ATM. Their eyes light up with dollar signs.”
“So you’re rich, huh?”
“I do okay.” Yeah, he did better than okay, but he downplayed it, afraid to see those dollar signs light up her eyes. He didn’t want to feel that pang of disappointment, like all the other times. “Why, you need a loan?” he asked, half kidding.
She laughed, making his belly do that strange jump. “No,” she scoffed. “So, I guess you’re looking for something more meaningful than bank statements and charge cards.”
Read his mind. “Let’s just say I envy my baby sister, and that’s a first for me.” He liked her laugh. He liked it even more that when she said she didn’t need a loan, it actually sounded like she meant it. She didn’t want his money.
“Why the diner? Seems like the ranch would be a lot of work on its own.”
“Don’t laugh, but the only thing Caleb and I can cook up is trouble. There aren’t a lot of fast food places around, if you didn’t notice. This far out of town, delivery is non-existent. Anyway, the old, rundown diner in town barely scraped by on a few loyal customers. The owners were about to give up and board it up for good. I bought it, renovated the old dive, and Caleb and I could eat something better than chewy spaghetti and scrambled eggs. As good as we are at the BBQ, even that got old after a while. The town appreciated the new place. It does a good business. I don’t have to do much. Mary, the waitress, runs things well enough.”
“But now you have Beth?”
“Well, Caleb married my sister and I got tired of barging in on them and watching them kiss over the dining room table. Driving into town all the time got old, fast. So, I hired Beth. Now the house is always clean, and she’s a kick ass cook.”
He gave her a huge grin. “See why I’m such a catch. I’ve got money and a housekeeper who cooks. What wife wouldn’t like that?” Half kidding, he wanted her to know that for the first time in a long time, he was open to a relationship. Her smile encouraged him even more.
“You’re funny, Jack. Those things aren’t important to me.”
“What is important to you?” Serious now, he really wanted to know how to make her happy.
“Kindness. You’ve shown me a lot of kindness, Jack. You’ll never know what that means to me. I’ve been on my own a long time. This is probably the longest conversation I’ve had with someone over the last two years other than Ben. That’s a long time to be without kindness.”
She broke his heart when she talked like this. The simplest things were missing from her life.
“I’d never hurt you. Never.”
“I know that. Please don’t mistake my skittishness with thinking I’m afraid of you.”
For the first time since he entered her room, he reached out to touch her, resting his hand over hers on the back of the chaise. She jumped when his warm skin touched hers, but immediately relaxed.
“I don’t think you’re afraid of anything, or anyone.”
“I am scared of him and what he wants to do to me.”
“You face him with courage despite that fear, like a soldier facing a battle.”
Sensing her need to change the subject, he asked, “Tell me something about you?”
Giddy, nervous, expectant . . . this felt like a first date and he wanted to know about her. She wanted to know everything about him, greedy and anxious to learn everything. “Well, I’m twenty-six. How old are you, by the way?”
“Thirty-four.”
“You don’t look it,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah. All the sun-streaked blond hair, those blue eyes, the tan skin from being outside all the time. Nice.”
The cocky grin spread over his face, brightened his eyes, made him look mischievous.
“God, you’re cute. You’re flirting with me. You must be feeling better.”
Ignoring his wide smile and teasing, she changed the subject completely and hoped the butterflies in her stomach settled. Though if he kept brushing his fingers over the back of her hand like that, she’d melt into a puddle.
“I run my own business. I’m a computer graphics artist, and I do a lot of programming. I have a website, and I take jobs through the Internet and email. Obviously, it would be difficult to have an office with the way I move around. I like it, and I work when I want.”
“You must do well for yourself.”
All for the truth, sometimes she found it best to