“These locks are new,” I said dumbly when we got to the back door of my apartment. “Grandpa must’ve changed the locks and not given me a key.”
“I changed the locks,” Hunter reminded me, his voice weary. He sounded as if he was ready to pass out on his feet. “I put copies on your keyring.”
“Oh.” I rummaged in my pocket until I came up with my keys. “I guess it was a waste for you to spend half your day upgrading my security system. Turns out it wasn’t necessary.”
“It was necessary.” He held open the door so I could step inside and followed me after turning the bolt to lock us in. “Now I don’t have to worry about you.”
“I’ll pay you back for the security system just as soon as I can,” I promised. “I don’t know how much it cost, but I bet it was plenty.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he repeated, trudging up the stairs behind me. “You’re safe. That’s the most important thing.”
“Yeah, well ... .” I found the correct key for the new lock on my apartment door, and when I stepped inside I was surprised that Hunter remained on the other side of the threshold. “Are you coming in?”
He didn’t immediately answer, instead biting his lower lip.
Here it comes. He’s going to let me down easy now. He’s going to tell me that he was here only to keep me safe and now he wants to put distance between us. I should’ve seen this coming.
“Monica and I are over,” he stated after a moment. I could tell he was trying to arrange his thoughts. He had a certain look about him when mired in deep thought. “She wasn’t happy. In fact, she kind of begged me to change my mind. She had a lot of not-so-nice things to say about you when I told her it was over. She might go after you again.”
“I’m sure she will.” That was a worry for another day. After what had happened in the funeral home, Monica didn’t frighten me in the least.
“I tried to tell her that it wasn’t your fault, that you had nothing to do with it, but she could see it was a lie.”
Was I supposed to say something here?
“It was a lie,” he said softly. “She and I were never going to make it, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing between us. I didn’t want to still have these feelings for you. More than anything, I didn’t want to try to survive having my heart broken again.”
“I don’t want to break your heart again.” My voice caught. “I don’t want my heart broken again either.”
“We’re both leery of certain things. Pretending there’s nothing here will be bad for both of us, though. I don’t think we’ll be able to stay away from one another.”
“Probably not.” I offered a half smile. “There is something chemical that happens to me whenever I see you. I have no idea what it is, but ... it leaves me feeling warm all over and kind of like an idiot.”
He grinned. “Well, at least we’re in the same boat there.”
“So, what do we do?” It was an honest question. I felt stranded in the ocean with no rescue boat in sight.
“We date.”
“Date?” That seemed too simple of an answer for feelings as complex as the ones roiling inside me.
He nodded, his grin widening. “In two weeks.”
“Two weeks? You’re putting us on a schedule?”
That made him laugh. “I have to clean up this case, and the town will be in an uproar over what happened at the funeral home. That’s on top of the fact that they were already buzzing about you and I spending the night together.”
“Nothing happened!”
He snorted. “Something happened. I came to a realization. I don’t want to pretend that you don’t make my head fuzzy ... or my heart race ... or my shoulders feel lighter just by being close to me.”
That was possibly the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. My mouth went dry. “I ... .”
“We have to wait.” His tone was no-nonsense. “If we show up holding hands tomorrow, Monica will fly off the handle and make our lives miserable. I’m not saying she won’t be just as bad in two weeks, but all the chatter with the townsfolk will have died down by then. They’ll be off gossiping about someone else if we wait.”
“And you won’t have to disclose our relationship in your report if we wait,” I surmised. It made sense. “That’s a very rational approach.”
“Yeah?” He looked hopeful. “I’m not saying this will work out. We’re both older and we’ve been through a lot. We’re not the same kids that we used to be.”
“No,” I agreed. “That fact might make things better.”
“It might make them worse.”
The statement grated. “If you’re going to start with a defeatist attitude what’s the point of even trying?”
“Because I can’t not try. Also, I’m not being a defeatist. I’m a realist. This won’t be easy.”
“No.”
“We’ve both been through far harder things. Heck, you just survived three crazy people trying to kill you and a flash earthquake that no one can explain.”
Did he have to mention the earthquake? Suddenly, I was itchy. “Yeah.”
“You’ve also survived your dreams crashing down around you,” he said. “We’ve both survived that. This would be a new beginning. We can’t just pretend the past decade didn’t happen and jump right back to where we were. We have to start slow and get to know one another as adults.”
He was offering me the world. His world. “That’s a smart idea.”
“Good.” He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “I’ll call tomorrow to make sure you’re okay. Even though we can’t date for two weeks, I can still see you. I’ll have more questions for you tomorrow.”
My mouth dropped open when he turned to descend the stairs. “That’s it? You’re not even going to kiss me?”
He chuckled and glanced over his shoulder. “Anticipation is half the fun. You should remember that from when we were kids. I’m pretty sure you made me wait two weeks back then.”
“Oh, so this is payback.”
He winked. “It’s the right thing to do. You’ve had a long day and I’m freaking exhausted. I want to be at my full strength when I finally take you out.”
Ugh. Why did he have to sound so reasonable? “Okay, but I bet it’ll be harder to go two weeks without kissing me than you think.”
“It’s going to be pure torture. I’m still up to the challenge.”
“I guess we’ll see who cracks first.”
The dimple in his cheek came out to play. “You’re on ... for all of it.”
For the first time in, well, years, I felt like a complete person. I was still puzzled over my newfound magical abilities, but the rest of it felt right and comfortable. “Right back at you.”