Ian and Ashley kept the conversation easy and light, but the contentedness she’d felt during dinner had evaporated. By the time their hosts were showing them to the door, Gray and Sophie were like two strangers.
Ashley gave her a questioning look as she hugged her good-bye, and Sophie just shrugged. She didn’t know how to explain why she and Gray had gone from easy to enemy in the span of ten seconds. She only knew that it was something they seemed to be damn good at.
If dessert had been awkward, the ride home was downright painful.
Gray didn’t say a word, which was pretty much par for the course in their relationship. But for the first time since she’d met him…hell, the first time since she could remember, Sophie didn’t have the urge to fill the silence with happy, useless chatter.
The silence was uncomfortable, but stewing in it was oddly gratifying.
Gray pulled up in front of Sophie’s apartment building just as it started to rain. That too was satisfying.
Still, being sulky didn’t mean she had to be rude, and she couldn’t very well just climb out of the car and slam the door.
Especially when the man hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
Not directly.
“Thanks for the evening,” she said finally, as he put the car in park and turned toward her. “Ian and Ashley are really great.”
Gray gave a curt nod, and Sophie gave him several seconds to come up with a bland, polite response, but he remained silent.
Fine. Go ahead and be an emotionally closed-off hermit.
“Well, good night,” she said, giving up on him and reaching for the door handle.
He stopped her with the briefest of tentative touches on her arm. “What happened?”
“What do you mean?” Sophie hoped playing dumb never went out of style, because it was damn handy.
“Something happened. You were there with me at dinner…and then dessert came out and you were…gone.”
She thought about not responding. Leaving him in the dark about what made her tick just like he did to her. But then she saw his eyes and the vulnerability there, and she couldn’t just leave it alone.
“Why didn’t you tell me that your ex-fiancée and I could have been twins?” she asked, keeping her tone as neutral as she could. She didn’t want a fight. Just answers.
Gray’s eyes closed. “Goddamn it, Ashley.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Sophie said, fudging slightly in defense of her new friend. “I saw a picture of you two on their wall. It was like looking in a mirror. I didn’t think it was possible for two unrelated people to look so alike except in the movies.”
“Me neither,” he said roughly. “Learning otherwise was not a pleasant surprise.”
“You should have mentioned it.”
“Why? I haven’t seen Jessica in over a year, and she has no part in my future. And I don’t owe you any explanations about past relationships.”
True, but…
“So you’re over her?”
“Completely. I was relieved when it was over.”
The shuttered pain in his eyes said otherwise. “Then why are you letting her determine your future?” Sophie asked, keeping her tone gentle.
“What are you talking about? I just told you that I don’t even want to see the woman again.”
Sophie turned to face him more fully. “Yeah, but you went from putting a ring on someone’s finger to never wanting to get married? That screams ‘emotional scarring.’”
She expected him to get defensive, or at the very least, angry at Ashley again about spilling the beans about his marriage phobia. Instead he looked confused. “What does the fact that I’ll never get married have to do with any of this?”
Sophie stared at him aghast. The man genuinely had no concept of why his refusal to ever marry would impact Sophie.
It was clear he’d never even come close to putting the two thoughts together.
And that made Sophie’s heart sink more than if he’d responded with anger. “So you really don’t want to get married? Ever?”
He shook his head. “No. I have nothing against marriage, it’s just not for me.”
“Why, because one woman stomped all over your icy little heart? Get over yourself.”
He flinched. “Jesus, Sophie.”
Her face flooded with the heat of remorse. She hadn’t meant to say that. She didn’t even mean it. “I’m sorry. This really isn’t my business, is it?”
“No, it’s really not.”
And that told her all she needed to know. But she had to check…
“So the kiss at the office, and everything that happened tonight…the touching, and letting the Porters think we were something…that was just…what?”
Gray leaned his head back on the headrest and stared through the windshield, which was now completely blurry with raindrops. “Look, Sophie…about tonight…I shouldn’t…I didn’t mean…I’m not good at this.”
“You’re joking.”
Her sarcasm earned the tiniest of smiles, although it was gone almost immediately.