For the first time, she cracked a tiny smile, although she didn’t meet his eyes. Progress. “The feed store.”
Score. They could bond over horses, and if he could get her to let her guard down for three seconds, he’d ask her about the mushrooms and pray to God he could decipher whether or not he needed to call Aaron.
Adam put his hand on her back to guide her toward the door, like a gentleman, and this time, it was him that jumped a bit. The electric sparkle was back.
Damn, these floors were dry. He should have worn his rubber-sole tennis shoes.
Paige let him point the way to his truck, but he could see the short, quick breaths registering in the rise and fall of her chest, and this time, both nipples were visible through the thin shirt.
Maybe he had a coat in the truck. He certainly didn’t want some random cowboy ogling Paige’s breasts in the feed store. Those jackasses had no manners at all and they would stare and grin and comment to their buddies about what nice tits she had.
He didn’t want them talking about her that way. Adam would find her one of his coats. It’d probably have hay on it, and would smell like the barn, but at least her breasts would be safe from prying eyes.
* * *
Paige climbed into Adam’s truck and took a deep breath. Her body was still shaking and she was having a hard time even looking at Adam. This wasn’t going to be a comfortable ride.
Damn Berg for thinking he needed to push her into this. All the teasing at the table was just like him, too. Thank goodness Adam seemed clueless. Although, after spilling the soup about her hallucinations the man certainly hadn’t been able to stop staring at her.
He opened the back door of his truck and pulled out a lightweight canvas jacket. Then pushed it over the seat toward her. “It’s nipply...I mean nippy…Dammit. It’s cold out for just wearing a T-shirt.”
She glanced down at her front. Her nipples were like two beads beneath her shirt. Good God, no wonder he was handing her a coat. Warmth spread across her face and she grabbed the jacket, slipping inside and zipping it all the way to her neck. “Thanks.” A giggle slipped out and she hid her face in her hands.
First, the story about the mushrooms and wolves and now this? Why couldn’t this have just been a normal day where she gave him his croissant and coffee and then watch him unbeknownst to him from behind the counter?
It was better that way.
When he was near, she lost all since of propriety. Her body didn’t make anything easy when it came to Adam. Her skin felt as though she’d just licked a nine-volt battery, and now her breasts ached. There was even more butterfly activity in her stomach.
“Sorry,” he said slamming the door and starting the truck. “I know you already can’t stand me, but I hated for you to have to ride home in the rain. Plus nobody really argues with Berg.” He flipped the wipers on and pulled out of the bakery parking lot.
“I like you—I don’t mean, that I-I don’t— why would you think I can’t stand you?” She hazarded a quick glance to her left. He was so handsome. She loved his messy hair and stormy blue eyes and the way he always had scruff on his face —very rugged and rancher-like.
Now she sounded like a hormonal sixteen-year-old girl fawning over a crush. Well, at least that’s what it sounded like in her head.
“You never talk to me…well, until today. And you rarely look at me.”
“You make me nervous.”
“Why?”
She clamped her mouth shut and shook her head. No way was she about to admit having a six-year-long crush on the man. It was bad enough he’d given her his coat to wear and it smelled deliciously like him and horses. Adam, pastries, and horses.
Those were her three favorite things in the entire world.
Now she was sitting in his truck talking to him.
“So you don’t hate me?”
“Of course not,” Paige said, crossing her arms and staring out the passenger window.
He parked in front of the feed store. “So look at me then.”
Paige turned her head and made eye contact. Her stomach flipped and her skin burned. It wasn’t natural. Something was wrong with her when she was around him. She had all these thoughts about kissing him. Touching him. Having his babies. It was like a whole life flashed in front of her eyes every time she saw him. But now it was even more amplified…ever since he’d touched her.
They’d never touched before.
Now her skin prickled, itched, and she wanted to rub against him like a cat. She was going to embarrass herself and then Adam would tell Berg and they wouldn’t want her to work in the bakery. And she’d never see Adam again and her entire routine would be ruined. She’d have to find another job. Maybe move.
God, she couldn’t live without seeing Adam at least once a week. Sometimes he missed his Friday breakfasts with Berg, and anytime he did, she felt depressed and alone and cranky.
“Those wheels in your head are turning so fast.” He reached to touch her face.
Paige saw it happening in slow motion. He would touch her and then she would crawl over on top of him and kiss him until she couldn’t breathe. Oh shit. Oh shit. Something was seriously wrong with her.
“We should go inside!” She opened her door and slipped out of the truck before his fingers got within reach.
“Oh-okay,” he mumbled from inside the truck. His car door slammed and suddenly Adam was right next to her again.
She started walking, blinking through the sprinkling cold rain as they headed for the feed store door. Please don’t touch me. Please don’t touch me. She drew breath into her lungs one shudder at a time.
He pulled open the door for her and she turned sideways as she went in, to make sure her shoulder didn’t bump him. It was ridiculous. No wonder he thought she didn’t like him. She was still treating him like he had the black plague. This wasn’t going to work.
“Adam.”
“Yes,” he answered, staying a couple steps to her side, obviously respecting the no-touching boundary she’d involuntarily put into place.
“You make me nervous because I like you. A lot. And I get flustered and embarrassed and I don’t know what to say. And when you get closer, I have so many butterflies in my stomach I feel like my whole body is vibrating. I’m not great around people I don’t know. It takes me a long time to make friends. And I was mortified about what you must think of me after my outburst in the bakery this morning. You probably think I’m some mushroom smoking stoner, and then Berg just had to get in the middle of it. He’s been trying to get me to say something for years. And I just word vomited on you again. I’m so sorry. I’ll just shut up now.”
Chapter Four
He could have sworn she hated him, but he’d heard it from her own word vomit, as she’d put it. Paige liked him so much, she vibrated around him.
Damn.
No one had ever vibrated around him before. Certainly not that he’d noticed, and he was pretty sure he would have noticed that.
An old farmer tipped his hat as he walked around them. They were standing in the middle of the aisle right inside the feed store, and a girl had just basically told him she’d wanted to jump his bones for years.
He reached out his hand to touch her, and she jumped back. The look she shot him was a combination of gods-no and hell-yes, like she didn’t know which one would win out.
Instead, he gestured toward the interior of the store. “Why don’t we walk and talk for a minute.”
As they ambled into the aisles, she seemed to close off again. This was the most she’d ever spoken to him in the six years he’d known her, and although she was a comforting part of his weekly life in Somewhere, he really didn’t know her at all.
But she liked him. Did he like her?
Adam stopped in front of a wall of hammers and Paige followed suit. “So, we’ve known each other for six years, Paige.”
She nodded, but didn’t look at him. Paige found the low-hanging hammers apparently interesting.
He turned. Was she looking for a new hammer? Adam picked out one with a wood handle and handed it to her. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
A flustered glance at the hammer, and she crossed her arms.
“Ok, so you don’t want a hammer.” He turned the thing over in his hand. Gods. He wasn’t sure how to do this. “What do you want?”
She shrugged, her eyes still on the hammers.
“Paige.” He lowered his voice, almost to a whisper. “Look at me.”
Her mouth opened and another deep crimson blush wiped across her face. Adam had to fist his hands to keep from touching her. He wanted her to look at him and talk to him, like a person. “Look at me,” he repeated.
Her breath came fast. Finally, those green eyes he never saw, climbed up his body and locked onto his.
Damn. She really was beautiful.
Adam had always known she was pretty. But this open-mouthed, wide-eyed devotion washed through him like a warm river.
Had he felt this before?
“It took a lot of guts to say what you said.” He tried to keep her gaze, coaxing her with slow blinks like a predator luring his prey. “And I’m glad you told me.”
“You are?” Paige finally blinked. Slow, and languid, just like he wanted.
“I am.” He let a slow smile curl across his lips. “Friday mornings are my favorite.”
She leaned in, barely enough for him to register the motion, like she was swaying toward him without her knowledge.
A sudden cord seemed to wrap around him and drew him into her as well. He took a step forward. A dark, crackling thing burned inside his belly and he sucked in a long breath of her.
It was that same smell from the bakery. Only it didn’t envelop him here, like it did there. But the smell was the same. The feeling was the same. Like butter and sugar and comfort.
He licked his bottom lip. “I really thought you hated me.”
“I could never hate you.” Her words feathered across him, barely audible and yet, they ignited an energy in him he hadn’t expected.
Adam took the smallest of steps toward her and her gasp was louder than any of her words had been.
She really was afraid to have him touch her. Maybe he should exercise a little caution here.
“I’m glad you don’t hate me.” He stood still, in the middle of the electric feeling he now recognized as familiar and enjoyed just being close to her. He wasn’t sure what this meant, but he liked it.
Adam shook himself and looked down at the hammer still in his hands. Hammer. He was here—at the feed store—for an actual reason. And she had been, too, hadn’t she? Or had they come here to stand like this, staring at each other?
No. Horses. Horses, horses, horses. And wolves. But horses first.
“I have to pick up a new halter, so how about I meet you at checkout?” He pointed behind him, where his truck was located. “I can give you a ride home if it’s still raining.”
When he looked back at her, those beautiful green eyes had found another hammer to focus on. Not the one in his hands, either, which would at least have been a step in the right direction.
“I have to get a new lead rope,” she said, nodding toward the back of the store. “Mine broke.”
“Great.” Adam put the hammer back on the wall of hammers. “Lead the way.”
She turned quickly and scurried toward the tack section of the store. Adam shook his head and followed. This girl.
He tried to remember back to when he’d first met her—back to when Berg and Meg had first bought the bakery. She’d been so young. He thought he remembered something about being right out of culinary school. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen, then. Had that been why he hadn’t noticed how gorgeous she was? Or had she gotten that body and those eyes in the last ten minutes? Because it sure felt like he hadn’t noticed them until today.
Only, he would have been a fool to miss them.
Her ass, when she walked in front of him…it was the perfect, round apple shape. It made him want to put his hands there.
Had he always thought these things and never known it?
She stopped in front of the lead ropes and began to browse.
Adam stayed a few steps back, admiring the view. Even in his coat, she looked great. Maybe, especially in his coat. At least he knew no one was looking at her tits in that top, because hello? They had been distracting.
Wait. Did he like Paige Lewis?
Is that what was going on here? Was that comforting feeling, that warm sense of home…was that about Paige? He’d always assumed it was Meg’s baking.
But. No. This was too strange for words.
It still didn’t solve his problem of needing to get her to talk about the mushrooms and the wolves again. Shit.
What was he going to do?
By the time he realized he was still staring at her ass, Paige had turned around and caught him. She didn’t look surprised or shocked or offended, but a beautiful, warm glow made her face light up.
Adam smiled and reached behind her for the same halter he always bought. They were close, almost touching, and he loved every damn minute of it.
* * *
Paige couldn’t remember ever feeling so giddy. She’d just caught Adam VonBrandt staring at her ass. After everything that’d been confessed, he was still interested in her. And this electricity between them…it was unreal. The closer he was to her, the harder it was to focus on anything else. And right now they were sharing the same air.
She gripped the lead rope in her hand. Fibers bit into her palm and she had to consciously loosen her hold. The pain subsided, but the feelings for Adam burned just as hot. Her skin tingled.
His breath caressed her face.
If either of them moved, their lips would touch.
What would it feel like to kiss him? She licked her bottom lip and he shuddered, breaking his gaze for a brief second.
“You’re killing me, Paige.”
He wants to kiss me. He was staring at her mouth, leaning closer and closer.
“Hey, you two gonna buy those or just stare at each other all morning?” Old man Skinner folded his arms across his chest and frowned. “I’m running a business here, not a visitors center.”
Adam backed away.
Paige’s shoulders sank. Sure they were in the middle of a feed store. But she was a hundred and fifty percent sure he’d been about to kiss her. And she would’ve kissed him back. Of course she would’ve. She’d wanted Adam since the very first day he’d walked into the bakery six years ago.
It’d been a feeling then, just like it was feeling now. Something drew her to him. Not something specific, but it’d built over the years, stronger and stronger until her entire week revolved around seeing him every Friday.
“Do you have plans this afternoon?”
Paige shook her head slowly. “If the rain stops, I was going to ride.”
“Can I join you?”
Her heart stopped in her chest. This couldn’t be real. He wasn’t really asking to spend more time with her. Right?
“It’s…just…I ride in my field. I have to beg one of my neighbors for their trailer and pick up when I need to move her.”
“I’m sure we can figure it out,” Adam assured her.
Paige laid the lead rope down on the counter and smiled up at the man standing at the register.
Adam laid his halter next to the lead. “Put them both on my account.”
“Sure thing,” the cashier answered.
“I can pay.” She reached for the small clip she carried in her back pocket.
His shoulder brushed hers and Paige gasped at the rush that surged through her. “But I want to take care of it,” he said.
They weren’t even touching skin to skin. Good grief, she was in trouble if they really did kiss.
Heat rose up her neck again. She was probably the color of a ripe tomato already.
The cashier handed Adam a receipt and they left the store toget
her. Once safely tucked into his truck again, Paige thought she’d breathe easier, but the tension between her and Adam had only escalated.
She directed him through town with a few quick words, until he pulled into her long driveway off 16.
“You’re next door to us.” Adam parked in front of her house and broke the semi-silence they’d been stuck in.
“To your ranch? Yes. It wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t even know you when I bought the place. Actually, I bought it before I even saw it in person. I came with Meg and Berg from Baltimore. My granny left me inheritance money and I’ve always wanted a horse. So it was the perfect time. No attachments. I can just enjoy baking and riding and beautiful sunrises. Sorry, I’m rambling a lot again.”
“I like your rambles. I learn a lot about you. Just like the mushroom thing.” He wiggled his eyebrows and chuckled.
Paige snorted out a laugh. “You had to bring that up again, didn’t you? Yes, it’ll be a long time before I can eat another mushroom without fear. I swear, I’ve never been high or smoked anything before in my life. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. I’ve never even tried marijuana. I’m going to give Tom a piece of my mind when I see him again at the market. Can you imagine what people would say about me if I said I thought there were werewolves in Somewhere?”
Adam frowned. “Yeah, that would sound pretty crazy.”
“I don’t think I’ll say anything. It’s not like it was real. I mean, I watch a lot of science fiction, so I’m sure that’s why my mind went there so easily.”
He nodded, but didn’t respond.
“I’m still rambling.” She looked down at her hands folded in her lap and sighed. She’d come out with her big secret. It seemed like maybe he was interested in her, but he hadn’t said anything.
Sure they’d almost kissed, but he hadn’t tried again. Hadn’t tried to touch her again either.
Paige opened the pick up’s door and jumped down from the cab. Everything was so mixed up in her head. The man she’d loved from afar for the past six years was standing in her driveway. And she couldn’t stop talking long enough to give him a chance to share how all of this was processing in his head. Of course, her friend Hillary would say that men don’t process feelings. Paige didn’t believe that, though.
To Find a Mate: Somewhere, TX Saga (VonBrandt Family Book 4) Page 3
