Chapter 5 #3
I huff out a breath and drag a branch off the path, tossing it onto the growing pile. “Plenty of people here make it work. Doesn’t mean I’ve been looking to.”
Tom doesn’t laugh. He doesn’t move either. The quiet settles between us, thick enough that I notice my own breathing, the distant cry of a gull drifting up from the harbor.
“Didn’t ask if you were looking.”
I straighten and wipe my hands on my jeans, grinding sap and sawdust into the fabric. “We’re fine the way we are.”
“Didn’t say you weren’t.”
My gaze flicks to him. He’s still watching me, like he’s got nowhere else to be and all the time in the world. It needles under my skin faster than it should. “Then what are you saying?”
Tom tilts his head but stays quiet.
A breeze slides through the trees, cooling the sweat at the back of my neck. Pine and salt drift up from the water below. I focus on that, on the flicker of light through the branches.
“I think that you’re working hard to dismiss your feelings.”
Air leaves my lungs sharper than I expect. My hand drags over the back of my neck, fingers catching on grit. “You always push like this?”
“Only when it matters.”
Something tightens low in my gut. I shift my stance, boots grinding into the dirt. “It’s not… it’s not like that.”
He lets the silence stretch and just stands there in all his masculine glory.
The words sit heavy until holding them back takes more effort than letting them go.
“I’m… damn it. I don’t just like women. Never did something about that.
Settled for normal.” My mouth dries halfway through it.
My tongue presses briefly against my teeth before I finish.
“Doesn’t mean I’m planning to do anything about it now. ”
“No?”
My head lifts, irritation flaring quick and hot. “What do you mean?”
“I think you do plan on doing something about it. You’ve at least thought about it.”
The quiet presses in again. My hand drags down my face, slow, fingers scraping over stubble. “Yeah.” The word leaves on a breath. My gaze drops to the dirt between us before I force it back up. “Sometimes. More than I probably should.” Something shifts in my chest as the words hang there.
Tom gives a single nod, like I’m just confirming what he already knew. “Does she know?”
My head snaps up before I think about it. “No.”
“Why not?”
I look away, jaw working. My tongue runs along the inside of my cheek before I answer. “Because it’s not exactly something you drop over dinner.”
“Maybe not. But it’s something she should hear from you.”
My eyes fix on the water flashing through the trees, bright enough to sting. “You’re assuming it matters that much.”
Tom steps closer. He’s not close enough to touch, but the space between us is almost nonexistent. “If it didn’t,” he says, “you wouldn’t be standing here trying to convince me it doesn’t while your body is giving me different signals.”
Yeah, he’s right. My cock has surged to attention with his nearness and my breathing has sped up. I don’t answer.
“You thinking about stepping into something like that,” he continues, “it involves her whether you say it out loud or not.”
I angle back and make eye contact. “And you?”
The corner of his mouth lifts. “I’m game.”
My pulse kicks once, hard. A dry sound leaves me as I shake my head. “Fuck, man.”
His low chuckle slithers down my spine and grabs me by the balls. I hold his gaze, taking in the way he stands there like none of this unsettles him. Like he’s already made up his mind and is waiting for me to catch up.
My chin dips once. “She doesn’t know.”
Tom doesn’t look away. Something settles behind his eyes. “Then we don’t move until she does.”
His words settle in my chest. My shoulders loosen a fraction.
The urge to push back doesn’t come. I turn toward the water again, the breeze lifting the damp at my neck, cooling my skin.
For the first time in a long while, the next step doesn’t feel like something I have to force into place.
“You’re right. I know I want to change the path Mel and I are on, I just don’t know how to do that. ”
Tom nods slowly. “Sometimes people need someone to take care of them for a change.”
“You volunteering?”
He meets my gaze without hesitation. “Absolutely.”
A laugh slips out of me before I can stop it. “You’re either brave or stupid saying that to a man you barely know.”
Tom leans back against the railing, perfectly at ease. “Or maybe I’ve just been paying attention.”
“To what?”
“The way you look at Mel.”
The breeze shifts through the trees again.
“And the way she looks back.”
I study him for a long moment before shaking my head.
“You’ve got some nerve.”
“Maybe.” His smile is slow and unhurried. “But if I’m wrong, you can tell me to go to hell, and we’ll keep clearing trails like nothing happened.”
“And if you’re not wrong?”
Tom’s gaze stays steady on mine.
“Then maybe you two need a Daddy.”
The words hang in the warm afternoon air.
I look out over the harbor again, the sunlight dancing across the water below.
For the first time in a long while, the quiet doesn’t feel quite so empty.
Behind us, the cleared trail winds back through the trees toward town.