck in a breath.
He goes red as all the hearts that have started going up around town before Valentine’s Day.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
He snags the cleats, hands me Jitter’s leash, and squats quickly, bending over his feet while he figures out how to strap on the spikes.
“I didn’t realize you’d taken the bedroom that shares a wall with mine,” I say. “Very good to know.”
“You don’t have another boyfriend.”
Another? “Are you sure?”
“You don’t date.”
“Maybe I found my soulmate and changed my mind.”
“Yesterday?” He’s still staring at the ground, working a lot harder than he should have to in order to get the spikes on.
And when he straightens, he’s managed to go straight-faced again, though he’s still pink in the cheeks.
I’ll be kind and assume it’s the cold getting to him.
But more, I can’t answer his question.
I don’t want to play games.
I don’t want to lie.
All I want to do is take a hike with him.
“Which way?” he asks, pointing at where the trail forks just ahead.
And I pick a direction.
I’m heading up my favorite path with a man that I should not be attracted to and my dog who loves him.
Gossip help me if he wants to be alone here because he knows I called his grandmother.
23
Grey
Sabrina shoves hiking poles at me and then nudges Jitter toward the fork on the left without waiting to see if I’ll keep up. I step cautiously, but the tools she gave me for my boots have good traction.