The cute girl turned around, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand. “Sorry ma’am! The nice man just bought everything I had.” She pointed to North’s house to indicate who the “nice” man happened to be.
Faith stopped and turned to glare in that direction—at North. In his arms he held at least a dozen varieties of Girl Scout cookies. A quick scan revealed her favorites squeezed into the mix. Thin Mints and Caramel deLites crowded his muscular arms. She could think of a thousand and one characteristics for North Callaghan. Nice wasn’t one of them.
“Really?” She threw her arms wide. “You’re going to eat all of those yourself?”
His deep gaze burrowed into her. “I thought you might want them.”
She scoffed. “Oh. So you bought them for me?” She eyed him dubiously. Was this like the flowers he had left for her? She didn’t know what his game was for certain, but she assumed he felt guilty for the fact that she was selling her house. Or maybe he just felt like having sex with her again—although a man like him could get it anywhere, so that didn’t necessarily smack of truth.
“I’m not much of a baker. This is the best I can do,” he answered. “I mean I could try, but the results might not be to your liking.”
“Why would you want to bake me anything?”
“You did. For me.” He shrugged as though it was that simple.
She angled her head, studying him. He looked so . . . earnest, but as she was learning with this man, nothing was simple.
“You’re not me, North. You don’t have to try to be like me.” She hesitated and then added, “You doing this won’t make any difference. I’m moving and we both know why.” She stared deeply into his eyes, trying to convey that for whatever reason he was doing this he could stop. She needed him to stop. Because resisting him wasn’t easy.
A stark look entered his eyes and then vanished. Hard determination glinted there. “Maybe I want to be a little more like you.”
She shook her head. “You’re you though. I’m not idiot enough to ask a man to change . . . to expect him to be someone he’s not.”
“Maybe I’m discovering that being what you want isn’t such a leap, after all. I’m closer to that than I realized.”
Hope warred in her chest. If only that were true. It was tempting to believe in the promise of his words. She still wanted him. That hadn’t changed just because she got enough backbone to walk away from him. She couldn’t let him sway her. He had only ever been honest with her, but right now, he was confused. Or misguided. He wasn’t looking for long term. And she was. He believed he destroyed everything he touched, that he was haunted, burdened by the past, and could never be clean enough for her.
She turned to go back inside her house.
“I want you all the time and it’s wrecking me.” His voice cracked a little behind her as he declared this.
She faced him again, her heart kicking against her ribs at this declaration. She took a deep breath and pushed it back down. “That’s only lust. Find someone else to—”
“No.” He dropped all the boxes of cookies and lunged forward, stopping just shy from touching her. “Don’t. You think if I could have moved on, I wouldn’t have? You’ve infected me, Faith—”
“So I’m a disease?” She didn’t know whether to be insulted or not.
He groaned in clear frustration. “Look. I’m not good with these kinds of things. I’ve never told a woman I love her before and I’m sorry I’m making such a mess of it.” He dragged a hand through his hair, sending the long locks spiking in different directions.
Everything inside her stilled and locked up hard. She moistened her lips and whispered, “What did you say?”
He spread his arms wide. “I love you and you might be moving, but I’m not giving up on us, Walters. I don’t care where you go. I’m going to be patient and work to convince you that—”
“You love me?” She fought hard to keep hope from overwhelming her. “What does that even mean to you, North? Do you even know?” Her voice trembled, and she had to stop herself from falling into his arms. He loved her? Could that be true?
“It means this.” He waved between them. “Us? Me standing in front of you and offering you everything I have. Me. My heart. It’s yours if you’ll have it. It’s real. It’s more than physical, Faith.” He inhaled a shaky breath, his eyes brimming with more emotion than she thought him capable of possessing. “It means I want forever with you.”
She took a step back, staggered at his words—words she never thought to hear from him.