him and Joe was most likely related.
Bryce had hardly touched his burger, and though Joe was eating, he wasn’t making eye contact with anyone, and he answered in one-word replies when someone spoke to him. Melanie and Ruby sat next to each other and were chatting animatedly, to the point where Mel didn’t seem to notice that her husband was acting strangely. That wasn’t like her. Ryan was his usual self, laughing and talking to whomever would listen. He sat next to Donny and kept him engaged.
That left me to sit quietly and eat my burger.
I felt like the little girl who had to sit alone at lunch with everyone watching her.
In truth, though, no one was watching me.
I was the last person on anyone’s mind at the moment, so after I finished eating, I began clearing the table as others finished.
No one noticed.
I went inside to clean up in the kitchen. Dessert was ice cream, and they could all serve themselves when they wanted to. I was done for the night. I went to my bedroom to relax a bit. No one would miss me.
Until a soft knock at the door startled me.
“Yeah? Come in.”
I jerked when Bryce entered the room. “Hey,” I said.
“I’m taking off,” he said. “I just wanted to say thanks for dinner.”
“Oh? I thought you’d stay to talk to the guys about what went down with Dale today.”
“I thought about it, but it’s not really my place.”
“Sure it is. You’re as involved in this as any of the rest of us.”
“Don’t remind me.” He rubbed at his chin. “So are you, though. Why aren’t you in there?”
“They’re not going to talk about anything I don’t already know. To be honest, I need a break from it all. It’s been a rough day.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. How did your talk with Colin go?”
“It didn’t. The timing overlapped with Dale, so we canceled.”
“Oh.” He gazed around my room absently, as if trying to zero in on something but not quite finding it.
“Honestly,” I went on, “with this new development with Dale, I’m not sure talking to Colin is the best thing for Jade.”
“You might be right.”
I lifted my brow. I hadn’t expected that response from Bryce. He’d been all in on getting information from the Morses previously. “Oh?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure the Morses have anything of value for us.”
“That’s right. You talked to Ted today. It didn’t go well?”
“He’s just looking for a payoff,” Bryce said. “He doesn’t know anything.”
“Oh. That’s good, I guess. We don’t need anything else going down right now. Not with Dale being troubled and Jade still having a rough pregnancy.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat.
Now what? He made no move to leave. I wanted to spend time with him, but I could hardly make a move when my entire family was in the house. “So…uh…you’re welcome.”
His forehead wrinkled. “For what?”
“You came in to thank me for dinner. Remember?”
“Oh. Yeah.” His cheeks went pink.
Damn, he was so good-looking! I wanted to cup those rosy cheeks, let his sandy stubble prickle my fingertips. Kiss those firm lips, touch those broad shoulders.
He still didn’t move.
I bit my lip. “Well…good night.”
No words, and no movement.
“Bryce?”
He turned and met my gaze, his blue eyes sparkling. “I can’t get you out of my mind.”
My skin tightened around me as I warmed all over. I bit my lip once more.
“Nothing to say?” he asked.
“What do you want me to say? You’ve made it clear that there can’t be anything between us.”
“Yeah.”
“So there’s nothing to say.”
He walked toward me, taking my hand. “But there is.”
I gulped. “Then…what?”
“I want you to remember. I want you to remember everything. How it felt when we kissed, when we touched each other. How you felt, Marjorie, when you came in my arms.”
Another gulp. “You’re not making this easy,” I said.
“Damn it.” He pulled me close, meeting my gaze, his own on fire. “I don’t want to make it easy. I want it to be hard for you. As fucking hard as it is for me.”
Third gulp. “It is.”
“Is it?” His fiery gaze made me hot all over. “Is it?”
I nodded.
“Because from where I stand, I could walk away from this house, this city, this state, and you’d go on as if nothing had happened between us. As if we hadn’t made explosive love twice. Twice, baby. Twice. And it was earthmoving.”
“How can you—” I stopped, gathering my emotions before I let them get the best of me. “How can you say that?”
“You let me