“What does hold your attention, Mr. Sawyer?” he asked with a little smirk.
You.
Instead, I tore my gaze from his and drank more coffee. He softly sighed and ate more of his lemon muffin. Minutes later, my phone vibrated at the edge of the table where I’d placed it after sitting down.
“Hey, Mom,” I answered after seeing the caller ID.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a frantic voice. “You’re not still stuck, are you? Do you have warm clothes? Food? A place to stay?”
“Mom, take a breath. Everything’s fine. We’re at a bed-and-breakfast, so we have a roof over our heads and we’re not starving.”
Reed’s eyes lifted to me, the corners crinkling as he smiled. Yeah, he was getting a dose of my mom without even having to meet her. But I wouldn’t change a thing about her. I’d rather be too loved than not loved at all.
“Oh, thank god. When Gina told me you were still there, I got so worried. If you need anything, you let me know. I’ve watched all those survival documentaries. I can bundle up and come rescue you.”
I laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. Forecast says the snow should be completely out of the area by this afternoon. We should be able to head home tomorrow morning.”
“Is your assistant okay?” she asked. “He’s such a little thing.” She had never met him, but she’d seen him from afar when coming to visit me a few times at the office.
I glanced at Reed, who had lost interest in my conversation and was staring at the courtyard. “We’re both fine. Stop worrying.”
“We need to have lunch together when you get back,” she said. “You’re always working. I miss my baby boy.”
“We will. I promise.”
After the call ended, I put my phone away and went to take a drink of coffee, only to find I’d already finished it. Without missing a beat, Reed grabbed my cup, along with his, and went over to the coffee machine near the breakfast bar to refill them.
“Thank you,” I said, once he was back at the table and placed mine in front of me.
“You said thanks. Is the world ending?” He slapped a hand to his chest and slid back onto his seat. “You’re welcome. I needed to get more anyway. What do you wanna do after this?”
I gazed out the window, noticing the snow had slowed, before looking back at him. “How about some fresh air?”
***
“It’s so beautiful here,” Reed said, snuggling more into his coat. He tilted his head up and stared at the tops of the trees as we moved at a leisurely pace along a walking trail outside the manor. “Reminds me of a postcard.”
I barely registered our surroundings. I was too busy looking at him. Seeing the pink surface on his cheeks from the cold air, watching the flurries gather in his hair.
“It’s all right,” I said, forcing my gaze away from him. “Though, I’d kill for a sunny beach right about now.”
“God. Yes.” Reed shoved his hands in his coat pockets and deeply breathed in. “A warm, sunny beach with soft sand and a drink in my hand. Not a care in the world. Last summer, Quinn and I went to Mykonos, Greece, and I’ve never seen somewhere so damn gorgeous. The water was crystal blue, and the weather was perfect. I didn’t want to leave.”
“That’s right,” I said, remembering when he’d requested the time off from work. “I never asked how your vacation went. I’m sorry. I really have been kind of a jerk, haven’t I?”
“I wouldn’t say you’re a jerk.” Reed stopped on the path, staring at a tree with a hollow in the center. “Being friends isn’t part of the job. I realized that long ago.” He looked at me. “But I’m glad we’re talking now.”
“Me too,” I said.
Then, we settled into a comfortable silence, both of us smiling as we continued walking. In my life, there had been very few people I could do that with. It was… nice. The only sound was the crunching of snow beneath our shoes.
“Look!” Reed said in a harsh whisper, stopping on the path as he pointed to something ahead. Two deer grazed through the trees in front of us, trying to find food beneath the snow and ice. Probably bark, grass, or any berries buried beneath the winter slush. “Oh my god. So cool.”
His excitement at seeing a couple of deer caused a warm tingling in my stomach that spread up to my chest. To my heart.
When Reed stepped forward, the deer raised their heads and looked in our direction before scampering off. “Damn. I scared them.”
“Isn’t this where you’re supposed to say something about Bambi?” I asked.
A giggle tumbled from his lips, and his hazel eyes lifted to me. “Actually, I never watched that one.”
“You’re kidding. I’ve even seen Bambi.”
“Too sad,” Reed said, continuing forward. “I stay away from things that make me cry. Unless it’s a good cry. Like something happy or super romantic. The cheesier, the better.”
The privacy of the woods made it feel like only me and Reed existed in that moment, and I felt so connected to him. More than I ever had before. And it helped me voice the thoughts I had kept to myself.
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked, staring up at a robin that flew overhead.
“Hard to say.” Reed followed my gaze before our eyes met. “I tend to fall for people easily. I think I’ve loved a lot of men, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been in love. What about you?”
“Once,” I answered, standing still on the path. “Her name was Olivia. I met her sophomore year of college. We had Civics together, and she was so bad at it. I offered to help her study, and things progressed from there. We fell in love and got engaged three years later.”
“When did you get married?”
“We never did,” I answered, then exhaled, hoping to clear the tight knot that had formed in my chest at the memory. “I caught her cheating a week before our wedding. Totally cliché, I know, but I came home to find her in bed with another man. It crushed me. It was already hard for me to trust people, and that only pushed me even more into my shell.”
“Fuck.” Reed turned to me. “That’s rough. What did you do after that?”
“Called off the wedding and moped around for a month. She begged me to take her back, but once someone betrays me like that, it’s too hard for me to forgive them. It’s one of my flaws, I guess.”
“That’s not a flaw. It’s smart,” Reed said. “I’m the same way. I was with a guy last year who really broke my heart. He ghosted me out of the blue, and I had to hear from a mutual friend weeks later that he ran off with another guy. When things went south with that guy, he came crawling back to me.”
“Did you take him back?”
“Hell no. I didn’t even respond to his messages. That’s how done I am with him. He eventually got the hint and stopped trying. He’s just one man out of dozens who’s hurt me. I never learn my lesson. No matter how much I get hurt, I still fall for the wrong men.” Reed turned his face to the sky, exposing his throat, and closed his eyes. Snow flurries caught on the ends of his long lashes. “It’s just like that bird, you know? Everyone always leaves me.”