Page 28 of Maid for My Billionaire Boss
She loudly swatted a mosquito that had landed on her arm. “I wish I still had my sweater to protect my arms from the bugs.”
I gave her a smile I hoped showed my appreciation. “Just get through tonight, and we’ll be back on the road in the morning.”
“Are you telling me it’s safe to start the countdown?”
“I’ll tell you anything you want if it means you don’t hate me after all this.” I hadn’t planned to say something like that. Something that came out sort of flirty, and I winced through narrowed eyes as I waited to see how she’d receive it.
Snickering behind a wrinkled nose grin, she asked, “What was that?”
I looked down at my shoe, feeling the aftershocks of how cheesy that was. “Clearly, I have no game.”
She chewed on the side of her cheek, and it was the sort of fidget I didn’t know how to read. It was nicer than a get-lost scowl but not exactly a friendly smile.
Contemplative at best.
Barely tolerant at worst.
I don’t know why I all the sudden had this massive crush on Atalie. This was absurd! I literally just broke up with my girlfriend. Shouldn’t I care about that? When I tried to think about how Tonya’s voice sounded when she said my name—something I had always loved about her—I immediately road-blocked it. Instead rebounding to Atalie’s sweet inflections.
Clearly this swamp encounter was making me crazy.
Maybe it was because Tonya and I had been doing the avoidance dance for months—both afraid to be the one to say the final words. I couldn’t even remember why I had been afraid. Losing Tonya was nothing like I thought it would be. It felt nothing more or less thanright—the way it was supposed to be.
“What are you thinking about?” Atalie asked after we had sat in silence for way too long.
“Truthfully, I was thinking about Tonya.”
“Ah.” Her empathy-infused voice was smooth when she cautiously asked, “Do you miss her?”
“Actually, that’s what I was thinking about. It’s weird, but I feel peaceful. It was right on so many levels.”
“Maybe it hasn’t hit you yet?”
I was surprised I was confiding in her. Normally, I had a hard time talking about this stuff. Obviously, if it took me months to end a broken relationship, my communication skills were lacking, but there was something about the softness etched in Atalie’s voice, that seemed to peel my secrets right out of me. “It’s been over for a long time and we both knew it, but we avoided talking about it. Almost like we were waiting until the feelings had all dissipated and we were able to part as friends. When I think about her, I only see how different we are, and I’m surprised we made it so long.”
“Opposites attract.”
“I guess. At first, anyway.” The night shadows hit the planes of her face in a way that highlighted her natural beauty perfectly. Something about the stillness in the moment made me risk a personal question. “What was it like for you to lose the love of your life?”
Wrong thing to ask!
She was relaxed before, but I knew she immediately tensed up because I heard a light hiss when she inhaled.
Clearly, my joke about having no game was a foreshadowing. Who asks about a dead husband?
“You don’t have to answer that,” I spit out, wishing to take my stupidity back, but she was already speaking in a voice held up by a weakened breath, so I willingly shut my fat mouth and listened.
“It’s like waking up every day hating the rules of time.”
My gaze gravitated toward her, as I tried to understand. That explanation was not what I was expecting. “How do you mean?”
“Time only moves forward, but who says that’s how it must be?” She flicked her slender hand toward me in a ladylike gesture of question. “I think most people would prefer it to have options.” She slowly dragged her teeth along her bottom lip, and if I hadn’t been so hyper-focused on how beautiful she looked, I would have missed her chin quiver ever so slightly.
Yep. Stupidest question I could have asked.
Now she was sad. I didn’t want her to be sad.
This was when my deficient social skills went into overdrive, and I was left wondering what to do.
