did not want this for his girl—not his Adalynn.
He wanted her to have easy. Soft. Gentle.
She needed someone who could heal whatever caused her to bury the pain that had been etched onto her soul.
It was a toss-up which one of the two was hiding more than the other.
Jesus, fuck.
Jasper Walker did not want this for his girl, and he wasn’t sure he had it in him to accept Trey Durum into her life.
He closed his eyes and clenched his fists in an effort not to intervene. Therefore, Jasper missed it when Trey spotted him. He also missed the hurt and determination Trey didn’t hide.
17
“I can help,” I told Trey as I sipped my beer, even though I didn’t actually want to get up.
What I wanted to do was continue to sit my booty on the stool he’d pulled out for me, placing me on one side of the big island in his kitchen, him on the other with his back to me as he cooked. I wanted to continue to do this because I found it fascinating Trey knew how to cook. Not mac-and-cheese-from-a-box kind of cooking, but chop up vegetables, dice chicken, and make his own stir-fry sauce kind of cooking.
“Rather have you sit where you are and stare at my ass while I make you dinner.”
I choked down a gulp of cold liquid and sputtered, “What makes you think I’m staring at your butt?”
“Cute,” he muttered back.
“What’s cute? Your butt?”
“No. You.”
Trey craned his neck to look at me, and when he did, I caught that shine in his eyes. It’d returned now that we were back at his place. It wasn’t as bright as it was last night. But nonetheless, it was still there, and for whatever reason, he was grinning at me. I liked Trey grinning at me—couple that with the shine and I was in heaven. I could sit my behind at his island watching him cook me dinner for the rest of my life and be happy.
I didn’t know what it was about him that made me feel that way. I just felt it and I felt it from the very beginning. It was weird, it made my stomach cramp, and it scared the heck out of me. The two times I’d opened myself up to a relationship, I’d been burned. The first time hurt. The second time left thick scar tissue around my heart.
Yet Trey got through. That was the weird part. Not even Bass, who I did have a mild crush on when I first met him, was able to peel back even the thinnest of layers. I wasn’t dumb or naïve like my brother accused me of being. I knew Bass asked me to lunch in an attempt to ‘get in there’ as Trey called it. He was a nice enough guy, but I knew from the first lunch I’d never let my guard down and let him in.
“Babe?”
“Huh?”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Bass.”
“Come again?”
Mother trucker. My hand slapped over my mouth and I closed my eyes, praying I did not just say that.
“Adalynn.” Trey’s voice rumbled and my prayers went unanswered.
Crappity, crap, crap.
“I was thinking about how you were right. Earlier, you said Bass wanted to get in there. You’re right, he does.”
“Okay.”
Trey leaned his hip on the counter and settled in. That meant he was waiting for me to explain further.
“I was thinking about that because I was thinking about how much you scared me.”
Trey’s eyes got squinty and his lips formed a flat line as he silently waited for more.
Darn it all to hell.
“I was remembering that I’d tried this relationship stuff twice before and it didn’t go too good for me. Both times I got hurt, and after the second time, I wasn’t all that fired-up to try again. Bass is a nice guy, good looking, sweet…” Trey grunted something I didn’t catch but I didn’t need to, to understand he was seriously unhappy, so I rushed to continue. “Anyway, point is, he’s nice and he tried to get me to open up to him, or at least be open for a date, but I never gave it to him.”
“Let’s get back to the part where I scare you,” he suggested.
I wasn’t a fool so I read his demand, even if he tried to disguise it.
“Since the day I met you, my stomach’s been in knots. You frustrate me to no end. You make me lose my temper. You excite me. And that scares me. But the other