There Goes My Heart (The Sullivans #20) - Bella Andre Page 0,37
after seeing some of your furniture designs, I’ve often thought you would create some really great frames.”
Interesting. Twice in the past five minutes, they’d been in complete agreement with each other, first over going for a wild ocean swim and then over each other’s maker skills. Sure, their food and music choices weren’t similar, but how much did those things really matter in the end? Especially if they respected each other where it counted.
Rory knew better than to say any of this aloud, however. Not when they’d agreed on Saturday as their do-or-die breakup date. And not when he still wasn’t convinced that he had anything real to offer her in the long term, when he’d been such crap at relationships until now. For the past year, he’d stuck fast to one relationship rule: If there wasn’t magic from the outset, there wasn’t ever going to be magic, so it wasn’t fair to string a woman along.
Only, when it came to Zara, while there hadn’t been obvious magic from the beginning, there couldn’t be a better word for the night they’d just spent together.
Last night had been magic from start to finish.
They were both lost in their thoughts as he took her across his property to the auxiliary workshop in the barn.
Zara looked around the room with obvious appreciation. “What a fantastic space. Why don’t you work here all the time, where no one can bother you?”
“That’s exactly why.” He got out the can of varnish. “Growing up with six siblings, I got used to living and working in the middle of noise and chaos. All this quiet is great when I need to wind down, but Monday through Friday, heading into the office and being surrounded by other creative people helps keep my own creative juices flowing.”
She nodded. “I never felt like I fit in until I met other makers.”
He imagined growing up with a stepsister who epitomized bubbly, blonde, and by the book hadn’t made things any easier for the decidedly not by-the-book woman in his barn. Which was why he had to ask, “You’re not seriously considering helping to plan Brittany and Cameron’s wedding, are you?”
“I know how things look on the outside, but our history isn’t as simple as it seems.”
“How so?”
She didn’t reply right away as she moved to run her hands over a wooden canoe that he’d been working on in his spare time. “We were both pretty messed up at fifteen, when we were suddenly thrown together.” It was as close as she’d come yet to referencing her emotional response to losing her mother. “I know we seem really different—and I’m not saying we aren’t—but Brittany was there for me when I needed her most.” When he looked up from his work, he saw a bleakness in her eyes that made him want to put his arms around her and never let go. Obviously, she was still grieving the loss of her mother—just as he knew he would be, even after fifteen-plus years. “I know she has her faults, just like I do, but at the core, she’s my sister, no matter what.”
“I get it.” And he truly did. Family wasn’t always easy, or straightforward. But no matter how hard you had to fight for it, it was worth it. “Though I still don’t like the thought of you getting hurt again by Brittany or Cameron, even if that isn’t what they intend.”
Zara waved away his concern. “I’m sure she’ll find a top-notch, must-have wedding planner and forget all about me.”
Rory wasn’t nearly as certain about that. Which was why he decided that even after Saturday, he was going to look out for Zara, to make sure her sister and ex didn’t take advantage of her.
“So, let’s see the chess board.”
Obviously, she didn’t want to talk about her stepsister anymore. He picked it up carefully, moved it to his worktable, and uncovered it.
“That’s gorgeous.”
He’d been given plenty of compliments on his work over the years, but when Zara said it, he found himself looking at it with new eyes. “Thanks. Knowing my work is going to be part of a movie where people will continue to see it for years to come makes me stretch.”
“If I were a card-carrying member of the Rory Sullivan Fan Club, I’m sure I’d know whose movies you’re talking about. But since you’re just some guy I work with who happens to have some really great moves in the sack, I’m clueless.”