Page 40 of Searching for Bristol
Bristol stared at him for so long, Rocky shifted anxiously in his seat. He honestly had no idea what she was thinking. “If you want me to take you home and leave, that’s okay too,” he said softly, hating to even voice the words, but knowing he needed to say them.
“You probably want your apartment to yourself, huh?” she said after a moment.
“No!” Rocky blurted. Then took a deep breath. “No,” he said a little more calmly. “Ilikehaving you here. And honestly, if you said you wanted to go home and stay, I’d worry like hell. You aren’t quite steady on your feet at all times, and your leg still gives you trouble now and then. I just thought maybe time would go by faster, and you’d feel more like yourself, if you had some of your stuff around and you could work on some projects. And I admit to being curious to see your art and how you create it.”
“You really wouldn’t mind?” she asked.
“Taking you back to Kingsport? No. Having you work on your art here? Definitely not.”
“Having my stuff clutter up your house?” she asked. “The stuff to make my jewelry has a tendency to get everywhere. Beads, earring backs, things like that. And I often get lost in my art when I’m working on a project. I might forget you’re around while I’m engrossed in what I’m doing.”
Rocky studied her, then asked, “I’m guessing someone else in your life complained about that at some point?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah.”
“Punky, I’m not fifteen. I can handle you concentrating on your own thing for however long it takes for you to be ready to emerge from your artistic haze.”
She smiled. It lit up her face. Rocky lived to be on the receiving end of those grins. “In that case, I wouldloveto go to Kingsport with you! I probably should check to make sure no stray mail has been delivered, even though I’ve had it forwarded here temporarily. I’m not holding out hope for the two plants I own, because I definitely don’t have a green thumb, but maybe they’ve held on and I can water them and they’ll be good to go again. And it’ll be great to get some of my shorts and stuff to wear. Although, I’m telling you right now that the Navy shirt you’ve been letting me sleep in? I’m not giving it back,” she teased.
“It’s yours,” Rocky told her, doing his best to tamp down the desire that hit him just remembering how she looked wearing his oversized T-shirt in the evenings.
“Okay, I’ve done a pretty good job of not saying it, but I have to right now. Thank you, Rocky. Seriously. This means the world to me.”
“You’re welcome,” he told her quietly. “Eat. Then we’ll head out. I need to call Ethan and let him know we’re going.”
“Is he going to be upset?”
Rocky frowned in confusion. “Upset that I’m leaving town? No. I told him what I wanted to do a few days ago, but I wasn’t sure what you’d think. And if you decided you wanted to stay home, I told him I’d be gone at least overnight, maybe longer.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I was going to get a hotel room in Kingsport until I was sure you were good to be on your own.”
He saw her swallow hard. “Seriously?”
“Yes. There’s no way I would dump you off at your doorstep and leave,” Rocky said.
“Most people would.”
“I’m not most people,” he said firmly.
“Yeah, I’ve figured that out over the last two weeks,” she told him.
The desire to kiss her was almost too overwhelming to resist, but Rocky managed. It wasn’t quite time to show her how much he admired her. How much he enjoyed spending time with her. How badly he wanted to be more than a roommate or savior.
He cleared his throat. “If we leave after you eat, we should be able to get there and back before it gets too late.”
“Right. I’m eating,” she said, smiling brightly at him again before turning her attention to the bowl in front of her.
* * *
Bristol couldn’t keep her eyes off the man sitting next to her as they headed south on Interstate 81 toward Kingsport. She’d kind of been waiting for two weeks for him to suggest that it was time for her to go home, but he hadn’t. For a second this morning, when he’d brought up going to Kingsport, she’d thought that was it. That he’d gotten sick of having her in his space and was ready for them both to get back to their normal lives. But he’d shocked her by suggesting the trip was just to grab some of her art supplies and clothes, not to drop her off permanently.
Bristol supposed it was probably a better idea if she ripped the bandage off, so to speak. She was enjoying being with Rocky a bit too much. The longer she stayed, the more she got to know him and his friends, the harder it was going to be to leave.
The more she got to know him, and his adorable town, the more she wanted to stay.
But the big question in her mind was whether her feelings were simply a result of her being grateful she’d been rescued, or were they more?
