He Found Me by Whitney Barbetti

Author:Whitney Barbetti [Barbetti, Whitney]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: NA Romantic Suspense
Published: 2014-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

He had me change first inside the tent so I switched to my sweats and a long sleeved tee. The sun was dropping behind the mountains that surrounded the lake, which meant it would get cooler sooner. Since my sneakers were wet, I slid my flip flops on.

When I emerged from the tent, he was stoking the fire in the fire pit. Water was dripping down his arms, traveling his taut muscles. Water darkened his hair, dripping down the back of his neck to disappear under his tee. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

He looked up at me; his eyes traveled the length of my body, alighting with warmth. “Warmer?”

I nodded and tugged on my sleeves before sliding into one of the camp chairs he had set up around the fire. The cooler was open beside him, and I saw he had already mixed the meat in a bag of some kind of marinade. The wooden skewers were submerged in the water at the bottom of the cooler.

“Do you cook often?” I asked when he had returned from changing inside of the tent. He was also wearing sweats that hung off of his hips and a fitted thermal shirt.

He shrugged as he sat into the chair beside me and handed me a beer from inside the cooler, popping the top off for me first. “I was the oldest child in a house of girls. My mom worked a bunch of jobs, so it was the least I could do to help out around the house.”

My brow furrowed. “What about your dad?”

Julian took a pull from his beer. “My parents divorced while my mom was pregnant with my youngest sister. I didn’t see him much after he moved away from Colorado.”

I didn’t remember Julian talking about his dad before. “Do you talk to your dad?”

“Oh yeah. We actually talk a lot. Now that he’s accepted I don’t want a football career, he helps me brainstorm all the ideas for my novels.”

I took a sip of my beer as I contemplated that.

“What about your parents? Do you get along with them?” Julian started peeling the label off of his beer absentmindedly.

Ah. The question I avoided like the plague. I felt the lie crawl up my throat and a moment before I spoke, guilt settled in my chest. “We are estranged. I don’t talk to them.”

I felt Julian turn his head to face me as I started peeling the label off of my beer too. “Why?”

I settled my lips into a thin line at the prospect of further developing this lie. Lies were not tangible things, but they still made an impact. Once they passed from your lips, you couldn’t take them back. They settled in the space that trust was built on, rotting the foundation of the human connection. Stacking lies on top of each other meant adding more rot to what could be something good.

I was not inherently good. I knew that. My past was tainted. I didn’t spend time developing stable romantic relationships.

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