stick around here for a while.” He stared at me over the rim of his glass, but I wasn’t going to read too much into that statement, even though the southern region of my body was wishing I’d offer him a long-term lease at my place.
“If you’re used to Chicago city life, don’t you think you’ll get a little bored here?” There I went with my great endorsement of the island again. Seriously. What was wrong with me?
“Bored is kind of the idea.” He turned away to look at the bridge for a second, seeming self-conscious for the first time, which only made him that much hotter. He chuckled nervously as he turned back. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
“No.” See, I could be sassy if I wanted to.
He seemed to take my sarcasm in stride. He leaned forward, and I felt myself doing the same.
“Okay. Well, I have this crazy notion about writing a book. There. I’ve said it.” He sat back in his chair as if a burden had lifted. His guise was now guileless, with maybe even a hint of vulnerability.
“A book?”
Seriously? Authors were nearly as sexy as soldiers. Men not only able to identify nuanced emotions, but bold enough to put them on the page to share with the world? Not to mention the fact that most of my boyfriends had been fictional. Darcy. Heathcliff. Rhett. Jamie Fraser. The list of my literary boyfriends was long, and maybe it was just the teacher in me, but oh, my. Add another check mark in the sexy column.
Leo’s nod was sheepish. “Yeah, and I know what you’re thinking.”
Wow. I seriously hope not.
“You’re thinking how half the population says they’re going to write a book someday, right?”
Sure.
“But I figured now was the time to give it a try. I’ve got some savings set aside, and lots of ideas. And I also figured that if I holed up someplace kind of isolated, there wouldn’t be anything to distract me.”
Ouch? He wanted solitude and no distractions? Awesome.
“At least I thought there’d be no distractions.” He smiled again, and his gaze was direct. I flushed under his stare. Was he talking about me? I wasn’t typically considered distracting. Academic, maybe. Tenacious, definitely. But I don’t think I’d ever been much of a distraction to anyone.
Our food arrived just then, speaking of distractions, and the conversation wove in and out around other topics as we ate. My family, his family.
“My father was in the army, so we moved around a lot. I’ve lived in seventeen different cities, not including places overseas,” Leo said as he pulled a roll from the bread basket.
“Seventeen cities? I haven’t even visited seventeen cities.” Shari was right. I really did need to get out more. “The only time I’ve lived away from here was during college. I went to Albion to get my teaching degree and promptly ended up right back here.”
“Did you ever think about moving away for good?”
I had thought about moving away, once, but that wasn’t a story I shared. Dmitri was the only one who knew how close I’d come to leaving, and that had been years ago. A far-off memory now of the life I might have had. “It’s crossed my mind. Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been different if I’d moved, but my family is here, and all my friends. It might not sound very worldly to you, but I like it here. I liked being a teacher, and hopefully I’ll like being the mayor, although if my first council meeting was any indication, I’m not so sure.” I smiled and was only mostly kidding.
His smile back was supportive. “I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. I mean, I could only hear bits and pieces, but those people all seem to have pretty strong opinions.”
“That they do.” I didn’t want to get into talking about the city council, so instead I turned the conversation back to him. “So, what kind of book?”
“What?”
“What kind of book do you intend to write? You said you had lots of ideas.”
He took a drink of water before answering. “Um, honestly, I still feel a little foolish talking about it. Like I don’t want to jinx myself, but one idea I have has to do with an old military fort. That’s another part of the reason I decided to come here, because of Fort Beaumont. I figured I could do a little research, hopefully get inspired. Got any good stories about the island?”
I couldn’t help