Out of the Woods by Sophie Stern

Author:Sophie Stern [Stern, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sophie Stern
Published: 2020-12-19T06:00:00+00:00

7

Dale

I WANTED TO KISS HER, but I had to control myself.

A girl like Ruby deserved more than just a spur-of-the-moment kiss.

She deserved...everything.

Patience.

Kindness.

Adoration.

“You promised me a question,” I finally said, desperate to change the mood of the moment. Thinking about Matt always made me sad, but it made me hopeful, too. Matt had been a good person, and it brought me hope that there was going to be more goodness in the world.

“A question,” she nodded. We were still holding hands. I wasn’t going to be the one to let go first.

“When was the last time you kissed someone?”

“Before the other day?”

We’d kissed at her house. It had only been the once, and we hadn’t kissed again. We both knew, rationally, that we should try to live together without romance, at least for now.

I knew that wasn’t going to work in the long-term, but it had to work for now. I needed to get to know my son, and I needed to get to know Ruby. Sex and kissing...well, that was going to complicate things.

Like, a lot.

I knew that if we walked through that doorway again, we wouldn’t come back out. I had been younger the last time we’d slept together, and I’d been more willing to promise myself a single night. Now? Well, now I wanted more than just one night. I wasn’t going to lie to myself or to her about that.

“Yes.”

“It was with a girl I went on a date with,” she told me.

“Was it...someone special?”

“Are you asking if we went steady?” Ruby raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, pretty much.”

“That counts as two questions.”

“No way,” I laughed, shaking my head. “No way.”

“It does!”

“You barely answered. That counts as one question.”

“Fine,” she sighed, giving in easily. “No, it wasn’t anyone special. Well, she was special. I won’t say she wasn’t. We just didn’t have that spark, you know.”

“I know.”

“Not like...”

“Not like us?”

Ruby nodded, licking her lips. Then she looked away. Her eyes went to the window where Cole was playing in the grass. That kid really liked getting dirty. He was scooping up dirt, tearing up grass, and dumping it all over his head.

Yeah, it was safe to say my mini-me was going to need a serious bath.

“We definitely had a spark,” I admitted.

“We still do.”

“We still do,” I agreed. I could feel it, and apparently, she could, too.

“Remind me...why can’t we date again?” Ruby’s eyes swung toward me.

“We have a child together.”

“Lots of couples have a child together.”

“He’s a shifter. So am I.”

“That complicates things, I agree,” Ruby nodded. “I don’t care, though. I don’t care that you’re a shifter.”

“You don’t care?” I was surprised to hear her say that. For most humans, choosing to date a shifter was quite a bit deal. In general, people didn’t seem to like dating someone who was so wildly different from what they were used to.

“Does that upset you?”

“No.”

“Have you dated a human before?”

“Also no.”

“Why not?”

Apparently, we’d given up on the idea of a fair exchange when it came to questions since Ruby was just asking anything she wanted to.

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