Sitting down at her desk, Jules glanced at her watch. It was close to six in the evening, and she hadn’t heard anything from Dalton. She hoped he hadn’t changed his mind and sought out Clayburn, after all.
She tapped her fingers on her desk a few times before quickly making her decision. She would drop by Dalton’s place for a quick second to check on him. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d gone there unannounced. Besides, he’d shown up at her office and her home unannounced himself.
Grabbing her purse from her desk drawer, she headed for the door.
Thirty-Six
In bare feet, Dalton crossed the living room and opened the door without first looking out the peephole. Jules’s scent was her signature, and it could penetrate walls and doors. And there she stood on his doorstep looking delicious enough to eat. She definitely looked good in her jeans, flats and pullover sweater with her hair unbound and swaying around her shoulders. “Jules.”
“Dalton. I don’t need to come in. I just wanted to check to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine, but come in, anyway,” he said, stepping aside.
She entered and turned around in the middle of his foyer. “Your note did say that you had a lot to think through, but when you hadn’t texted me or anything, I got worried.”
He nodded. What he had to think through had nothing to do with the man who’d been his mother’s lover and everything to do with Jules. But she didn’t know that.
“Yes, and I’m fine. I was about to call you after I shaved.”
She smiled. “I noticed you hadn’t done that.”
He rubbed his stubble. “For a minute, I thought I would go for the rugged look, but figured my brothers would have something to say about it,” he said, leading her toward the living room.
“Speaking of your brothers, have you told them?” she asked, following him to the living room.
“About that man in the video?”
“Yes.”
“No, not yet. To be honest, I haven’t thought much about it.”
“You haven’t thought much about telling your brothers?”
“No, or about that man in the video, for that matter,” he said, gesturing for her to sit down.
“Oh, I assumed when you said you had a lot to think through that you would be making decisions about that,” she said, sitting down on his sofa.
He remained standing and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “What you said last night was true. I can’t blame myself for the things Mom did. And I agree with you in that I think it’s something Jace and Caden need to know about. I’m sure it will help in the investigation.”
“Yes, but if that’s not what’s been consuming your mind all this time, what exactly did you have to think about? I’ve been worried about you all day.” She spoke with a confused expression on her face.
He slowly began walking across the ceramic-tiled floor toward her and came to a stop right in front of where she sat. She lifted her head to look up at him. That’s when he said, “I needed all that time to think about you, Jules.”
*
Jules was even more confused now because what Dalton had just said didn’t make sense. And why was he staring at her like that? As if he were seeing her for the first time?
“Think about me?” she asked, making sure she had heard him right.
“Yes, you.”
She was even more confused. “Why?”
“Because I’ve decided I want an exclusive relationship with you.”
Jules’s heart skipped a beat, and she had to draw in a deep breath, not sure whether she should be flattered or not. His tone had made it seem that it was solely his decision to make and that that settled the matter. Boy, was he wrong. “And what if I decide I don’t want an exclusive relationship with you?”
“Then I think you have a problem.”
Jules had to fight to keep from grinning. He thought that she would be the one who had the problem? She shook her head. He’d just taken his arrogance to another level.
“And why would it be me with the problem?” she asked, hardly able to wait to hear what he had to say.