Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
That was unexpected.
Jason was still walking, so that was good. Cece’s confession hadn’t knocked him to his backside.
And yet he couldn’t stop his thoughts from running away from him.
Cece was related to the man who wanted to change their small town.
He glanced at her as they continued down the street.
He didn’t think she was the sort of person who would use him for information.
Heck, she hadn’t asked much of him before laying her truth out for him to scrutinize.
If she’d wanted to leverage any information she could have gotten from him, she would have lied about who she was.
That in and of itself was telling.
Jason scrubbed at his face with his free hand and blew out a breath.
He wasn’t going to let this information stop him from finding out more about her. There was an undeniable attraction between them. That much was certain. He might not have dated much in the last several years, but he knew what he wanted.
And right now, he wanted the woman who seemed to be at a loss for words.
That was a first.
When she stopped rambling, he knew she was upset. He didn’t like it, not one bit.
Jason nudged her shoulder with his. “Cece Williams, huh?”
She blinked and her cheeks flushed. “Yes.”
“From New York.”
Her lips twitched. “Correct again.”
“Can you tell me something?”
Once again, she went quiet. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she eyed him warily. Her thoughts were written all over her face.
He chuckled. “What do you like about Rocky Ridge?”
Her mouth opened then snapped shut.
“Come on, Cece, I told you mine. Now you tell me yours.”
This time she gave him that dazzling smile he adored so much.
And the tension between them eased up a little.
It was still there, but it was the sizzle he’d gotten from her since the beginning.
The desire to reach out and touch her that continued to grow deep inside him.
He nearly did, but instead, his hand curled into a fist at his side.
And he waited.
Cecelia rolled her lips between her teeth and glanced up at him again. “I like how the world seems to fade away when I’m here. I like how everyone seems to know everyone else. This doesn’t feel like a town. It feels—”
Jason waited for her to find the rest of what she wanted to say. It wasn’t hard to hang on her every word. With each passing second, he knew he’d wait a thousand more if it meant getting to know her better.
“It feels like a family,” Cece whispered on a sigh before offering him a shy smile. “Boy, that sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it?” She released a laugh and covered her face with a hand, one he pried away from her before dipping his head to get a better look at her.
“No. Not crazy at all.”
Her beautiful wide eyes searched his before she narrowed them. “What? Why? This isn’t real, is it?”
Amused, he gave in to the temptation to reach for a strand of hair that floated around her face. He curled it around her ear before retreating. “What do you mean?”
The next sound she made was more of a snort than anything else. She gestured at him with the flick of her hand. “You. This. I just told you who I am and you’re not demanding answers? I’m sure you have plenty of questions.”
“You’re right,” he murmured.
Her face fell and she looked away, but once again he moved into her line of sight. “And I don’t care.”
“What?”
Jason shrugged. “You’re Cece. I’m not worried about who your father is or what you do for work unless it’s your passion.
I just want to get to know the woman who keeps me up at night.
” Jason winced inwardly. No, he didn’t have a lot of dating experience, but even he knew it was way too soon to say anything so revealing.
He needed to backpedal, and fast, if he didn’t want to scare her off.
“You really don’t want to know anything about what my father’s planning?”
He shook his head. “No. You don’t strike me as the kind of person I should be worried about.”
“Why not?”
He caught it the second she regretted her question. It was in how her eyes shuttered and the sharp little breath she took. He chuckled. “I like you, Cece.”
Once again, she gasped. “What? You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know that you like animals. That you enjoy the peace and quiet a run in the woods can offer. I know that you have excellent taste in sweets.” He winked at her. “And that you work for your family. I do too, and I think it’s important to support the people we care about.”
At this point she seemed too stunned to speak.
He motioned for them to resume walking because at some point they’d stopped to speak to one another.
It was easy to organize his thoughts when they were moving.
And he had a feeling she’d agree. So they continued down the sidewalk, weaving in and out of other couples enjoying an evening stroll after the meeting that had been held at City Hall.
Cece remained quiet. Neither one of them was inclined to fill the silence. It wasn’t quite awkward, but it had more to it than that. There was a comfortable anticipation for what might come next.
“If you could live anywhere, where would it be?” she asked.
Jason smiled. “Here.”
“Of course you’d say that.”
“What about you?” Jason murmured.
She sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve been to so many beautiful places. I do like my home. Honest, I do. But there gets to be a point where it seems too loud.” She gave him a chagrined smile. “I think if I were to ever move away from the city, I’d like to visit every so often.”
Cece went quiet. Their hands brushed, but she didn’t pull away. He glanced over to her hand, noting how small and delicate it was. If he were to reach for it, he was certain he could swallow it within his grasp. The contrast between the two of them was stark and yet perfect at the same time.
She stole his focus again when she continued. “I suppose I’d like to live somewhere like Rocky Ridge. Maybe not so far from civilization, but somewhere with enough space to make it feel like I’ve moved to my own little world.”
He hummed in acknowledgement. What she was describing was Rocky Ridge to a T.
But it wouldn’t stay that way if people like her father continued to edge into these growing towns.
Already they’d become more popular due to a few of their current residents.
Paige, Kelsey, and Brooke had moved to the area, and while they’d been insistent that they didn’t want to change Rocky Ridge at all, they had enough of an online presence that there had been an uptick in tourists over the last few years.
She stepped in front of him, walking backward as she kept her eyes trained on him. “Okay, how about this one? Cat or dog person?”
He arched a brow.
Cece huffed. “And no, you can’t say you’re a horse person, because,” she said, gesturing toward him again, “clearly you are. That’s no secret and it would be cheating to try to use that one.”
Jason couldn’t remember a time when he’d smiled more. “Cat.”
Her brows shot up. “Really. That’s surprising.”
“How so?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I suppose it’s because you’re this big, brawny kind of guy. I can’t see you with a cat curled up in your lap.”
“Let me guess. You’re a dog person?”
Cece snorted. “Hardly. I’m more of a betta fish person.”
At that, he threw back his head and barked out a laugh. The sound must have taken her by surprise because she stumbled a few paces before finding her footing. Then her face broke with a wide smile and it lit up the whole night sky.
Jason grinned. “You broke the rules.”
“What rules? I only said you couldn’t say you were a horse person. I never said anything about fish.”
They were both laughing and smiling wide.
Their differences were no longer hovering over their heads.
He didn’t need to worry about who she was related to.
Cece wasn’t here to ruin their town even if Tate thought that might be the case.
She was doing her job. And there weren’t any rules that said they couldn’t be friendly toward one another.
“Okay,” he murmured, “I have one.”
She fell into step beside him, all tension from her shoulders gone. “Okay, lay it on me.”
“What did you want to be when you grew up?”
Cece tilted her head thoughtfully for a long moment. Then she let loose a giggle that only added to his good mood. “Would you believe I wanted to be a pilot?”
“A pilot,” he murmured.
“Insane, right? Can you imagine it? Me? Flying a plane?”
“I can.”
Her head snapped around until she was looking at him fully again. “Yeah, right.” She laughed. “You realize that men, statistically speaking, have better spatial reasoning. There’s a reason it’s a male-dominated field.”
“There’s always an exception to the rule. Why couldn’t you go after a dream like that?”
“Well, because,” she blustered.
“Besides the obvious, that is.”
“The obvious?”
He nodded. “You cared enough about your family to work for your father’s business, right? You stuck by him. That takes guts.”
She looked away then, and he knew he’d been mistaken. She wasn’t admitting to it. Not to him and maybe not even to herself. He needed to fix the direction this conversation was taking.
“I’ve got another one.”
This time, she mumbled a noncommittal sound.
“Hobbies.”
“Hobbies?”
“You know. What do you like to do?” He prayed this topic would be a gold mine. Someone like Cece had to have several interests. She was educated, well-traveled. If he had to place a bet, he’d guess that she had been involved in several extracurriculars as a child.
“I don’t know. Most of my days are filled with work.”
“Then when you were a kid,” Jason pressed.
“Math club.”
He stopped short and she took a few steps before she caught on.
Then she turned around and planted her hands on her hips. “Don’t say it.”
Jason’s lips twitched. “Say what?”
She waved him off. “Nothing. Never mind.” Cece spun on her heel and started walking again.
He jogged to catch up to her. “Oh, the part about the exception to the rule, right? Because, statistically speaking, women don’t exactly enjoy mathematics.”
Cece wasn’t meeting his eyes, but one side of her mouth had quirked upward.
“It makes sense now. Your understanding of statistics. Your interest in being a pilot. Being the exception to the rule.”
She peeked at him then. “For someone who barely speaks, I’m fairly certain you’ve spoken more words in the last ten seconds than you’ve said since I met you.”
“And I thought you said you were good with numbers.”
When she laughed, he knew he’d won. They were back to the banter he was quickly becoming addicted to. There might be some subjects that were off-limits, but for the most part, he knew they could find common ground.
Jason reached out and stopped her by wrapping his hand around her upper arm. He tugged her gently to face him and met her eyes. “Do you think I could get your number?”
Her surprise nearly had him retracting his request. Had he read her wrong? They were getting along so well. But then she pulled out her phone and unlocked it. Then she handed it to him and their fingers grazed.
Cece’s warmth lingered longer than he’d thought was possible.
He stared at his hand as if he could see how she affected him.
But then she wiggled the phone at him, and he was startled back to the present.
With deft fingers, he typed in his name and number.
Then he used her phone to call his own to make sure he got it right.
When he handed her phone back, he was at a loss for what to say. They exchanged knowing smiles. There were no promises of calling or sending one another messages. He wasn’t sure either one of them was ready to plan another outing. It would probably be better to let things simmer.
So he jerked his chin in the direction they’d come from.
She nodded and together they wandered toward the bakery.
He’d been parked a few shops down the street when he’d spotted her entering the bakery.
At the time, he’d thought it was random good luck.
He’d wanted to see her again, but he couldn’t come up with a plan to do so without involving Wendy.
Then there she was.
And now they had a direct link.